Customer Reviews

The Brave

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Our first view of Tommy Bedford is when a sympathetic prison guard is escorting him, at age thirteen, to see his mother, before she's executed after being found guilty of murder.

The actual story begins in 1959, when Tom is eight-years-old. He lives in England, in a world where his heroes are the cowboy stars of Western TV shows. He owns a photo of Flint McCullough, star of Wagon Train, which Tom cherishes.

Tom is a meek boy who is attempting to cope with a nighttime bed wetting problem. His parents are understanding and sympathetic but they are much older than the parents of his friends.

He's sent to Ashlawn Prep, boarding school, to toughen him up. The school, an imposing, Gothic mansion had been a mental hospital and is a cold, frightening facility for this little boy. There is similarity to Tom Brown in the novel by Thomas Hughes, which took place at an English boarding school in the 1830s.

Tom's bed wetting is discovered by other students and he undergoes such bullying and sadistic behavior by one faculty member that he smuggles a letter to his sister, Diane. He thinks that Diane is the only one who would understand and he pleads with her to get him out of the school.

Upon receiving the letter, Diane is brought to tears with compassion but she's not in position to help. She's a young actress, on the brink of success.

It's not for another year when Diane becomes a successful actress. She has moved to Hollywood, where she met actor Ray Montane, who is famous for his cowboy character, Red McGraw.

Imagine the effect on the little boy, now age nine, when his actress sister, and her famous boyfriend come to the school. Tom's esteem soars but then Diane tells him that she's not his sister, but is his mother. However, at the same time, she and Ray are able to provide a home for him in Hollywood.

The story is interlaced between events of the past and what is happening currently. We see how sixteen-year-old Diane became pregnant and how Tom, now in his fifties, is a divorced filmmaker and writer. The emotional abuse he had growing up has led to his escape into alcohol which ruined his marriage and changed the rest of his life.

This is a powerful, character driven novel by the author of "The Horse Whisperer." The pacing of the story and the description of Tom's life make him and his mother, Diane, memorable and sympathetic characters.

Fans of Nicholas Evans are sure to enjoy this novel. Fans who discover his professionalism will also be entertained.

I LOVED this book. One of my favorite books of all time is THE HORSE WHISPERER and this book comes close to topping that. THE BRAVE has all the elements of a top-notch bestseller. It moves along briskly and changes time and place frequently, enough to keep the reader moving along and never getting bored. Evans' attention to detail is meticulous, especially all the references to 1960's Hollywood. I found myself rapt in all the people and places he referenced. I could almost feel like I was a part of that era in Hollywood history while I was reading.

The characters were all interesting, especially Tom, the star of the book. I also found his mother to be a unique, if tragic figure. The character of TV-western fame Ray Montane was a bit of an enigma to me. He seemed to have good intentions but we all know what the road to Hell is paved with. All the characters play pivotal roles in the events that lead to a shocking conclusion.

I can not recommend this book highly enough. I am shocked that there aren't more 5-star reviews because THE BRAVE really is one of the best books I have read this year. It has a little something for everyone. It is written by a man and exudes masculinity, however the storyline is one that women will find themselves drawn to. I think we all can learn something from this wonderful book. I strongly suggest you check it out sooner rather than later. 5 very solid stars.

I have read all of Nicholas Evans' books and thought the cover of this book glorious but misleading.
I am not sure if it is because I am new to reading a Kindle, (which I love by the way), but I had difficulty keeping on track with the story.

The start of the story has Tom, aged thirteen, farewelling his mother who is about to go to the gas chamber. The story then moves backwards and forwards between Tom's childhood with his mother and the present. Tom is estranged from his ex-wife and son who is a soldier. The son is being charged with a war crime in Iraq.

Nick Evans is very good at painting beautiful backgrounds with words. Set in England, Hollywood and mid west America the story unfolds in a clever way that had me not stopping until I had finished it.

Nicholas Evans, best known for his bestselling "The Horse Whisperer," has a gift of creating believable characters and developing them over the course of a novel. He gives his prose and settings a masculine feel, while keeping the themes more feminine-friendly, focused on family and love and jilted relationships. It's a formula that's worked, though it was beginning to feel like, well . . . a formula.

In this latest effort, Evans varies his themes and structure, giving us his most ambitious work yet. It's aptly titled, since his approach is brave in its attempt to go into new territory on new trails. We start off with young Tommy as he deals with childhood, bed-wetting, and bullying at an English boarding school. I was thankful for this different direction, and found myself caught up in young Tommy's struggles. The prologue, though, clued me in to drama and violence to come. Sure enough, the story takes some turns within a few chapters, and less than a hundred pages in throws readers for a good twist. It works. But it also feels a bit pedantic, the way Evans spends pages going back to explain how it came to be.

