Blood Brothers [Paperback]

Richard Price (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 1999

Eighteen-year-old Stony De Coco is trapped in a working-class world that offers him only one way of proving his loyalty, and no way out.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Price's short stories - The Wanderers (1974) - caught all the brave and limiting postures of an Italian teen gang of the '50's. Here he taps the psychic dissolution at the core of that "combination open-air loony bin an' Red Cross disaster tent" which is the Bronx home of Stony De Coco, his frail, anorexic seven-year-old brother Albert, his spaced-out mother Marie, his father Tommy and Uncle Chubb - both construction electricians - big-talking, whoring, bound to each other by a love like baling wire. Stony nervously idles in doubt about his future in bars, apartments and motel rooms, rank with sex and buried rage, where the living is. When crazy Marie nearly kills Albert, the hospital psychiatrist, using Stony as an ally to prevent further battering, gets Stony a job doing what he likes to do - working with kids. Stony helps the black kids in wheelchairs; he protects Albert. But this is followed by two weeks on the construction site and a shared brotherhood of jovial cruelty and danger. It is the crazed rampage of Uncle Chubb, victim of the street jungle and a trick of fate, which tips the scales for Stony: "My whole family is just a bunch of little niggers in wheelchairs. . . . There's enough goddam pain in the house. . . . An' I love them and they love me. I don't hafta work in no hospital." Although the characters draw their only life from the frenetic, stabbing speechways echoing down Price's mean streets, this does not diminish the validity or impact of men on the march to nowhere. (Kirkus Reviews )

"The action is so psychologically 'true' that reading about these Co-op City brawlers is like being only an uppercut away from them." (The New York Times )

About the Author

Richard Price is professor of anthropology at William and Mary College and author of several books, including the award-winning Alabi's World. He has lived intermittently in Martinique for more than twenty years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (April 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395977738
• ISBN-13: 978-0395977736
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,541,184 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark yet poetic view of Italian-American Working Class life, May 6, 2007

By 

mojo_navigator - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Blood Brothers (Paperback)

No matter how miserable you think your life is, just be thankful you weren't living in New Jersey circa 1974 with the DeCoco clan and their circle. What a hopeless, nihilistic existence. Nobody here is going anywhere fast. They all seem to be in the grip of emotional traumas which none of them have the requisite education to explain and spend their whole lives trying to nullify through various means - alcohol, casual sex, whatever. Richard Price is one of the GREAT novelists of this or any other time. Just when you think that you've read every possible word that anyone could say about the human condition, along comes a blindingly intelligent talent such as he who opens your mind to something fresh that you had never previously grasped. What he gives you in his novels is absolute authenticity and understanding of what goes on in the souls of such folk. And he does it in a sensitive yet tough manner.

BloodBrothers is a novel that left me profoundly shaken after I'd read it. Although I preferred the surrealism and humor found in The Wanderers (the humor and racism are toned down slightly here), this book has more structure, is more of a novel in the classic sense of the word. They both have their own attributes and ultimately, I would encourage anyone who appreciates truth, humor and brilliant writing to seek both of these novels.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Although not his best seller, possibly his best, August 28, 2001

By 

Ron Horowitz (Cin,OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Brothers (Paperback)

Critics repeat ad-nauseam that Price is good with dialogue and Blood Brothers is no exception, propelled sometimes almost exclusively by conversation. It's similar in subject to The Wanderers but the scope is much more focused this time around. And unlike The Wanderers it doesn't boil down to a few vignettes. After finding long-awaited success with Clockers and Freedomland, Price's earlier work is being re-released, getting it the attention it deserves. Blood Brothers is maybe superior to his later work, possessing a frankness that makes it both accessible and intimate.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I don't know how he does it but..., January 2, 2006

By 

Bklyn Babe - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Brothers (Paperback)

Richard Price is one of my favorite authors, and I have read all of his novels. This is by far my most favorite (and it was the last one I read!). This story really hit home with me...Stony has to chose between doing what he loves for s*** pay, or have a well-paying job that he loathes. When I read this book, I was going through a similar situation, and most of us at least have issues with our families that run deep and complicated. Something about the way Price makes his characters so true to life...I feel that in Blood Brothers even more so than his other books. After I finished the book I felt like I was going to run into one of the characters on the street someday. Highly recommended. If you're new to Richard Price, get this one first! ...but you will get hooked and have to buy all the rest eventually ;)