This cuts Shento to the quick. “I was but an accident in life,” he writes (in tones reminiscent of a Samuel Beckett novel), “not intended, not needed.” When he learns of Black Dog’s return and rape of Sumi, Shento hangs him from a tree before fleeing the scene.
Tan, meanwhile, is unsurprisingly making progress in his very different life. He forms an attachment to his teacher, Miss Lu, until she is shipped off to Siberia, possibly at his parents’ instigation. Citing his family connections, Tan demands her release. Instead he’s arrested, charged with her murder, and tortured. With the father and grandfather now under official suspicion, the family decides to relocate to Fujian, his grandfather’s (and Da Chen’s) home province. Here they find hospitality, plus a more or less happy compromise between Communism and Buddhism.
When Tan meets Sumi, the classic “two brothers loving the same girl” theme takes the novel over. They are equals in literary excellence and, believing Shento to be dead, Sumi’s feelings for the other brother grow fast.
Tan, it turns out, has a talent for finance. He’s fuelled by a desire to promote Sumi’s writing gifts and so sets up his own publishing company. Fifty-thousand copies of a book of hers are sold at first printing, even as the two tie with top grades, and together set off for Beijing University.
Tan’s dreaming up an ambitious scheme to build a Chinese Rockefeller Center on Tiananmen Square, and Shento’s rising to unexpected eminence in the presidential security contingent, destine them to confront each other in the pro-democracy events of 1989, where the novel reaches its strong, if somewhat formulaic, climax. When Shento discovers that Sumi is the brightest star in Tan’s publishing business, he abducts her on New Year’s Eve, just before the celebration to launch Tan’s new project. When she discovers her first love is not dead but alive and in a position of authority, Sumi decides to commit herself to neither brother in the optimistic hope that they can thereafter live in peace.
The Long family eventually decamps to the US where Tan learns that his banker grandfather has placed a deposit in his name of US$20 million. When Shento receives the identical sum from the same source, the healing forces of generosity — plus, you might think, American values — are finally seen to prevail.
Da Chen’s style, if not exactly Twain-like, nonetheless remains taut and muscular. He’s capable of describing barbarity, neglect, passion and kindness with equal success. But you must be warned of one thing. As your reviewer knows to his cost, this is a very long novel.
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