The Third Brother: A Novel [Paperback]

Nick McDonell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2006

Nick McDonell's debut novel,Twelve,was a publishing sensation. It was an international best seller and established its seventeen-year-old author as an important literary voice. InThe Third Brother, McDonell delivers another remarkable novel, a haunting tale of brotherly love, family tragedy, and national grief.

Mike was a lucky child: a vacation house on Long Island, famous family friends, an Ivy League education, and also an older brother, Lyle, who looked out for him. It's 2001, and Mike is a summer intern at a magazine in Hong Kong. Sent on assignment to Bangkok, Mike finds the city electric with violence and hedonism. Nothing goes according to plan. When terrible news about his brother arrives from home, Mike rushes back to the States. Lyle is unstable and suffering from visions of an imaginary third brother. And then, a clear September morning is broken by catastrophe. While the Twin Towers burn, Mike makes an epic trek through the ghostly streets of New York to find and save Lyle. From Patpong to the World Trade Center to Harvard Yard, as his life and country come apart, Mike struggles to find his footing and go on. The joke, it turns out, is on him.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McDonell's first novel, published when he was 17, was an acclaimed 300,000-copy bestseller—a daunting achievement for this emotionally intricate but iffy sophomore effort to match. The author of Twelve, now 21, is a bit too experienced to be a boy wonder, but he's not quite a mature writer, a 'twixt phase that bedevils this novel about tragic family secrets, sibling madness and the abrupt onset of adult responsibility. Part one of the rat-a-tat-tat tale—most chapters are two or three pages—is set in Thailand, where Mike, a well-bred Harvard freshman interning for the summer at a Hong Kong magazine, is researching a story on stoned Western travelers. Part two takes place back in Manhattan as September 11, 2001, nears: Mike's quarrelsome parents are dead in a house fire and his revered older brother, perhaps responsible for the blaze, is prone to paralyzing hallucinations. McDonnell has a knack for capturing place with sharp-eyed, vivid prose: scenes set in Bangkok's whirl of sex and drugs, and his evocation of 9/11 disbelief and horror are both charged with a reality that's reportorial in its authenticity. But the two halves of the novel, linked loosely by Mike's search for the truth about his family, don't quite gel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School Having delivered his first critically acclaimed novel, Twelve (Grove/Atlantic, 2002), when he was still a teenager, McDonell shows that his talent is substantial as he turns to a different scene and character type. Mike, demonstrably sensitive and insightful, is a college student who grew up wealthy and is vaguely haunted by the mythologies of his parents' generation. He spends the first half of the book working as a journalism intern in Thailand, self-conscious of his role in the Bangkok of student tourists and expatriates, some of whom may once have known his parents in their own youth. He tries to live up to his ambition to investigate, not perpetuate, the Western fantasies of the Far East any more than is necessary to get both the story about backpackers and some personal info about his parents' college days. Back in the United States, the story takes an unexpected turn: Mike's parents have died in a house fire and his older brother has been released only recently from a psychiatric facility. The story begins again, in Manhattan, on September 11, 2001. While Mike disintegrates psychologically as these plotlines cross, McDonell offers a realistic bit of hope for his hero in the form of a faith assertion that older adolescents frequently find in the face of crisis. Teens who like the independence of Holden Caulfield will appreciate Mike. Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (April 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802142672
• ISBN-13: 978-0802142672
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,514,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Something of a sophomore slump, December 23, 2005

By 

M. Fulks (Lexington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Third Brother: A Novel (Hardcover)

McDonell's first novel "Twelve" was effective because although it wasn't beautifully written (and it did have moments of this), the book's style served its purpose well. In other words, the shallow characters and short chapters helped us understand these disillusioned characters a bit better and weirdly enriched the book. Bret Easton Ellis did this (fast pacing, shallow characters) before McDonell in both "Less Than Zero" and "The Rules of Attraction", but McDonell made his book unique and exciting.

"The Third Brother" is certainly not difficult to read. It is not a tedious piece of modern "literary" fiction. It is written in much the same style as "Twelve." The problem with this is that given the characters and action of "The Third Brother," short chapters make no sense. McDonell needs to garner the confidence to let his characters have depth and complexity. He needs to allow for longer dialogues, scenes, and chapters. There is nothing inherently wrong with short chapters and basic characterizations in fiction, but 21st-century expatriate journalists and intelligent post-adolescents, as nihilistic or hedonistic as they may be, aren't best portrayed like this.

As has been mentioned in reviews not on Amazon, McDonell's three-piece narrative is also weak and again smacks of a lack of confidence in his ability to maintain a good story.

McDonell nonetheless has a lot of talent and the potential to do well -- or at least much, much better than this second effort.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Gag Gift, December 26, 2005

By 

Nerd Alert "Xon" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Third Brother: A Novel (Hardcover)

My girlfriend bought this book for me for Christmas so I felt obligated to read it. After reading it I am seriously contemplating breaking up with her.

The only positive thing about the book is that it's a quick read, mainly because it is at a 7th grade reading level. Little Johnny might like this one while his mom is driving him to soccer practice.

The story is weak and fragmented. There is no character development. You get the feeling the author is writing about situations that he has no clue about. For instance, the whole first part of the story takes place in Thailand where Mike is trying to hunt down one of his boss' old college buddies. Mike is supposed to infiltrate the backpacking, drug using scene around Thailand to find him. However, you get the feeling the author might've watched the travel channel once and thinks having a few Mountain Dew's is his idea of a wild time. Mike makes Thailand seem like Kansas in a feeble effort to spice things up. I have already wasted too much time writing about the book and I have not even said anything (much like the book). This book seems forced, Just stay away from it.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just awful, October 4, 2005

By 

R. Bernstein - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Third Brother: A Novel (Hardcover)

First off, I thought Twelve was a sensational novel and promised a great career for the author. But this? Not only was it not a novel, but it was barely even an idea. Poorly written, poorly paced and poorly edited. How did this get published??