Books: Water Margins Novel

ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS—Translated from the Chinese by Pearl S. Buck—John Day, 2 vol. ($6.50).

Authoress Buck's magnum opus is not her own. She herself does not know who the author was, says it might have been Shih Nai-an but thinks it more likely that this massive (1,279-page) medieval novel, like the cathedrals of France, the epics of Homer, was the work of many forgotten hands. First written down some six centuries ago, it probably had wide if fragmentary currency 200 years before that. Says Translator Buck: "All Men Are Brothers is a...