2006年在中国议论最多作品就是余华创作的长篇小说《兄弟》﹐这部分上下两册的巨著在2005年和2006年相继推出﹐其销量已接近100万册。《纽约时报》评论说﹐这部讲述着两位异姓兄弟的超现实的故事﹐却在一个图书盗版猖獗以及小说可随意在网上下载的国家﹐获得了如此非凡的成绩。余华说﹐这是两个时代相遇以后出生的小说﹐前一个精神狂热﹑本能压抑和命运惨烈﹔后一个伦理颠覆﹑浮躁纵欲和众生万象。
近日﹐《纽约时报》和《国际先驱论坛报》分别发表纽约时报记者巴尔博扎(David Barboza)对余华的专访﹐分别用了不同的标题﹕“一个作家笔下的神经错乱的中国画面”﹐“中国的畅销书﹕是巨大的成功﹐还是拉圾作品﹖”
文章说﹐余华带有黑色喜剧色彩的作品问世后﹐褒扬和批评的争议始终不断。很多批评家指责身为中国当代最令人尊敬的余华﹐不过是以好莱坞式的社会风情描写制造了一堆“垃圾”而已。持不同意见的人则大加赞扬《兄弟》是一部引人注目的作品﹐它对一个自我纵容走向极端﹐甚至陷入疯狂的社会做了最真实的刻画。
在美国杜克大学从事中国文化研究的教授刘康(Liu Kang)说﹕“我基本上不同意那些批评意见﹐这是一部巨著﹐余华无疑是中国当代最好的作家之一。”
文章描述说﹐46岁的余华看起来非常年轻﹐完全不像一个叛逆者。在接受采访时﹐他不停微笑﹐开着玩笑﹐这副模样很容易被人误解为一个工厂工人。余华在北京接受采访时说﹕“我的故事可能有点偏激﹐但这在中国很常见。”
余华说﹐《兄弟》的故事植根于他的成长经历。他出生于1960年﹐在浙江省杭州市附近的一个小镇上长大﹐他的父母都是医生。他6岁的时候﹐毛泽东发动了文化大革命。3年后﹐也就是1969年﹐他的父亲象许多受过教育的中国人一样﹐被下放到一个小村庄。在文革期间﹐学校被关闭﹐许多书籍都遭禁﹐所有他经常徘徊在街头寻找一些可读之物。他说﹐他被当时的大字报给迷住了﹐那种邻居可以相互揭发﹐普通人可以公开发泄不满的大字报﹐有着很多的具体内容。
1976年﹐16岁的余华毕业后﹐接受了牙医培训﹐随后干了5年的牙医。余华曾说过﹕“我非常不喜欢这份工作﹐我曾说过﹐口腔是世界上最没有风景的地方。当时我总是想多看看比嘴巴更丰富的东西﹐世界是那么的丰富多彩﹐后来就写作。”
“我的这一代经历了比任何一代都多的东西﹐”他说﹐“我人生的前20年﹐生活在贫困和苦恼中。接下来的这20年﹐财富增长更加自由﹐我想记录这两个时期我经历的一切。”结果《兄弟》就这样诞生了。“在我的书中﹐你能读到那个时代几乎所有的事情﹐这有点像现在的博客。”其中5年不情愿的牙医生涯给他的作品带来不同视角。“因为人的口腔内是世界上最丑陋的地方。”
纽约时报说﹐《兄弟》一书充满电影画面般的描写﹐有的尺度甚至很大胆﹐这也是很多中国文学学院派专家对此反感的重要原因之一﹐《望东方周刊》副总编孙凯表示﹕“我无法理解为什么这样一位有名的作家﹐曾写了那么多好作品﹐现在却写了这样一本粗糙荒谬的小说﹐就像肥皂剧。”
但余华没有对《兄弟》的主题和写作风格表示遗憾﹐他想这么做。“‘文革’的时候﹐我们生活在一个封闭社会﹐周围发生的一切都是疯狂的。但经济的飞速发展也是疯狂的﹐很多人富裕起来后又不知道该干什么。如果你想谈论现代中国﹐就必须了解历史﹐这不仅仅是钱的问题﹐那个年代﹐没有个人舞台﹐但现在人人都有机会上台﹐每天都能看到他们在秀自己。”
余华在《兄弟•后记》中写道﹕这是两个时代相遇以后出生的小说﹐前一个是文革中的故事﹐那是一个精神狂热﹑本能压抑和命运惨烈的时代﹐相当于欧洲的中世纪﹔后一个是现在的故事﹐那是一个伦理颠覆﹑浮躁纵欲和众生万象的时代﹐更甚于今天的欧洲。一个西方人活四百年才能经历这样两个天壤之别的时代﹐一个中国人只需四十年就经历了。
在7月中旬出席第17届香港书展时﹐余华说﹕“《兄弟》是我目前最喜欢的作品。”“作家一般都比较喜欢自己的最新作品。我写完《活着》后﹐觉得它是我最好的作品﹔写完《许三观卖血记》后﹐又觉得那是我最好的作品。可是这次不同﹐《兄弟》可能真的会成为我最喜欢的作品﹐因为我在写作过程中﹐发现了自己从前没有发现的写作才能。”
新华社的文章指出﹐余华所谓的“从前没有发现的写作才能”﹐一是指写作力度加强了﹐二是有了描写当代中国的胆量。他说﹕“最优秀的小说往往描写的是往事﹐因为人们对已完成的事情的认识比较成熟统一﹐这样的题材比较容易驾驭。而正在进行中的事情﹐大家的看法还很混沌﹐存在分歧﹐把握起来风险比较大﹐但很有意义﹐值得尝试。
当余华写到《兄弟》(下)时﹐忽然发现自己可以正面描写当代中国﹐不禁感到由衷的兴奋。《兄弟》出版之后﹐各界反响不一﹐余华认为这是正常现象。“目前读者的表达已经很充分了﹐但评论界的声音尚未发出。学院派教授们不会这么快发表研究性评论﹐评论界真正的争议还没开始﹐现在的争议只是媒体的争议。”
当读者问及他在很多作品中采用的童谣式叙述风格时﹐余华表示﹐这不仅是一种文学技巧的选择﹐也是一种文学态度的选择。在写《活着》时﹐开始以第三人称叙述﹐发现很难写下去﹐因为在旁观者看来﹐作品中的主人公福贵只有痛苦﹐没有欢乐﹔后改为福贵讲述自己的故事﹐写作就顺畅了许多﹐因为在福贵看来﹐苦难中也有快乐。
