The Brothers K

Rating:
Summary: Epic Saga of a Northwest Family
Review: Now I am not one that tends to go in for sentimental claptrap. After reading the reviews of this title, it was with trepidation that I took this book off of my "to read" shelf (it had been sitting there untouched for almost two years). The book was gift from a friend of mine - a writer that had been trying to sell me on its virtues and finally just decided to buy me a copy.

I see why my writer friend enjoyed this book so much. Beginning the read, I quickly became engrossed in the fate of the Chance family. This book is immensely sprawling and well written, following a large family through multiple decades of their lives and bringing everything together in a large string of climaxes near its end. The narrative is complex in that it is told through multiple people, through letters, newspaper articles, etc. I get the feeling that it was wonderful fun for Duncan to map this behemoth out before "setting pen to paper."

Admirably, most of the time "The Brothers K" is heartfelt without getting overwraught or feeling forced. Even though some of the circumstances will test your credulity, in general they seem "just likely enough" to be possible. The central family is diverse, colorful, and alternates between being dysfunctional and supportive of each other, just like almost every family I know.

This is a book for folks that like their fiction down to earth, rustic, and with eminent faith in that great American institution known as "the family." If you like books like "A River Runs Through It" or find yourself attending epic large-budget movies (and enjoying them) this could be the story for you.

Rating:
Summary: More than a baseball novel
Review: I am a huge baseball fan, and was looking for a novel set against that kind of backdrop. I saw so many great reviews for this book that I decided to give it a try. Not only was I not disappointed, it became one of my favorite books. I recently lent it to my dad, and he thought David James Duncan was one of the best authors he'd ever read. The best part about this book was the way the subect of religion was tackled. It's a story of a huge family where the mother is a devout Christian. the father is very religious too, but his religion is baseball. The book tells the story of the children who grow up in this chaotic world where the answers aren't as simple as a sincere prayer or a great breaking ball. Or is it? Pick up this book and even if you hate baseball you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: David James Duncan's style is so unique and so personal and descriptive you can't help but be pulled into his writing. It doesn't matter what he's writing about - you will find yourself hooked. His passion for life comes across in all of his work.


The Brothers K is my favourite novel of all time. Yes it is about baseball, religion, the 60's - but mostly it is about family. You will love reading this book but hate turning the last page.

Rating:
Summary: It's Got It All
Review: This is an incredible novel. It combines some of the best features of a group of my favorite novels--A Prayer from Owen Meany (the subject matter, interesting chracters, wonderful anecdotes and twists throughout the story), Catcher in the Rye (introspective chracters looking for their way in the world and inviting the reader to join the adventure), and A River Runs Through It (the gorgeous scenery, sports and religion, and again fantastic characters). It is a long novel, but don't let that frighten you because it reads quickly and will engage you for all 640 pages and leave you wanting to learn more about the lives of the Chance family, even after following them for 30 years. As a reader you become involved in all of their lives, your emotions become tied up in their successes and failures, and they seem like real people you have known your entire life. I could ask for nothing more from a novel about a family. The books also contains excellent dialogue, a diverse and engaging set of tagents, and subtely addresses several debates (Vietnam, religion, abortion, etc.) that have dominated the past 40 years--it will keep you thinking. I can not recommend this book highly enough, I loved it, and even if you do not like baseball, religion, or politics, around which the story revolves, you will like this book.

Rating:
Summary: Truly an epic novel
Review: I picked up this book, and could not put it down. . . iwas mesmerized by the pure simplicity and beauty of Duncan's language and portrayal of life- dreams, terror, religion, faith, passion and baseball. Although in this day and age, the stories of the brothers seem somewhat contrived and "stereotypically sixties," this is by far the most moving, heart rendering and personal accounts of the drastic upheavals of that somewhat idealized decade i have encountered. The story builds on ordinary instances, and a healthy dose of baseball, and shocks you with the tension, love, hate and explosions that speak to real life far more than contrived plots ever could. Well worth the six hundred odd pages!

Rating:
Summary: My favorite modern American novel
Review: I'm a novelist myself. If there's one writer who has earned, in spades, my most benevolent envy, it's David James Duncan for this book. THE BROTHERS K embodies sheer narrative delight, not forced but spun from its own zestful, irrepressible energy. This is a better world for having such a tale in it!

