Customer Reviews

The Brothers K

5 star:		(115)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

Being a native Oregonian and having a husband who is a baseball fanatic, I suppose it was only a matter of time until I found my way to THE BROTHERS K. It is without doubt, the most entertaining and fulfilling novel I have ever read. The 700 pages went too fast! I grew to love the Chance family as I laughed and cried with them through the pages of Duncan's opus, and I postponed reading the last pages as long as I could, simply because I did not want it to end. Duncan provides an unbelievably complex, yet brilliantly clear portrait of a family as it comes of age, careening through the turmoil of adolescence, religion, war, sickness and love. THIS BOOK IS AN ABSOLUTE MUST-HAVE IN ANYONE'S HOME LIBRARY!

THIS BOOK IS TRULY AMAZING! Not knowing anything about baseball, the 60's, organized religion, or having a large family, i found I could relate to every character in an infinite number of ways! Duncan's writing is fabulous and the characters are wonderful, the story is epic, and the book with its 700 pages was far too short in my mind! I wish every book was as joyful, bitter, heartwrenching and funny as this one. EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT! The world would be a better place.

David James Duncan is a Montana writer. I arrived at THE BROTHERS K after first reading his RIVER WHY (1988) and MY STORY AS TOLD BY WATER (2001). "I only know that the one thing, perhaps the only thing we can always be certain of," one of Duncan's unforgettable characters observes in THE BROTHERS K, "is that our lives will turn out very differently, and much more darkly, than most of us ever dream as children" (p. 214). Grandawma's insight maps the course of Duncan's poignant novel, which is perhaps similar to Dostoevsky's 1880 Russian classic only in its epic length (645 pages), and in its larger themes of war and peace, crime and punishment, and love, family and death that run through it. Okay, and there's also a goat named "Chekov."

Set mostly in Camas, Washington, Duncan's poignant novel follows the memorable Chance family through three decades, the 1950s through the 1970s, and around the world to Vietnam, Canada, and India. Along the way, the Chance siblings (four precocious brothers and their twin sisters) establish their independence from their parents, Papa Hugh, a talented bush-league pitcher with a toe for a thumb, and Mama Laura, a devout Adventist with a painful secret in her past. Through Kincaid Chance's narrative, we also follow the lives of his brothers, Everett, a draft dodger, Peter, "a scholar monk" (p. 414), and Irwin, a gentle, Christian foot soldier. At one point in the novel, Kincaid finds his family rallying together, "headed for an insane asylum in California. We looked more as if we'd escaped from one. But in the pouring gray rain, I felt clarity. With the war still raging, I felt at peace. With Papa in despair, Everett in prison and Irwin in the asylum, I felt release. I didn't understand my feelings, didn't even desire them, really, but they kept filling me so full that my eyes began to well" (p. 564). THE BROTHERS K is a novel about crash landing in a good place (p. 398), and a novel you won't soon forget.

G. Merritt

This was a wonderful, quirky, funny, tragic, heartwarming portrayal of family life set on the backdrop of the 1960s. It had the enjoyment of a John Irving novel, but much better - PG and not so over the top. You'll just love every one of these characters. And if you are a baseball fan, all the better.

A friend handed this book off to me as she finished it, not knowing I was a baseball fan. I looked at the 600 pages and rolled my eyes - and then I started reading and couldn't stop. She had to attempt reading it twice to get through it - thought the beginning dragged. The second attempt won her over. I didn't feel this way (one attempt was enough to win me), but I imagine if you aren't a baseball fan that portions will not be as interesting to you. However, so much more is going on that there is plenty to keep everyone entertained.

A bonus for me is that these kids come of age around the time I did. But I don't think you'll need to have lived through the 60s to enjoy it.

You'll laugh, you'll cry - and come away very satisfied.

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.

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.

Jesus of Nazareth Himself could drop to one knee and propose, but if he hasn't read this book, I'm going to have to give Him the Heisman. I've made every man I'm close to read this book and no one has ever been disappointed. Which is NOT to say it's just for men. It's for anyone who appreciates any one or more of my favorite things: family, religion, baseball, literature and/or history. As cliche as it sounds, this book truly changed my life. Every so often I find myself thinking about the characters and missing them as if they were members of my own family!!! It is, without question, my all time favorite novel. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND READ THIS BOOK ASAP.

I have to say that this book has become one of those books I will be glad to read a second, third, even fourth time. The name itself, once fully explained in the novel is a great definition of the book in it's entirety.

I was at first a little scared at it's enormous size and by the fact that I had to complete this book in as little as about a month, having to do it for a school assignment. But, what I experienced by reading the book was much more great than I could have imagined.

I doubt that I have ever read a book so complete as this is, there always seems to be a way to expand the story in other stories, old characters stories aren't complete...or there's never any real resolution. But, this book by David James Duncan does complete the story, fully. In the end it begins like it started only this time with a new character, fully beginning a new story.

I recommmed this book for anyone who loves a true to life, conflict/family story that will leave a mark of hope on your life. It is really a fasctinating novel that touches your heart and interests you with its truthful subjects and history, that you can most definately connect to your life in one way or another.

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.