Tommy ends up in Hollywood with his mother and step-father, part of the movie industry scene. He remains relatively unblemished by an era that is known to have been saturated in sexual and narcotic misadventures, but his mother is not so fortunate. The step-father becomes increasingly abusive, and his mother is pushed to make some fateful decisions (yes, this is where the typical Evans comes in). It's really no surprise when she ends up in the arms of, you guessed it, a man in Montana who has a gift with horses. Yawn.

More frustrating than this Evans cliche is his decision to alternate chapters between not only characters but time frames, with very little to reorient us each time the switch is made. We jump from Tommy's young life to his divorced adult life to his mother's teenage years to his own son's fate. Danny (the son) is facing a possible court-martial for his part in civilian deaths while working in the US military. This subplot was intriguing, but felt tacked on in the midst of the nostalgic and self-discovery bits. On a side note, I wish Evans' editors would fix a few British tendencies in the Americanized versions so that we don't have Americans such as Danny saying things that sound patently British.

All in all, Evans gives us interesting characters and settings, but I hope his next book will find a happy medium between the cliches and formulas and the disjointed structure of "The Brave."

The BRAVE
By Nicholas Evans

The story begins with Tommy as a young boy. He is sent to a boarding school in England, which is where his family lives. While he is there all manner of difficulties threaten to shut him down. He learns to survive and befriends a couple of the other boys who are abused by one of their teachers. Tommy feels alone. The person he trusts most is his older sister.

Eventually his sister confesses to him, while in the presence of who he believed to be their parents, that she is actually his mom and these are his grandparents. It is a heated and awkward conversation for all parties. Although it takes some getting used to, Tommy adjusts and enjoys knowing his real mom now. However, he cannot bring himself to ever call her his mom.

The chapters alternate voice, between Tommy the boy and Tom the grown-up. Tom is divorced and longing to reconnect with his son, Danny. This is challenging because the boy doesn't really know his father, nor does he seem to want to. Now, Danny is an adult himself when the men reconnect without blowing up and parting ways on a sour note. This story has one of the the most beautiful endings of any book I've read.

If you're looking for a story with action, confession and reconciliation it is "The Brave."

Tommy Bedford grows up in Britain in the 1950s, idolizing the rugged American cowboys he sees on television. He finds joy in these heroes and escapes to their imaginary world, fleeing --- at least in his mind --- a home where there is little love. His much-older sister is beautiful, and he idolizes her. She is an actress who is working on her craft both on the stage and in films. Tommy is shipped off to a traditional boarding school --- a menacing and abusive place --- where he is tormented by the other boys for his bedwetting and ostracized until one day, at a family day event, his sister drives up looking in every way a star, and with her is the actor who plays his cowboy hero.

Diane sees how tormented her son is and decides to reveal a well-kept secret. She is not Tommy's sister, but rather his mother. Diane was only a teenager when Tommy was conceived, so instead of having the stigma of bearing a child out of wedlock, she told no one except her family about the birth and arranged for her parents to raise the boy as their own. At first this worked, but through time, Tommy has become a distant and eccentric child, more focused on his TV shows than anything else. Diane has matured and wants her boy back, realizing she can support him as an actress in the American film world. She sees her mistakes clearly and recognizes that he belongs with her

Tommy is understandably shocked by this reveal, but Diane is a loving mother to whom he has always been close. He settles into his new life, and the world starts to look up. Big offers are coming in for Diane from bigwigs in Hollywood, and Tommy meets some of his childhood idols, most notably the actor who played his favorite character on TV: Ray Montane. Ray happens to be Diane's new live-in boyfriend, a choice she made partly because she believed her son would approve. Ray seeks to rise above his meager acting skills in hopes of landing roles on the big screen, and Tommy initially sees in Ray everything that he wants to be: a real cowboy, a lone hero coming to the rescue with fists clenched, the rugged, strong man who believes in justice.

Naturally, it comes as quite a shock that truth matters much more than appearances do. Soon --- but much too late --- Diane discovers that Ray isn't the man she thought he was. Overcome by passion and the need to matter, Diane marries Ray before discovering his true nature. He's a jealous husband who resents her and the attention she's getting, and while he struts and shows his bravado, starting brawls with the on-site movie staff and other people, she begins to understand she's made a mistake. Tommy recognizes this before his mother does and has the rare privilege of meeting a real hero when he gets to know a cowboy in California: Ray's stunt double. This is a man who knows horses and speaks English as well as a particularly poetic dialect of the Blackfeet tribe, who stands unnoticed on the sidelines amongst the stars, seeking silence and good company and showing consistent respect.

