The Brothers K by David James Duncan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Brothers K
Book Review: Eerily resonant.
Summary: 5 Stars
Throughout the three weeks I spent with David James Duncan's Chase family, I found myself emailing quotes from The Brothers K and recommending this book to friends and business colleagues alike. Though written in 1992, it feels so like today in its approach to religious fanaticism, war, and politics. It's time for this book to enjoy a much deserved revival. By turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, often philosphical and meandering to distraction, one finds at conclusion that it was all there for a reason. The paths that wind through baseball, religion, politics, and family relationships all converge into a most satisying whole. Truly one of the most thoroughly enjoyable reads of my life.Book Review: Epic & addictive.
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Epic Saga of a Northwest Family
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: Excellent - but not his best
Summary: 4 Stars
(Sigh) David James Duncan is such an amazing story teller that no review can do any justice to his works. If someone walked up to me and asked, "What makes him such a good author?" I would have to respond that it is his characters. I've been delving into my mind trying to think of any living author today who matches up with Duncan's characters, and none come to mind. The Brother's K is such a special story because Duncan pay enormous amounts of attention to each individual family member and tells their separate life stories (and of course their contribution to the family as a whole). To be fair, I need to declare that I had two minor problems with the novel. #1 The ending was so cheesy that I actually had to drop a star from its rating. In fact, it took away from the novel because it was on the brink of being ridiculous. #2 There were numerous references to baseball in the novel, which was fine with me because I'm a baseball fan. However, a person not knowledgeable in baseball will likely find the baseball sections to be puzzling at best and quite possibly tedious. Perhaps it's because I related to "The River Why?" more than "The Brother's K," but I feel that the former is the superior work. Does anyone know if Duncan is going to write any more novels?Book Review: Extraordinary
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a rich, wonderful novel. Towards the end, I intended to read over lunch. One hour stretched to two, then even longer. I laughed out loud several times, and then cried. The waitress finally came over and asked, "Okay, what are you reading?! I've got to get a copy!" Everyone who loves great writing, wonderful characters and beautiful storytelling needs to get a copy. This kind of book doesn't come along every day - maybe not even every ten years. It's breathtaking.