Goat Brothers [Hardcover]

Larry Colton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1993

A magazine writer describes his years as a fraternity boy at Berkeley in the early 1960s, discussing his ambitious classmates, their dreams, and their disappointments during a decade of promise. 75,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a crisp portrait of a generation, Colton entwines his own life story with those of four fraternity brothers with whom he bonded amid the 1960s student protests at the University of California-Berkeley. He had a brief career as a major-league baseball pitcher, then became a writer in Oregon. Twice divorced (his first wife was actress Hedy Lamarr's daughter), Colton recently overcame marijuana and alcohol addiction. Among his PiKA brothers, Jim van Hoften, a bomber pilot in Vietnam, became an astronaut on the Challenger space shuttle and is now an aerospace executive. Hard-drinking, womanizing Steve Radich, a cynical Marine lieutenant in Vietnam, cheated on two wives; his New Age spiritual search ended in death when he crashed his plane in 1979. "Country bumpkin" Loren Hawley went into real estate, spent a year in jail for tax evasion, avoided commitment with women but ultimately married in 1989. Ron Vaughn, a black man who passed for white, was racked with ambivalence over his identity and guilt at having abandoned a child he had fathered. He underwent psychiatric hospitalization, recovered and became an architect. In this male counterpart to Sara Davidson's Loose Change (which chronicles the lives of three UC sorority sisters), Colton powerfully tells the stories of the five men's search for self-worth, their difficulty in communicating their feelings, and their anger toward women. Photos. Major ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

"Goats" were Pi Kappa Alpha pledges at the University of California in the early 1960s. Colton, who had been one of them, recounts his life and those of four Pi Ka brothers from Berkeley to middle age. Obviously, there are changes. The "dullest" brother becomes an astronaut. One battles mental illness. Colton goes from being a jock to becoming a writer. Still, change comes slowly. Boozy frat parties evolve into drug use and drunken-driving arrests. Evasion of taxes is a grown-up form of buying term papers. Most notably, Colton never seems to understand the women's movement when, ironically, it is attitudes like those spawned by Pi Ka that helped bring about feminist unrest. Not a nostalgia book designed to leave us with warm, fuzzy feelings for the past, Goat Brothers is nonethless recommended for libraries serving upscale Baby Boomers.
- Jim Burns, Ottumwa, Ia.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 559 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038524407X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385244077
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,419,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frat Life In The Sixties, January 23, 2000

By 

David C. Racker, FASLA (Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goat Brothers (Hardcover)

I first blitzed through this book when it initially came out and thoroughly enjoyed it as I too was a member of the same Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity .... only on another campus at the same time the author was at Berkeley. I found the experiences of fraternity life frighteningly very similar. More remarkable, however, is the candor and honesty the author exhibited in disclosing with his readers the results of his choices made in early adulthood that manifest themselves with a vengence in later life. This book paralells the five lives of both more responsible and lesser responsible young men and the consequences that inevitably take place. The Author lets us in to his inner most circle of friends and family including his famous mother-in-law Hedy Lamarr who died this week. Having just read her obituary I was provoked to reread "Goat Brothers" again after 8 years. Now, with sons and daughters of my own in college, and like Larry having a precious daughter with an eating disorder, I can't think of a better book to have them read to show them the criticality of their young adult decisions and the impact those decisions will have on the rest of their lives. I only wish there was some way to contact the author Larry Colton, to inquire about any other books he's finished or working on, to wish him well, slip him the secret phi phi grip and salute him with a sincere "ppka Brother!".

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book about the early 1960's, December 18, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (East Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goat Brothers (Hardcover)

This book is for readers (maybe particularly men) who want to read about and try to understand the early 1960's. A haunting true story of fraternity brothers at the University of California (football star Craig Morton is one of them) and how their lives developed both in and after college. Great reading.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent story of 60s Campus Life, April 25, 2000

By 

Kim K. (Bayonne, New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Goat Brothers (Mass Market Paperback)

I first read this book when it came out about 7 years ago & am just now getting around to reviewing it. I remember the story as if I'd just read it last week-5 frat boys who became Big Men On Campus, their stories are true and there's never a dull moment. It's all here, the keg parties, the football games, the protests, etc. The book would've made a great tv mini-series, providing they let Larry Colton write the screenplay. Anyway, if this ever comes back in print you should make it a point to buy it. Highly recommended.