Mr. Lianke remembers his father, his brothers and some political realities of his growing up phase, education and employment years. At best, a coffee table memoir for family members and his future generations, seeped in melancholy and nostalgia that would touch his family the most.

All the best to the author.

‘Three Brothers: Memories of My Family’ is a memoir of the author’s family in the backdrop of the Cultural Revolution with the focus on the lives of Lianke’s father and two of his Uncles in Song County in Henan Province. Trust Lianke to make the writing not merely about his family while taking readers to the abject poverty and the hardships faced by the common people, for he also tells us how political leaderships and the decisions they take do not take into consideration how the people on the ground live with the weight of strict government directives. The impact on the education of young people, the burden placed on rural people caught between poverty and the grinding punishment of work hours if they moved to towns and cities to work in factories are captured in vivid accounts: in the way clothes wear and tear, in the blisters on hands and the way the bodies of young men become bare bones and stooped.

The writing does not confine itself to narrating us stories but is fleshed out well with a peek into the socio cultural norms of filial ties that Chinese society is bound by. The author’s observations on the lives of his father and two uncles and how it leads him to his questions on the nature of life and how it is different from living makes this memoir an intimate journey.

This English language nonfiction debut one of Chinas most highly regarded writers, winner of the Franz
Kafka Prize and twice finalist for the international Booker Prize.’Three Brothers’ is a beautiful and memoir of the authors childhood and family life during the Cultural Revolution. Author #Yan Lianke paints a vivid portrait of rural China in the 1960s and ‘70s chronicling his childhood and festival days. A career in the Army ultimately allows Yan to escape village life.

From a poverty-stricken rural background, Yan Lianke went on to become one of China’s most acclaimed authors, and this memoir chronicles his early years in the Chinese countryside and his journey to success as a writer. The three brothers of the title are his father and his two brothers, all of whom led an unimaginably harsh life during the 1960s and 1970s. It was a daily struggle to simply survive and the hardships of subsistence farmers and factory workers took their toll. But what Lianke pays tribute to in this moving memoir is how the three brothers devoted their efforts to supporting the family, ultimately making it possible for Lianke himself to leave their hardscrabble existence to move away and turn himself into a writer. The book is a powerful portrait of China during these turbulent years. The poverty is almost beyond imagining. This isn’t the only memoir I have read about China during these difficult times, and the story is always the same. How somehow people did survive against all the odds and gradually saw an easier life come to them. The importance of family is key at all times and Lianke obvious feels great respect for the older generation and how hard they worked to keep the family alive and together. The book is an extraordinary portrait of China, heart-rending at times, but never bitter, and although I didn’t feel that it added anything new to an already crowded field, it still made for some powerful reading.