The next time I read a 600-some page book, it better have
been written by Tolstoy.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate long books. In fact, there
is something wholly satisfying about sitting down with a good epic novel that
has a lot of pages. I enjoyed reading,
for example, Fall of Giants, by Ken
Follett.
Understand also that I didn’t hate this book. In fact, at
times I totally loved this book. I just don’t think it needed to be 689 pages
long. I started out absolutely enchanted; I ended up skimming some of the last
chapters (or whatever you would call them) and being totally and entirely
annoyed at all of the characters at some time or another.
Well, I don’t think that’s exactly true. I loved the father
all the way through the book. I loved his devotion to his children, and his
willingness to take on his rather difficult wife at times if he felt that they
were being treated unfairly by her.
The first part of the book, as I said before, enthralled me.
I loved the entire scene where the narrator and Papa are watching the game. I
really enjoyed the sort of stream of consciousness from the narrator, who is
fairly young at this point. Through his thought process, you learn about the
characters. I thought that was a clever way for the author to help us to learn
about the family. And the language was so dead on. The author NAILED the way a
10- or 12-year-old speaks. For example, take this excerpt when he is talking
about how much he dislikes Roger Maris because of his boring style of play: I usually like watching home runs, but there
is something about Roger Maris that makes even his homers boring ……Everett says
he’s from Mars, which is why he’s named Maris, so maybe it’s a racial thing.
Whatever it is, it worries me a little, because one of the things Jesus used to
say was to love everybody the same whether they’re geeks, Yanks, Wops, Micks, Meredith
Starrs or what have you, and when I look at Roger Maris I’m not sure I’ll ever
be able to pull it off. I loved those lines because it displays the way a
kid’s mind works, particularly a kid’s confusion about Christianity, so
accurately.
I liked the succinct way that the author would get a point
across – e.g. “yak butter” (remember that Mama was the first one to talk about
yak butter when she was convinced she had experienced another life as a Tibetan)
became synonymous with odd things that make total sense once you look at it. Likewise, the disabled girl (Vera) who talked
with a strong lisp because of a cleft palate, became the poster child for doing
the right thing even if you felt uncomfortable doing it.
Surprisingly, I enjoyed all of the baseball scenes, and I’m
not even a baseball fan. But I do love to see people (real or fictitious) who
just love what they do, and I think that baseball often replicates life. Ups,
downs, ins and outs.
Real life families are not like the families we saw on
television in the 1960s. Instead, we often experience a variety of feelings
about our family members at different times. The brothers and sisters in this
book were extremely different from one another, and could be annoying or
wonderful, depending on the situation. But they were all loyal to one another,
no matter what. Oddly, even Mama was loyal, though she was often distracted by
her unrelenting alliance to her religion.
The story of Irwin was very sad. There were a number of sad
situations in this book, but that was, to me, the saddest. Yet, his story ended
in a positive way. In fact, the book ended positively (except, of course, for
the death of Papa). And again, I thought the ending was realistic. Not perfect
results for everyone, just as in real life, but general happiness and love,
which is what I think this book was all about.
Still, I think it could have been done in fewer pages!
First let me say I’m a little bummed that I bought this book for my Kindle. I do love having a book that size sitting on my shelf and being able to say I actually read it! I, too, started it with great enthusiasm that waned a bit the farther I got into the book. I was never bored or resentful; but I absolutely checked my percentage read number every time I closed it out (of course that could also have had to do with the fact that I let the time slip up on me and was worried that I wouldn’t finish it on time).
ReplyDeleteHowever I’m glad I got the book on the Kindle because it enabled me to do highlights. And in going back through these, I was grateful once again not to be sitting in a hot 50’s southern Baptist church. His descriptions of Sunday (Sabbath) school and church from a child’s perspective were dead-on. I appreciated them and some of them made me laugh out loud.
I loved Irwin – of course I was supposed to. But anyone who laughs like a loon is tops in my book. And he was just so sweet; I loved that he rescued the little dog out of the flood. Of course that’s who he was, wasn’t he? He didn’t stop to think and analyze; he just lived life to the fullest and tended to throw caution, or at least inhibition to the wind. He and Kade were the only two of the siblings that I didn’t get completely impatient with at some point or another.
