The Brothers K

by David James Duncan

Book Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK Once in a great while a writer comes along who can truly capture the drama and passion of the life of a family. David James Duncan, author of the novel The River Why and the collection River Teeth, is just such a writer. And in The Brothers K he tells a story both striking and in its originality and poignant in its universality. This touching, uplifting novel spans decades of loyalty, anger, regret, and love in the lives...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 055337849X
• ISBN13: 9780553378498
• Release Date: June 1996
• Publisher: Dial Press
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

One of the most amazing stories about a family you'll ever read

This book is a masterpiece. It's one of those books you hate to stop reading. Duncan's character development is amazing and makes one care deeply for every character and the family as a whole. Doesn't hurt that I love baseball, but one need not be a fan of the sport to love this book.

It's Got It All

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.

Epic & addictive.

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, m

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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.

Riveting and enchanting

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 PURE ART

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!