This is a humorous, satirical and tragic coming of age story about two brothers coming of age during the Cultural Revolution in China. It follows the protagonist from the age of about 5-8 all the way up to their 40s. The book gets 4 stars because it meets my most important criteria in a book. Did I care about what happened to the characters? Yes, I did. The two protagonists are well fleshed-out and the novel does a good job of showing you what motivates them rather than just telling you, something I always appreciate about a book. The book weighs in a little on the long side and there are stretches that are fairly repetitious yet are reminiscent of a parable and are thus entertaining and sort of endearing. It's also spiced up with some pretty interesting/shocking information about the Cultural Revolution that I found enticing as far as wanting to learn more about it.