Rating: 
Summary: A unique, heart-rending family saga of "baby boom" vintage.
Review: "The Brothers K" begins and ends with images of a father, in
an easy chair, with a young child on his lap. In the nearly
twenty-five years between these images, we follow the Kincaid
family through the sixties and seventies -- baseball,
religion, war, and radical politics all taking their toll on the family. But these factors also give the Kincaids their
identity as individuals and as family, leading them through
harsh and difficult times into an experience of new hope. So
much of this fine, funny, and ambitious novel rings true emotionally
that the occasional lapses (the too-contrived -- but clever
and entertaining -- rescue of Irwin, for example) are hardly worth
quibbling about. "The Brothers K" is a worthy attempt at making sense of American "identity" in the wake of Vietnam,
the radical sixties, fundamentalism, and the designated
hitter. This new edition, apparently meant as a companion to
Duncan's latest, "River Teeth," will perhaps get the novel
the attention it has deserved since its publication in 1992.
Rating: 
Summary: It's about baseball...sort of....
Review: As with Duncan's other (equally amazing) novel, The River Why, there is no good answer to the question "what's it about?" The only answer for the Brothers K is "baseball...sort of." I'm not much of a baseball fan, but I'd loved The River Why (which is about fishing...sort of), so I gave it a shot, and I'm extremely pleased that I did. Modern musings on family and philosophy. Duncan is well worth a read
Rating:
Summary: I could eat this book.
Review: I'd give just about anything to be able read this novel again for the first time...
Rating:
Summary: A unique, heart-rending family saga of "baby boom" vintage.
Review: "The Brothers K" begins and ends with images of a father, inan easy chair, with a young child on his lap. In the nearlytwenty-five years between these images, we follow the Kincaid family through the sixties and seventies -- baseball, religion, war, and radical politics all taking their toll on the family. But these factors also give the Kincaids their identity as individuals and as family, leading them through harsh and difficult times into an experience of new hope. So much of this fine, funny, and ambitious novel rings true emotionally that the occasional lapses (the too-contrived -- but clever and entertaining -- rescue of Irwin, for example) are hardly worth quibbling about. "The Brothers K" is a worthy attempt at making sense of American "identity" in the wake of Vietnam, the radical sixties, fundamentalism, and the designated hitter. This new edition, apparently meant as a companion to Duncan's latest, "River Teeth," will perhaps get the novel the attention it has deserved since its publication in 1992.
Rating:
Summary: A Chance encounter you'll remember.
Review: David James Duncan is a Montana writer. I arrived at THE BROTHERS K after first reading his RIVER WHY (1988) and MY STORY AS TOLD BY WATER (2001). "I only know that the one thing, perhaps the only thing we can always be certain of," one of Duncan's unforgettable characters observes in THE BROTHERS K, "is that our lives will turn out very differently, and much more darkly, than most of us ever dream as children" (p. 214). Grandawma's insight maps the course of Duncan's poignant novel, which is perhaps similar to Dostoevsky's 1880 Russian classic only in its epic length (645 pages), and in its larger themes of war and peace, crime and punishment, and love, family and death that run through it. Okay, and there's also a goat named "Chekov."Set mostly in Camas, Washington, Duncan's poignant novel follows the memorable Chance family through three decades, the 1950s through the 1970s, and around the world to Vietnam, Canada, and India. Along the way, the Chance siblings (four precocious brothers and their twin sisters) establish their independence from their parents, Papa Hugh, a talented bush-league pitcher with a toe for a thumb, and Mama Laura, a devout Adventist with a painful secret in her past. Through Kincaid Chance's narrative, we also follow the lives of his brothers, Everett, a draft dodger, Peter, "a scholar monk" (p. 414), and Irwin, a gentle, Christian foot soldier. At one point in the novel, Kincaid finds his family rallying together, "headed for an insane asylum in California. We looked more as if we'd escaped from one. But in the pouring gray rain, I felt clarity. With the war still raging, I felt at peace. With Papa in despair, Everett in prison and Irwin in the asylum, I felt release. I didn't understand my feelings, didn't even desire them, really, but they kept filling me so full that my eyes began to well" (p. 564). THE BROTHERS K is a novel about crash landing in a good place (p. 398), and a novel you won't soon forget. G. Merritt
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the Best Book Ever
Review: David James Duncan is the greatest storyteller ofour time. He weaves together life events with theinner workings of the mind and heart so well that you don't know how absorbed you really are until you've finished and realize you MISS these people. The arguments, the tragedies, the triumphs and the day to day trudge to work make you love these people as your own family. My brother-in-law is Irwin. My friend Josh is Peter. Am I Kincaid? Was my Aunt June Mama? This is truly the most absorbing story of a family I have ever read. It is a must-read in my book. Oh yea, and there's baseball in there too, for all you fans out there.
Rating:
Summary: Complex, monumental, and worth the read.
Review: I would recommend The Brothers K to anyone, but most specifically to those who are interested in family life in the Northwest during the turbulent 60s. This 640 page novel, though flawed in some respects, is worth your time.