余华曾说过﹐自己永远不会写超过30万字的小说﹐可《兄弟》一口气写了51万字。对此﹐余华表示﹕“这是一个例外﹐我还是更愿意写20万字上下的小说﹐读者看起来更舒服些。可谁知道呢﹐也许下一部作品﹐我会写得更长。”
中国媒体评论说﹐余华在沉寂了十年后﹐于2005年以半部《兄弟》复出﹐十年的改变也体现在这部长篇里﹐一个发生在“文革“的重组家庭的四人故事﹐终于让余华讲得大开大合而又悲喜交加。从来没有过的荒诞出现在余华的小说中﹐还有那种对苦难中人性善之境与恶之境的铺排。
该书把一对异姓兄弟的坎坷命运作了详细的描述－－李光头还未出生﹐他父亲就因为在厕所里偷看女人的屁股而掉进粪坑里淹死了。从此﹐老实善良的母亲就在自觉蒙羞的时光中度日﹐她自卑得在人群中抬不起头﹐直到后来与失偶的宋凡平结合,她才从自卑的阴影中解脱出来。那时的李光头年仅六岁﹐宋凡平的儿子宋钢则只有七岁。
然而﹐好景不长﹐文化大革命的到来﹐宋凡平被抓坐牢。后又被乱棍打死。兄弟俩在人生的道路上又过起了风雨飘摇的日子。宋钢回乡下与年迈的爷爷相依为命﹐李光头与病弱的母亲在贫病交加中打发着日子。直到李光头母亲和宋钢的爷爷都去世了﹐这对异姓兄弟又成了一家子。
这时的兄弟俩已从一对少年成长为青年了。李光头进福利厂当工人﹐宋钢也进了五金厂。兄弟俩和睦相处﹐过上了知足常乐的好日子。后来﹐李光头当上了福利厂的厂长﹐他把生意做得红红火火。风头正盛的他开始追求被他偷看过屁股的漂亮女孩林红﹐尽管他无论如何死缠烂打﹐林红就从没正眼看过他﹐反而对他身边那位英俊﹑儒雅的宋钢芳心暗许。几经周折﹐宋钢与林红结婚了﹐遭受失恋打击的李光头跑去医院做了绝育手术﹐以示他深爱林红的决心。同时也辞去了厂长职务﹐准备下海经商赚大钱。当他集资筹办服装加工厂的计划落空后﹐欠了一屁股的债。
这时的兄弟俩过的是完全不同的日子。宋钢娶了林红﹐买了永久牌自行车﹐过起了甜蜜﹑温馨而又风光无限的小日子。而林光头则成了一个要宋钢暗中送钱和粮票度日的小混混。李光头要求回福利厂当厂长不成就在县政府门前静坐请愿。并捡起了垃圾堆在县政府门前。于是﹐靠卖破烂的李光头开始还债了。并慢慢地富了起来。后来﹐还跑到日本去做跨国生意﹐倒卖了一批日本西装。这穷光蛋一下子就暴发了﹐成了当地首屈一指的大富翁﹗还当上了县人大代表。这时﹐财大气粗的李光头把县城的所有旧城改造工程包揽了下来﹐使该县最豪华的宾馆﹑酒家﹑商场及娱乐场所都非李光头莫属。他成了全县举足轻重的大派人物。
而此时的宋钢却成了下岗工人﹐失业后的他只能去做码头搬运工。强体力的劳动扭伤了他的腰。他从此再也不能干重体力活了﹐只得到水泥厂做袋装水泥的脏活﹐由于吸入了大量的粉尘﹐他又患上了严重的肺病。此时﹐贫病交加的宋钢在生活的最底层挣扎﹐而李光头却不断有女人找上门来说生有他的亲生子女﹐直到闹到法院出示了他当初的结扎证。当年人们不愿正眼望上一眼的李光头在这期间却有许多女人以与李光头睡过觉为荣﹗
聪明的李光头也就趁势而上﹐大张旗鼓地搞起了全国性的选美处女大赛。似乎是为了配合李光头的选美处女大赛﹐宋钢阴差阳错地走上街头做起了叫卖处女膜﹑增强丸等性产品生意。一个堂堂的七尺男儿甚至还做了丰胸手术到海南去卖丰乳霜。以至从海南归来时﹐发现妻子林红已与李光头生活在一起了。绝望的宋钢最后走上了卧轨自杀之路。
有评论家指出﹐这种强烈的反差使兄弟俩之间形成了鲜明的比照。看完全书﹐你不得不折服余华在谋篇布局上的匠心独运﹗余华将兄弟俩的命运放在了中国历史的大背景上﹐折射了中国四十年来所走过的历程﹐它令人们产生了许多联想﹐给予了人们丰富的想象空间﹐并让人自觉或不自觉地陷入了对现实生活中道德评判和价值取向进行深刻的反思。
关于《兄弟》的诞生﹐余华坦言﹐虽然这部小说的具体写作只用了一年多时间﹐但其中的经历可谓曲折。他在后记中交待了这个过程﹕“五年前我开始写作一部望不到尽头的小说﹐那是一个世纪的叙述。2003年8月我去了美国﹐在美国东奔西跑了七个月。当我回到北京时﹐发现自己失去了漫长叙述的欲望﹐然后我开始写作这部《兄弟》﹐起初我的构思是一部10万字左右的小说﹐可是叙述统治了我的写作﹐篇幅超过了40万字。
几乎每个读过这部小说的人都承认﹐他们是一口气读完它的﹐而伴随着整个阅读过程的﹐是无法遏制的眼泪和会心的笑声。
下面是英文版：
The New York Times
September 4, 2006
BOOKS
A Portrait of China Running Amok
By DAVID BARBOZA
BEIJING, Aug. 30 — The most talked about novel in China this year is “Brothers,” by Yu Hua, a surreal tale of two stepbrothers coming of age during the economic boom in the 1990’s.
