The Brothers K by David James Duncan Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.98 You Save: $8.02 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.40 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Brothers K
Book Review: Family
Summary: 5 Stars
This book will make you laugh out loud. It will force you to
cry. Stories of families are everywhere; this one is different.
It is the story of every family, it is the story of no family
in particular. The Brother's K is a moving, touching, funny
book. It contains family life down to the last minute detail,
allowing fights to be mean and vindictive, reunions to be
tawdry yet touching. The true story of the American family is
contained within the pages of this book. In addition, a
wonderful story line and creative, alive characters give this
book true life. Reality, in all of its glory and sadness,
will be the lasting impression The Brother's K will give you.Book Review: Favorite Book
Summary: 5 Stars
After more or less bitterly mocking my conservative Adventist upbringing with my very Catholic best friend 7 years ago, he laughingly recommended this book to me, saying it might help me "deal" with that upbringing to soothe away the bitter. Ohmymymymy.
I checked this out at 9 in the evening and by 4 in the morning had finished this...this...this...the word book, from this book-lover, does not do this book justice. This is the monster of books, the God of all books, it's been given a little book-sceptre and rules over all the rest of the book-ette proletariat. It's bourgeois book and beastie book. Even better, instead of pompously lording it over all the rest of the lesser books, it quotes them, loves them, welcomes them in for one big book party.
I have two copies of this book. One copy is signed and is missing three pages, and is ripped in two from reading it too many times. The other is yellowed and sits on top of my bedstand. I have parts of it committed to memory, and re-read over and over and over.
The thing that strikes me most about Duncan's style is his underlying foundation, his ability to find love in the most crazed places: from the Adventist church to Vietnam to Canada to the village dotted desert outside Pune. There is a certain naivete in looking for unmitigated love in these places, but while various of his characters embody that Dostoyevskyan naivete, I get the feeling that Duncan is an incredibly down-to-earth guy and that down-to-earthness meshed with mysticism, Adventism gone fanatical, non-violent violence, etc. leaves a lasting impression.
I would say his main foundation is that love is an uncontrollable force, it takes on faces we might never expect of it. We see that over and over again as we watch this family's epic story unfold so heartbreakingly and terribly.
As for my old friend's comment that "The Brothers K" might help me "deal?" Yes. And then some. I felt like someone had hit me over the head with a frying pan after reading this book. Maybe it was the staunchly Adventist Mama Chance who stepped out of the pages and gave me a good iron whack. Duncan called The Brothers K (and I might be misquoting him a bit) his 700-some page attempt at coming to terms with his own Adventist/Presbyterian upbringing.
Having been raised solely Adventist I find it necessary to point out that some of the theology he attributes to Adventism is incorrect, particularly that Adventists don't believe in a literal hell. The culture, which is ultimately what matters in a book like this, he has portrayed amazingly well, right down to the children's rooms being in the church basement. I understand, from an interview he had with Dan Lamberton of Walla Walla Adventist College, that he was originally trying to write about Baptists, which is bigger and more mainstream and therefore more meaningful to readers, but found himself always returning to his Adventist upbringing, finally switching over altogether.
This book was amazing. While I'm not sure that Duncan would like that I felt hit over the head by a frying pan wielding Mama Chance, it turned out for me, and it keeps turning out. This book "holds multitudes." I can read it and come out crying and laughing and head-achey and glowy and furious and excited depending on which page I'm turning to and which character I'm reading about.
So. Should you buy this book?
Dear friend, buy two copies of this one, for one will fall apart on you for all that page turning.
Book Review: For once, the cover blurb was true...
Summary: 5 Stars
I was at a consignment shop, browsing through the used books. The cover blurb on the paperback's spine shouted: "The must-read book of the year!". I thought - yeah, sure. But I figured I could chance eighty cents, how bad could it be? Well. I have seldom been so drawn in or enthralled. Duncan is a master - rich characters, amazing descriptive powers, multiple plot lines that could each stand on their own but are woven into a substantial and satisfying tapestry. What's it about? It's about a lot of things. It's about 700 pages long. It's about your family, and mine. The cover blurb was right. You must read this book.
Book Review: From my perspective
Summary: 5 Stars
Essentially, every 6 months or so since Spring of '94 I find myself on the holiest of missions. In search of Mr. Duncan's newest creation. Not since Arruba and the Spring of '94 have I been moved by anything close to Duncan's testimonial on America and its character.The Brothers K, one of maybe six books published in English residing in Curacao's airport duty free was a last minute purchase between flights. It would be nice to say 'the Fates' intervened, but more likely, I got lucky. Along with almost every other review I can only say READ THIS BOOK and you will not regret it and maybe even (if only for a little while) be changed by it.
Book Review: GREAT BOOK!
Summary: 5 Stars
This author is, simply put, the most entertaining, enjoyable author out there today. In the past decade I have only read one book I loved more than The Brothers K and that is the first novel by Duncan, "The River Why."