Book Review (2009)| ‘Brothers,’ by Yu Hua

Imagine
a novel written by William Dean Howells together with D. H. Lawrence,
updated by Tom Wolfe and then filmed by Baz Luhrmann, and you’ll have
some idea of what “Brothers” would be like, had it originated in the
West. Translate that imaginary novel-film into Chinese, and you have the
riddling circus of miscues and pantomimes that is “Brothers” in
English.