Somehow I felt like, of the siblings, Kade was the rock. That may have just been because he narrated so much of the time and was not likely to throw in his own extremes. But I liked so much about him. The first time his sensitivity struck me was when the family was watching Ed Sullivan and he made this observation about Maurice Chevalier: “Chevalier moves very slowly, smiling ceaselessly and a little foolishly, as if to remind us that he’s really too old for this sort of thing.”
Papa Toe I admired for his grit and his great love for his family. Mama I was never able to scrape up any real affection for. “She was a maestro at conducting her family. The kitchen was her podium, an immense wall calendar her score, and a piercing I-will-brook-no-nonsense voice the combination baton/scepter/cattle prod with which she set the tempo and integrated our multitudinous entrances and exits. Only she could tell you at all times which of her seven charges was where, doing what, returning home when, at which time she’d soon have them accomplishing such and such a task or keeping such and such an appointment. More importantly, only she could comprehend and wield the bewildering hierarchy of domestic values that made quick decisions possible and quashed most interfamilial conflicts before they could fester into feuds.” This is a woman I could really respect if I had any warm feelings about her at all. Even through it all and after I found out about her tragic past, I still couldn’t conjure up any empathy for her.
Looking back through my highlights, it’s hard for me to stop commenting. They remind me that I really enjoyed this book, read several portions aloud to Steve. I loved the descriptions, the baseball, and even the reminders of what life was like during the 60’s and 70’s.
For the most part, I enjoyed this book, although, like Kris, I thought it could have been a little shorter. However, it was the middle of the book rather than the end that lost me; I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough for the last 100 pages.
ReplyDeleteAlso like Kris, I found myself really disliking most of the characters at some point. I didn’t think I could ever reconcile myself to Everett or Mama. However, Everett redeemed himself for me. His out-of-the-box lifestyle and thinking eventually served his family well. He stayed true to the person he was, and I liked that. I was also happy that he and Natasha found their way back to each other. Mama, on the other hand…. I can’t forgive her for her religious rigidity and the way she allowed it to have such a harmful effect on her family. I guess I felt a little sorry for her inability to see anything other than black or white. But the fact that her family suffered for her weakness was inexcusable.
Kincaid and Papa never fell out of my favor. The use of Kincaid as narrator was a wonderful way to allow us to witness the family’s transformations through the decades. Because Kincaid was a member of the family, there was an intimacy in the story that wouldn’t have been possible with a third-person narrator. His and Papa’s love for baseball and their use of it as a foundation were compelling. I love baseball and I think it epitomizes the American attitude and perspective. Duncan’s use of it as a metaphor was very effective for me.
Because I had to slog my way through the mid-section of this novel, I’m not sure I would read another one by Duncan. But, I’m happy I read it, and I admire Duncan as a writer.
I was in a book club for many years that began each book review by rating the book. After we finished our discussion we rated the book again. Most often after the discussion the members that didn't rate the book as high as others, would raise their number.
ReplyDeleteI would rate this book a 5 out of 10 points. I know, I can hear the boo and hissing over cyber space. I thought Duncan wrote with much too much detail and I skimmed many pages. Skimming a book is not how I enjoy reading.
Having said that about my dislike of the book length, I truly loved this authors writing. Duncan may be the wittiest writer I have every read. I laughed out loud at parts and like Penny, read several passages out loud to my daughter.
Such as Everett's letter from camp. "...but the fact of the matter is a terrible thing has occurred to us. Our beloved Irwin was killed and eaten this moring by a cougar, and he is with Jesus now, unless he is in "heck". No big loss but we're all pretty concerned about the cougar."
One more: "Personally I'm not sure just who or what Christ is. I still pray to Him in a pinch..... Then along came Elder Babcok, telling and acting like Christ was running for President of the world and he was his campaign manager....
I thought Duncan did an amazing job with the different personalities in this family. My perception of large families (raised in a small NE town surrounded by large Catholic families) was just as Duncan wrote this family. Often very diverse personalities but they stuck together through challenging times. The Chance family seemed very real to me.
I enjoyed all of the characters but of course thought Mama's rigid dedication to the Adventist religion, interfering with her love and care for her children, was awful. But honestly when it came out what had driven her to this, while I didn't forgive her for her actions, I think it's very realistic that she would have behaved in this manner. She was damaged, to be sure. I loved how Papa would give her space in her beliefs and actions but then would put his foot down when it became too much.
I thought the ending was very good and with a book this long, we certainly deserved a good ending. I so wanted it to end with irwin being okay. And given what he'd been through, he really did end up well.
