Two Brothers [Import] [Hardcover]

Bernardo Atxaga (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Harvill; First Printing edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860468349
• ISBN-13: 978-1860468346
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,224,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I HAD SOME HIGH EXPECTATIONS..., October 11, 2002

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Two Brothers (Hardcover)

...but this short novel just didn't live up to them - I guess that's one of the problems to be expected with expectations (my apologies to Yogi Berra - that sounds like one of his expressions). I did compel myself to go ahead and read the entire book (not long, at just over 100 pages), hoping that things would come together more to my tastes, but it just didn't happen. There are sometimes problems with a work from another language making the transition into English - but I really don't think that's the case here. I think it had more to do with what Ms. Costa (the translator) had to work with.

The only aspect of the novel that appealed to me was the device the author employed of using birds, squirrels, a snake, a star and a wild goose to relate the events - it's a good way to look at the actions and emotions of the human animal. What was lacking - for me, at least - was any sort of insight on the part of these narrators. There were of course comments made by them that were uniquely from their perspective, but I thought they could have been utilized more effectively.

After finishing the story - which, for my mind, really led nowhere - I read in the author's epilogue that he had actually re-written this novel from his early career. Finding out, at the end of the book, that it was originally the work of an immature writer, makes perfect sense in retrospect. He mentions that when it was published in its original form, it made little impact, and he expresses what seems to be reluctance to see it undergo re-publication and wider distribution - he sees it as a stepping-stone to his later work. Perhaps it should have remained that, in the shadows.