Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry

by Andrew Blauner (Editor), Frank McCourt (Foreword by)

Overview

"The next best thing to not having a brother (as I do not) is to have Brothers."
—Gay Talese

Here is a tapestry of stories about the complex and unique relationship that exists between brothers. In this book, some of our finest authors take an unvarnished look at how brothers admire and admonish, revere and revile, connect and compete, love and war with each other. With hearts and minds wide open, and, in some cases, with laugh-out-loud humor, the writers tackle a topic that is as old as the Bible and yet has been, heretofore, overlooked.

Contributors range in age from twenty-four to eighty-four, and their stories from comic to tragic. Brothers examines and explores the experiences of love and loyalty and loss, of altruism and anger, of competition and compassion—the confluence of things that conspire to form the unique nature of what it is to be and to have a brother.

“Brother.” One of our eternal and quintessential terms of endearment. Tobias Wolff writes, “The good luck of having a brother is partly the luck of having stories to tell.” David Kaczynski, brother of “The Unabomber”: “I’ll start with the premise that a brother shows you who you are—and also who you are not. He’s an image of the self, at one remove . . . You are a ‘we’ with your brother before you are a ‘we’ with any other.” Mikal Gilmore refers to brotherhood as a “fidelity born of blood.”

We’ve heard that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. But where do the apples fall in relation to each other? And are we, in fact, our brothers’ keepers, after all?

These stories address those questions and more, and are, like the relationships, full of intimacy and pain, joy and rage, burdens and blessings, humor and humanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470599648
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/19/2010
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Andrew Blauner is founder of Blauner Books Literary Agency, editor of COACH: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference, and coeditor of Anatomy of Baseball.

Read an Excerpt

Click to read or download

Table of Contents

Frank Mccourt
foreword xi

Benjamin Cheever and Fred Cheever
civil war 1

David Kaczynski
missing parts 15

David Maraniss
the sensations of jim 31

Phillip Lopate
my brother, life (with apologies to pasternak) 41

Mikal Gilmore
secrets and bones 49

Richard Ford
we were men 59

Ethan Canin
american beauty 65

John Edgar Wideman
doing time 85

Chris Bohjalian
my brother’s a keeper 91

Daniel Menaker
headlock 97

Pete Hamill
a drinking life 113

David Sedaris
you can’t kill the rooster 117

Geoffrey Wolff
heavy lifting 125

Tobias Wolff
a brother’s story 141

Charles D’Ambrosio
documents 149

Jim Shepard
get away from me 157

James Hurst
the scarlet ibis 167

Steven V. Roberts
the roberts boys 173

Dominick Dunne
a death in the family 183

Floyd Skloot
jambon dreams 195

Jay Neugeboren
imagining robert 209

Herbert Gold
king of the cleveland beatniks 221

Gregory Orr
the accident 231

Jerald Walker
sacraments of reconciliation 243

Darin Strauss
chang and eng 251

Nathaniel Rich and Simon Rich
brothers on brotherhood 257

About The Editor And Contributors 263

Acknowledgments 269

Sources And Permissions 271

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

People Are Talking About Brothers

“Grown men do most of their living and dying in a relatively peaceful coalition of wives, partners, children, friends, colleagues, and aging parents. But a brother remains a figure of almost mythic proportions: the one mortal with whom the fight for love is never won, never lost, and only partly understood. Here are brutally honest war stories from such veteran brotherhoods of contemporary American literature as the scrappy McCourts, the storied Cheevers, the fighting Dunnes, the lovely Lopates, the Wolffs in Brooks Brothers clothing. David Kaczynski’s fearless, tender, and almost unbearably painful tale of learning to be the brother of the Unabomber is a searing metaphor for the mystery—and murder—in the heart of every brother, whether you are a Cain or an Abel.”
—David Michaelis, author,  Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography

“This book choked me up and made me laugh. It also infuriated me, moved me, challenged me, and in the end left me feeling glad, above all else, that it existed. In other words, reading it was almost exactly like how I feel about my own brother. These wonderful stories should be read by anyone curious about this unique, and uniquely shaping, bond.”
—Tom Bissell, author, The Father of All Things 

“Andrew Blauner has invited an all-star team of writers to visit an underexplored subject. The results are moving and revealing.”
—Peter D. Kramer, author, Listening to Prozac and Against Depression, and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University