The novel, published in two volumes in 2005 and 2006, has sold nearly one million copies here, a remarkable achievement in a country where book piracy is widespread and novels are easily downloaded free from the Internet.
The China of Mr. Yu’s black comedy is a society in which everyone is scrambling to get rich and con artists abound. Li Guangtou, the younger brother in the novel, becomes famous by creating a beauty pageant for virgins; Song Gang, the older brother, has one of his breasts surgically enlarged to help sell a line of breast-enlargement gels for women in the countryside.
Many critics here have lashed out at Mr. Yu, who has long been one of China’s most respected novelists, for producing what one called a trashy, Hollywood-style portrait of the country.
Others have praised the work as a compelling picture of an increasingly materialistic, self-indulgent and even unhinged society. “I basically disagree with the critics,” said Liu Kang, a professor of Chinese cultural studies at Duke University. “This is a tremendous book. And Yu Hua is really one of the best Chinese contemporary writers.”
Mr. Yu, 46, is an unlikely looking renegade. Short and youthful-looking, he constantly smiles and jokes, chain-smoking all the while. He could easily be mistaken for a factory worker.
“My stories may be extreme, but you can find all of this in China,” he said in an interview in Beijing, where he lives with his wife and 12-year-old son.
Mr. Yu says his stories are rooted in his upbringing. Born in 1960, he grew up in a small town near Hangzhou in coastal Zhejiang province, where his parents were doctors.
He was 6 when Mao began the Cultural Revolution, which swept China into 10 years of near-anarchy. Schools were closed and most books banned, so Mr. Yu often wandered the streets searching for something to read. He said he grew fascinated with “big character posters,” the large handwritten postings that allowed neighbor to denounce neighbor and common people to publicize their grievances, often in great detail.