There are both counterfeit cowboys and real ones in this story of truth and bravery and the life of a rising British star who's spellbound by the spectacle of Hollywood. In THE BRAVE, as in Nicholas Evans's blockbuster, THE HORSE WHISPERER, readers will get to see a glorious stretch of simplicity and bliss on a beautiful Montana ranch where life slows down near to stopping and the outside world doesn't intrude. But this reprieve is agonizingly brief, and the lights and splendor and fakery of Hollywood awaits, trying courage and prying one loving mother away from her sweet son.

THE BRAVE tells two stories: the ill-fated tale of Tommy Bedford's mother, and the later story of Tommy's life once he comes to terms with what happened and has the chance to help his own son. They unfold on parallel tracks in alternating chapters, and Evans does an excellent job of maintaining clarity and tension and keeping his ideas strong. The dialogue varies greatly as Evans moves from one character to the next, revealing much about individual natures. By the end, the persona of the quiet, unknown hero stands apart and becomes inspirational.

THE BRAVE is similar to THE HORSE WHISPERER, not in the story itself but in some themes and the tragic consequences that bring to mind ideas like integrity and inner peace. There are good reasons we read books like these: to appreciate simplicity and to understand what makes the man, the everyday hero, who possesses the innate power to calm, honor and command our respect.

--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith

The theme that permeates THE BRAVE is one of violence and perhaps redemption. The story explores the violence experienced by a young boy at boarding school, the violence that was part and parcel of the old West, the violence that permeates a soldier's life during wartime, and the physical violence of an abusive relationship.

The book relates the stories of Tom Bedford and his mother and the events that changed each of their lives forever. With ample amounts of heroes and tyrants, jealousy and murder coupled with an abundance of 1960's Hollywood glitz and glamour, we relive 50 years in Tom's life and the consequences the events of those years have on Tom's ability to allow happiness and contentment into his life.

This story is bound to be compared to Nicholas Evans first novel, THE HORSE WHISPERER. The obvious similarities between the two books are that each has a central character named Tom, both Tom's had wives who left them and both stories are set, at least partially, in Montana. That, my friends, is where the similarity ends.

While THE BRAVE lacks the rich, descriptive writing and great character development present in THE HORSE WHISPERER it is, none the less, a worthy addition to Nicholas Evan's literary efforts and well worth the time it takes to read.

As for the identity of "THE BRAVE" referred to in the title, my vote goes to Tom's mother Diane, a woman who demonstrated her dauntless courage again and again throughout her life. 3 1/2 Stars

Okay, okay, so my title ends with a bit of a pun.
But, seriously, this is a powerful, wrenching story. And I so much disagree with some of these reviews. Could these people have read the same book?
The novel begins with Tommy visiting his mother--we don't know her name at the time--for the last time. She is about to be executed. And then we spend the rest of the novel discovering what happened to this woman, Diane.
The novel encompasses a broad period of time, and because I lived during those early years, I found this to be very authentic. I, like Tommy, was a child in the fifties who adored westerns on this magical thing we had called the TV. Except Tommy lived in England. And I'd never thought the English followed American TV from back then. Guess they did.
Tommy lives in England with his "mother" and "father"--the quotes are purposeful. And he has a much older "sister" who has been away at a boarding school and is very much involved as an up-start actress. Tommy, too, is sent off to boarding school at the tender age of eight, a rather brutal environment for a sensitive child.
But Tommy soon becomes Tom, now living in Montana, divorced and the father of a son who is a U. S. Marine stationed in Iraq. And I'm not going to tell you much about that component of the story in the novel other than this: it is very riviting.
I love Nicholas Evans' style of writing and have read all of his novels. And I actually think this is his best. Yes, I liked it even better than "The Horse Whisperer." I just could not put it down.
And I take issue with those who claim these are unrealistic characters. Not so. Not at all.

Because Evans does a good job with character; the individuals are seldom predictable, and therein lies his genius. I've read far too many plodding books lately, ones burdened with message and social correctness. This book was refreshingly complex, full of more questions than answers, and impossible to put down. From time to time it was momentarily confusing because the author switched time and place so randomly, but all it all it was a satisfying read which came together nicely in the end.

This novel is heartbreaking at times. You get to know the main character as a young boy with cold, uncaring parents. He has a deep need for love and instead he is sent away to boarding school where he is bullied. There are unexpected events that lead him into a happier life, but it doesn't last. The lies withheld in his life cause pain and damaged relationships. He's a character you'll be rooting for throughout the novel.