An excellent aspect of the Brothers K is its primary narration by Kincaid Chance, the youngest of four brothers, however the best thing about the book is simply the writing. This is an engaging story told in an engaging way. Duncan is not only gifted in relaying a message, but much of his writing in simply astounding in its careful, yet complex, delivery of a complicated story. Duncan sucks the reader into the family, and places you into the contexts of its characters. Difficult as it may be, we understand the frustrations of Hugh Chance. We deplore Laura Chance's destructive addiction to her religion, but we find solace in her attachment to it. Hard to understand? Absolutely, but realistic. And probably most important is how the family functions together. Extremely real.
My favorite passsages of the book occurred early when Kade is trying to bring his father out of his funk. I also really enjoyed the baseball connections, they helped to really cement the feel of the novel, as well as the Chance family's passion. The Ted Williams and Roger Maris stories both worked well with developing the plot. The story elements that describe Hugh Chance ressurecting his pitching career are classic human struggles. I also enjoyed the too little covered Irwin, who was the family's bastion of religious idealism.
I came to dislike Everett Chance, as well as the mother, though I tried to work my way through them. I also thought that Duncan did not make Everett realistic enough for me, though I suppose on some level, as a character, he worked well. Everett was just so insanely fanatical, and without a real purpose. I suppose it could be argued that millions of Everett's exist, but I found him hard to stomach. I also thought that his idea of saving Irwin was lackluster, and I didn't get the point of making it a mystery.
This is a huge novel, not just because of the 640 pages, but because of the breadth of information the reader is required to not only read, but understand, as well. Being a huge novel filled with complex issues, we have to understand that there will be flaws, and flaws do indeed raise their ugly little heads. Missing, I thought, was the inevitable connection to the music of that time and the characters. It was as if music didn't exist for any member of the family. In fact, until the seventies, it was never mentioned. I find this very unusual that a family wit six children, not one of them would be wrapped up in popular music to any degree. I found myself asking, "How is that possible?" I know how pervasive music was in the 50s and 60s, and particularly, in the Northwest, a stronghold of rock and roll, individual as it was. Northwest America rocked all though the 60s.
The book does have other flaws, such as mentioned earlier with the rotating narration having no valid connection to what was going on in the plot. I thought the book would have flowed better had the narration been confined to Kincaid Chance, as opposed to the wandering, once in awhile narration by Everett. Editing was indeed a problem for me, also. I had to wonder how some of the errors slipped by, those being in style, as well as grammatical.
Nonetheless, this is a superb novel with much to offer any reader. The setting is great, the story is addictive, the family is real, and the result is pure entertainment. I wasn't happy with the ending, though I don't know how I would improve upon it. I guess I thought it a bit trite and whimsical when balanced against the bulk of the book. Almost like it was tied up with a nice little ribbon and bow. It's almost as if the story died at a certain point, and Duncan didn't know what to do to ressurect it and then kill it.
Rating: 
Summary: Brothers K
Review: I have one word for David James Duncan-editing. While I enjoyed the basis of the story, family bonds over time weaved with values, confessions and self-doubts, I kept thinking edit. How did his editor miss the multitude of run-on sentences turned paragraphs that hindered the read? Also missed was the muddy narrative of Kincaid for the majority of the book, and suddenly Everett here and there, and Irwine's story of Vietnam,given with detailed inner thoughts though he was barely lucid. Duncan provided vivid character studies of the family of eight, but who couldn't in 640 pages. The religious family dynamics were pounded into the reader. The baseball information was interesting, but did we really need a chapter on that baseball rebel Roger Maris? Given all that, I was still pulled into this story. I laughed out loud a couple of times, the dialogue was frequently clever. I also cried a couple of times because the author made you know these people and so felt their sorrows. I have not read "The Brothers Karamazov" and feel I am missing out on some of the author's references because of it. The title, "The Brothers K", is intriguing in itself and left open to multiple interpretations. I also find it interesting that the main narrator, Kade, is the character least developed except for in the early years detailing a couple of key pieces of information. If writing it all down was to be his biggest contribution, how could he reveal so little of himself or even the reason for why he decided to relay his family's story? I feel this is an author flaw. Pare it down, clean it up, flesh out it's narrator and the novel would be 5 stars instead of 3.
Rating:
Summary: Great start but meanders and cliches
Review: This book has a wonderful beginning and truly invites you into the Chance house. But, the vibrant and unique characters lose their individuality as Duncan seems to lose his way with the story, instead choosing to rely on sentimentality.
Duncan's foray into the Vietnam War almost takes an John Irving/Owen Meany like turn - out of place and tarnishing.
The River Why deserved 5 stars. The Brothers K is a great read the first 200-300 pages. Afterwards, just put it down.
Rating:
Summary: An Epic Novel
Review: The K in David James Duncan's The Brothers K is as much a nod to the scorer's notation in baseball for a strikeout as it is an homage to Dostoyeski's The Brothers Karamazov. The novel begins in 1956 in Camus, Washington, where Hugh Chance, a minor league baseball pitcher and family patriarch, loses his thumb and atheltic career in an accident working at the local paper mill. The story of the Chance family, Hugh and Laura Chance, their six children (four sons followed by twin daughters), is told by their youngest son Kincaid, with the help of letters, poems, and old school reports written by various family members.
The Brothers K is an original, sprawling, always charming marathon of a novel. Duncan's is a unique voice, stretching out in only his second novel -- a great effort, bursting with warmth and talent.
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