I did not enjoy the many details of baseball and felt like the story could have been told as well with much abreviation.
Just to set the record straight, when I finished reading the book, I scored it a 3. As you can see, your reviews brought up my score! I think it's a great book for a book club discussion.
Brothers K is why I like being in a book club! I would not have picked this one up to read on my own. :)
ReplyDeleteThat being said, Duncan's editor got paid way too much for (not) editing this novel (enough).
Like Beckie, I lost steam in the middle of the book. Overall, I always liked the "idea" of the story, and most of the time I liked the actual story. Everett was annoying, but I was always interested in Peter's and Irwin's stories. As I read, I thought that Irwin wouldn't make it home, but I think I would have had a fit if he didn't have a happy-ish ending. I didn't like Duncan's skewering of Mama -- despite her horrific childhood, she didn't need to become a religious lunatic. I found that annoying.
I didn't like the baseball parts as much as Kris did. It was almost like Duncan put those in to see if I was really reading the story or if I skipped too many pages, and oops, I'm in the middle of a baseball essay again. Or maybe it was the story that was interrupting the baseball book. I get that it was a huge plot device, and maybe I was annoyed at the baseball because it was the positive thread and religion was the negative thread, and that pushed my buttons.
I really did like the writing in the various funny parts. I like laugh out loud scenes, and Brothers K had those.
When I read the description of this book I thought I would like it more and in a different way than the way I actually did like it.....if that makes sense. I thought it would be a book that would capture my interest immediately. Instead it took me quite a while to want to pick up the book each day. I was really not at all interested by the baseball segments at the beginning and actually looked ahead to see how far into the book they lasted. On the other hand I really enjoyed Kincaid's description of Sabbath School....that is what it was in the book, right? I loved how he decided that he would rest with God while everyone else participated in the lessons. I read several parts aloud to my husband about Sabbath School.
ReplyDeleteI did like Irwin through the enire book and of course, felt horrible when he was so mistreated and was relieved when he recovered. Because I felt that way, I had to acknowledge that I did enjoy the book.....but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected, and that was a little disappointing throughout.
I did like Papa through most of the book, but I did not like him at the beginning when he was so detached from his family. His hitting Kincaid made me so angry and I didn't really believe how sorry he was when he said it, but the change that occurred right after showed me that he really was sorry.
I don't think I disliked Everett as much as some of you. While he wasn't someone I would have been drawn to or liked had he been in my life, I could see how he turned out the way he did why and behaved the way he did in college and finally, he did grow into the person he was to become after those " finding yourself" years.
I was frustrated by Mama's singleminded devotion to her church. I wanted her to connect with her family more. In parts it seemed like her love was not unconditional.
I did like the ending because for once it just seemed that everyone was on the same page. I liked the characters who supported the family in getting Irwin out of the mental hospital. I loved the couple with the limericks and the nun's responses when she read them.
Overall, I cared aout the family and did become involved in their story but just wasn't as entertained by or as interested in the book as I had expected to be. If I had had no expectations, I probably would feel that I enjoyed it more. It is a long book and at times it felt like 900 pages......
I had to write this quickly in order to submit a response before we pick the next book and I am very distracted by some work I should be completing. I hope what I have written doesn't have many typos and makes sense.
I have noticed that many times when a close knit group of people is reading the same book, very often opinions will be the same. I don’t know if that’s because we influence each other, or if it’s more a matter that like minds attract one another. In both this and my face-to-face book club, very often most have the same opinion. Such, it seems, has been the case with Brothers K.
ReplyDeleteWe all seemed to like the book overall, and all agreed that it was too lengthy. We differed some about the characters. Most of you disliked Mama. I liked Margaret’s comment about Mama almost being a caricature of a religious zealot. As for me, though I can’t imagine not always being an advocate for your child, her ugly history, and the fact that in the end she stood up for her children, made me forgive her. That, and the fact that Papa loved her so much throughout.
But I think what I liked most about all of the comments is that they indicated that all of us loved Duncan’s writing so much that we read aloud some part of the book to someone else. I don’t think I ever highlighted a book so much. Well done Duncan! And as Margaret pointed out, next time, get a better editor.
Also, sorry about the baseball stuff. I loved it. Don’t know why since I’m not even vaguely a baseball fan. Somehow it worked for me, however.