The Brothers K

Rating:
Summary: Ambiguities of Family, Religion, and War
Review: The struggles the Chance brothers face and the life choices each makes mirror those of the nation's youth during the Vietnam era. Each of the brothers' choices in light of the Vietnam War; Everett to flee to Canada, Peter to seek student deferment, Irwin to claim conscientious objector status but serve his country when his status was denied, and Kincaid's medical deferment represent paths taken by young men at the time. The divergent paths of each brother divided the family, just as the choices of American youth divided the nation. In the reuniting and healing of the Chance family, Duncan implies that the nation can also mend the wounds caused by this turbulent era.
Irwin's remarkable triumph conveys Duncan's message of hope for apparently dismal futures. Duncan's The Brothers K rightfully received the Pacific Northwest Bookseller Award and the American Library Association Notable Book of the Year Award. These well-deserved awards honor Duncan's artfully delicate explanation of the ambiguities of family, religion, and war for timeless generations.


Rating:
Summary: Strike Out Looking and Smiling
Review: Putting down a good book and thinking is common. When I finished, The Brothers K just left me smiling (I felt rather like Irwin Chance). Through the weaving narratives of a family of eight (and their love interests, distant relations, and pets), David James Duncan tells a story of people, of place (mostly Eastern Washington), of an era (the '60s), and of ideas (Eastern philosophy and Christianity, baseball and fishing).

The Chance family is dysfunctional in too many ways to count. The father seems to be an atheist. The mother is a devout adventist. The children are split along similar secular and sectarian lines. As baseball, the clergy, politics, and war threaten and succeed to drive them apart, love pulls the family back together. At points in this book, you will not be able to stop laughing. At others, you will be forced to stop reading in sadness. But in all of it, humanity shines through. Duncan's book is a pleasure to read.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book
Review: Out of all of the brothers, I found myself connecting mostly with Everett, the eldest. He was the first one of the children to challenge the existence of God, therefore challenging his mother's beliefs and authority. He became a radical that the other brothers found comfort in. "Dear God, if you exist," says Everett while praying aloud at the dinner table (Duncan, 168). Never before had any one of the children contravened the values of their mother, and Everett's actions earned him three strikes to the face from Laura as well as one to Irwin. Three of the brothers, Everett, Peter, and Kade, all grew closer from these events due to the consequences they each endured by going against their mother in what later becomes known as the "Psalm Wars." Irwin, however, remained faithful to his mother's wishes and continued in his devout ways. I too have grown up around a very religious environment and have never been allowed to really question my faith. For twelve years, I have learned about God and the wonders he has created. Like Everett, I am continually challenged with the topic of whether God exists or not. "Unlike Irwin, Bet, of Mama, I don't even believe in God" (Duncan, 547). I find this quote rather harsh and my feelings, although independent, are not as strong as this passage expresses. Though I believe in a greater being, I am not positive about the existence of God.

Rating:
Summary: western lit
Review: "Prem se bhiksha dijiye." David James Duncan ends his novel The Brothers K with these Arabic words. Translated into English, the phrase means "what you give, with love I accept." Everett, the power-crazed agnostic, struggles to accept the situations life presents him, particularly the loss of his college fame and his love, Natasha. Irwin, however, is the embodiment of this attitude, and accepts what life gives him including an untimely tour of duty in Vietnam and a visit to the asylum. These brothers have vastly different approaches to life, but by the end of The Brothers K they have both learned to accept with love what life has given them.

Rating:
Summary: The strength of one woman in a family
Review: David James Duncan wrote the novel, The Brothers K, which depicts the four Chance Family brothers. The novel is written through the voice of the youngest brother, Kincaid, yet the plot also follows the dark life of their mother, Laura Chance. The protagonist of this novel could easily be argued to be many characters, but I believe that the true protagonist is the boys' mother. This novel follows Laura through her horrific childhood, her falling in love, her struggle to be a mother, her devotion to religion, and her coping with the loss of her husband. The strength of this woman is so amazing by the end of the novel, that it practically jumps off the pages.