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A review by jnowal
Brothers by Da Chen
2.0
I'm almost embarrassed to critique this book, because I felt like I was reading the first noveling effort of a very young author. It had every cliche of both historical fiction and poor storytelling, and about halfway through the book I was reading it only to see how much more ridiculous it would become before the end. All the characters are flat stereotypes, either completely good or fully evil; there's an attempt to explain the Bad Guy's fall, which isn't convincing, and there's an even more improbable suggestion of redemption. The Good Guy, on the other hand, is entirely good - and also rich and intelligent and unbelievably lucky. The woman they both love is also perfect: beautiful, smart, and a bestselling author after her first writing attempt. Everything in the book seems to happen because Da Chen needs it to happen, not because it's the logical outcome of what's gone before, and what were supposed to be plot twists or important revelations felt like weak attempts at surprising the reader.
More inexcusable than weak plot development is the "historical" setting of the book. China in the 1960s through the 1990s is not just the background of the story, oh no - of course, the characters are each intimately involved in pretty much everything that happened during that period. One character is the grandson of Mao's two closest advisors, the other effortlessly becomes "Heng Tu's" right-hand man, and their personal battles are what provoked the Tiananmen Square incident. Okay, sure.
The icing on the cake is Da Chen's frequently peculiar word choices. I don't mind unusual metaphors or creative language, but words like "unforetelling" and "creeked" (a small sample of what I can remember) were odd enough to take me right out of the story while I pondered what they actually meant.
I'm giving this two stars rather than one because I admit it was entertaining. It reminded me of a poorly-written, big-budget Hollywood costume piece, having little to do with history or storytelling but everything to do with its creator's ego and self-indulgent fantasies.
More inexcusable than weak plot development is the "historical" setting of the book. China in the 1960s through the 1990s is not just the background of the story, oh no - of course, the characters are each intimately involved in pretty much everything that happened during that period. One character is the grandson of Mao's two closest advisors, the other effortlessly becomes "Heng Tu's" right-hand man, and their personal battles are what provoked the Tiananmen Square incident. Okay, sure.
The icing on the cake is Da Chen's frequently peculiar word choices. I don't mind unusual metaphors or creative language, but words like "unforetelling" and "creeked" (a small sample of what I can remember) were odd enough to take me right out of the story while I pondered what they actually meant.
I'm giving this two stars rather than one because I admit it was entertaining. It reminded me of a poorly-written, big-budget Hollywood costume piece, having little to do with history or storytelling but everything to do with its creator's ego and self-indulgent fantasies.