Rating:
Summary: Epic & addictive.
Review: Sigh. Who has time for the epics anymore? Not a college student, it would seem. "Read?" most scoff. "I haven't got time, what with my busy schedule, for a short story, let alone a big book that reaches nearly 700 pages in length."

Still, somewhere out there is the rare reader who likes the challenge an epic presents, loves to get lost in fascinating, multi-layered characterizations and plots that expand over decades.

For those readers, there is David James Duncan's 1992 offering, "The Brothers K." It excels on all those fronts I just mentioned, and on several more.

But when a friend recently handed it over to me, suggesting that I take a look, I too balked at its size:

"Look at it! Are you trying to kill any semblance of a social life I may have? This thing is mammoth and unwieldy!"

But my friend was persistent and so I went home and took a look. And soon became lost in the words, the story, the characters.

"Brothers K" is about the Chance family. Father Hugh is a mill worker who used to be the most promising baseball player around, until an accident at the mill cost him his dream. Mother Laura clings obsessively to her Adventist religion, since it once protected her from the darkest hour of her past.

Together, they have four boys and two twin girls. Everett is the oldest, a charming, witty rogue who doesn't share Laura's faith. Peter is next, and is a fellow cynic. Irwin is the large and innocent third child. Kincaid is a blank slate, who serves as the readers' eyes in the guise of the book's narrator.

The twin girls, Bet and Freddy, come later and more or less fulfill the role of younger sisters to the four brothers and little else, although they have a heartbreaking scene involving their grandmother's death that paves the way for the story to come full circle later.

Those are the characters. There is a plot, but Duncan takes it so lackadaisically and slow across the sands of time that in essence it can all be summed up in one word: Lifetime. For this is very much the saga of the Chance family, and all of their adventures therein.

We literally see the Chance boys grow up before our very eyes, watch as their characters age and grow, or regress, experience life and flirt with death.

Around halfway through the book, the four brothers (the "K" is an allusion to "The Brothers Karamazov," by Fyodor Dostoyevsky) each go off in search of their own way; Everett becomes a draft-dodger, Peter a philosopher, Kincaid a hippie, and Irwin goes to fight in Vietnam.

There is no rush on Duncan's part to tell the story, and so there can be no rush from the reader to finish it.

For this is a book in which the getting there is very much the draw, and readers are rewarded their patience by Duncan's sense of humor, sometimes gentle, other times abrasive, many times subtle and always hilarious.

But if you're the sort who seeks immediate gratification and "lite" escape from your reading, "Brothers K" is told in a series of broken up chapters and chapters-within-chapters, making it easier to simply pick it up, read a section or two and then return to whatever else you were doing.

If you can, that is. It's a hypnotic, intoxicating read, which will make putting the book down difficult.

And when you finally do finish, if you're like me, you will be so moved from the whole experience you will have to leave the room and walk the book off. It's that good.

Upon returning to your room, of course, there will be the brand-new temptation to pick it up and start all over again.

Rating:
Summary: Oliver Stone meets Frank McCourt
Review: One of the best things I've ever read. Clever, funny, insightful, playfully critical are the words that come to mind. As I read along I identified with the different brothers in their (mis)adventures and at times, as most probably will.

This book is about baseball, religion, politics, the 60's and how these incongruent pieces form the puzzle that is the Chance family. I loved it even without having lived through the era. If you have enjoyed the McCourt novels or even Garrison Keillor this will be right up your alley, in fact I think this is the best novel of that genre in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: Duncan hits a home run
Review: THE BROTHERS K is a remarkable story spanning just over a decade in the lives of the Chance family. Comprised of Papa Hugh, Mama Laura, brothers Everett, Irwin, Pete, Kincaid, and twin sisters Beatrice and Winifred, the Chances are a baseball loving, God-fearing (most of them anyway) family living during the height of the Vietnam era.

The Chances struggle with issues of religion, humanity, love, life, and death throughout the novel - themes that are always relevant. While the story focuses on the Chance brothers, Duncan has a way of giving each character a distinctive personality and voice all masterfully led by youngest brother Kincaid, who narrates the saga. THE BROTHERS K is a masterfully crafted story that is funny, tragic and hopeful. After 645 pages, I had fallen in love with the Chance family - each and every one of them - and was sad to say goodbye.

Rating:
Summary: Best book ever read
Review: I have nothing new to add. This is the best book I have ever read--satisfying in every way.