In the crude, accusatory posters, Mr. Yu said, he discovered the power of language. “You could read just about everything in them, even sex,” he said. “They were like the blogs of today.” The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, when Mr. Yu was 16, and he was able to attend school, graduating from high school and then receiving state training as a dentist. He practiced dentistry, a job he hated, for five years. “The inside of the mouth,” he said, “is the place with the ugliest scenes in the world.”
He found work at a local cultural office and began writing stories and novels. In the late 1970’s and early 80’s translations of Western literature began appearing again in China, and Mr. Yu found himself inspired by writers — like Kafka, Borges and García Márquez — whose work blurred the line between the real and unreal. His own writing was infused with fantasy and filled with what he called a “rage against the world,” a reaction to the brutality he saw during the Cultural Revolution.
His first novel, “Leaving Home at 18,” the story of a young boy’s miserable journey in search of an elusive hotel, was published in 1987, when Mr. Yu was 27. It sold poorly but made him well known in avant-garde circles. His short stories — surreal tales, full of sex and violence — published in the late 80’s, made him a star among China’s leading literary circles.
In 1992 he switched gears, much to the displeasure of those who lauded his experimental work, and published a realist narrative about a family’s struggle to survive war, famine and the Cultural Revolution. The novel, “To Live,” was made into a film by the director Zhang Yimou. It won the grand jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994, catapulting Yu Hua to fame and making his novels best-sellers in China.
In 1995 he published “Chronicle of a Blood Merchant,” the tale of a man driven to sell his blood to make ends meet, which also became a best-seller. By then he was considered one of the leading writers in China, alongside Mo Yan and Wang Anyi.
Then, having published prolifically since 1987, Mr. Yu was silent. For 10 years he published no fiction. Much of that time, he says, was spent traveling, writing essays and working on a huge historical novel. But two years ago, after a seven-month trip to the United States, he abandoned the novel and began a story describing the new China.
“My generation seems to have experienced more than any generation,” he said. “For the first 20 years of my life, I was living in a time of poverty and oppression. The next 20 years were spent in a time of increasing wealth and freedom. I want to document these two periods in everything I write.”
The result was “Brothers.” (Random House and Penguin UK are negotiating to publish the novel in English.) In Volume 1, the young brothers live through the Cultural Revolution, a fitting subject for Mr. Yu’s black humor. This part of the novel ends with the two boys’ father being beaten to death by a mob, leaving them orphans.
In Volume 2, as the economic reforms of the 1980’s take hold, the two young men are caught up in China’s accelerating pursuit of wealth.
Li Guangtou, now a young adult, quickly adapts, making millions peddling used Japanese suits. But Song Gang holds onto his job in a state-owned factory, assuming it will be safe forever.
When he is laid off, he too tries his hand at being an entrepreneur and fails miserably, later committing suicide.
“Brothers” is filled with graphic scenes, from masturbation to murder — not to mention descriptions of Li Guangtou and his father spying on women in the public toilets — but, surprisingly, was not censored.
Many within China’s literary establishment were scandalized by the novel. Sun Kai, an editor at Oriental Outlook, a Chinese magazine, said, “I really can’t understand why such an important and famous writer who wrote masterpieces before can publish such a rough, absurd novel, like a tear-jerking soap opera.”
“Brothers” was also compared to “Shanghai Baby,” and “Beijing Doll,” two popular books about the sex lives of young women.
But Yu Hua makes no apologies, either for his subject matter or for his style. He says he wanted to show that, in some ways, the madness everyone now associates with the Cultural Revolution can also be seen in this period of economic growth.
“During the Cultural Revolution we lived in a closed society, and everything was crazy; everything was black and white, and if you were on the wrong side, you were dead,” he said. “But pursuing economic growth is also crazy. Every evil has come out. Chinese society has found emptiness. After people get money, they don’t know what to do.”
A perfect illustration of this theme of one evil compounding another in “Brothers” is a scene of Bald Li, as Li Guangtou now 45 and one of China’s post-revolutionary hyper-rich, is called. “He was thinking about spending $2000 million on a seat on the Russian Space Shuttle Soyuz for a trip to outer space,” Mr. Yu writes.
“Sitting on his famous gilded toilet, Bald Li closed his eyes and envisioned how he would float along in orbit, surrounded by an abysmal silence. Witnessing how the great earth slowly turned around, he couldn’t help feeling sad and tears rolled out of his eyes. Then he realized that he did not have a single relative on the earth.”
China, moving from the Cultural Revolution to the present economic upheaval, has simply gone from one extreme to another, Mr. Yu says.
“If you want to talk about modern China you must understand the Cultural Revolution,” he said. “It’s not only about money. During the Cultural Revolution there was no stage for the individual, just the government. Now there is a stage for everyone. And you can see a show every day.”
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