“How to understand the mysteries in our own families with our siblings, the laboratories of so much of how we play out our lives? Brothers is riveting—an important addition to sibling literature. A band of brothers grappling with their triumphs and failures, fierce loyalties and betrayals. Daniel Menaker astonishes with his heartbreaking and searing essay on his brother’s death—and his own misplaced sense of personal responsibility. Must reading for all brothers—and their sisters.”
—Marie Brenner, author, Apples and Oranges: My Brother and Me, Lost and Found

Editorial Reviews

This fine collection of essays and short fiction play numerous variations on the bonds between brothers, employing a number of popular writers aging from 24 to 84. Among the most gripping is "Missing Parts," David Kaczynski's account of growing up with the Unabomber, seeking understanding without condemnation or pardon. The nonjudgmental tone runs throughout, from Phillip Lopate's "My Brother, Life," a story of envy, to "Doing Time" by John Edgar Wideman, about his brother in prison. Richard Ford extends the scope to include his Sigma Chi fraternity brothers, and David Sedaris injects some much-needed lightness with a charming tribute to his little brother, "the Rooster," who early on developed an amazing capacity for dropping f-bombs. Daniel Menaker and Gregory Orr, whose brothers both met a premature end, explore their survivor's guilt. Jim Shepard writes about writing about his brother. Other contributors include Ethan Canin, Dominick Dunne, Mikal Gilmore, David Maraniss, and Geoffrey and Tobias Wolff. Among a number of similar titles aimed at sisters, this collection is as nostalgic and intimate as any. At least a handful of these tales will connect with anyone who's a brother, or who has one.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Literary notables write about the rough-and-tumble bond between brothers. Novelist Frank McCourt's rollicking essay detailing each of his brothers' strengths and weaknesses is a fitting introduction to literary agent Blauner's assortment of sibling ruminations. First up is the friendly fire exchanged between Benjamin and Fred Cheever, who take turns volleying their opinions on each other and how they separately perceived their upbringing in the shadow of a Pulitzer Prize-winning father. In "Secrets and Bones," Rolling Stone writer Mikal Gilmore reflects on the nature of family ties-a "fidelity born of blood"-during a bittersweet reunion with his "relinquished" brother Frank. Ethan Canin's "American Beauty" touches on the frivolity and melodramatic intercourse of family. Tobias Wolff's recollection, one of the best in the compilation, examines the "shambles of a summer" spent with his brother Geoffrey in the wake of their father's nervous breakdown. David Sedaris offers an amusingly over-the-top, potty-mouthed family fable. Coming to terms with his brother Robert's harrowingly sad mental illness becomes Jay Neugeboren's key to happiness. David Kaczynski dissects life with "Unabomber" brother Ted as he describes the drastic repercussions of Ted's cumulative psychological deterioration. Insisting it was "veneration" and not rivalry, Chris Bohjalian describes his motivation in mimicking his brother's younger years, while rivalry certainly propels Daniel Menaker's footnote-laden tale of family dynamics. Blauner (co-editor: Anatomy of Baseball, 2008, etc.) closes the anthology with a hilarious interview of Nathaniel and Simon Rich, who animate the push-pull fraternization of close-knitbrothers. An accomplished paean to brotherly love.

Kirkus Reviews

"Whether or not you have a brother, you’ll enjoy the entertaining, affecting tales collected here." —Penthouse (June 2009)

"Watch the boys in this rich anthology battle and booze, worship, envy, argue and die, and try not to think of your own brother. Brothers, edited by Andrew Blauner, is aptly subtitled 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry; by the end, you’ll wish there were a single word for that fraternal emotion ("lovalry"?) In this sampler with a surprising number of writer brothers (Wolffs, Cheevers, etc.) it’s David Kaczynski’s tale of recognizing the Unabomber in an older Ted that haunts and Rooster Sedaris who amuses, while Phillip Lobate, nails it, calling his brother "my personal metaphor for Life." (Playboy, May 2009)

"Editor Andrew Blauner has brought together some amazing literary lions to tell their tales about their brothers and the result is breathtaking, stunning, moving, more than a little heartbreaking, hysterical in places, and often completely overwhelming….Brothers is a remarkable compilation. Nothing quite like it comes to mind. Its force is electrifying and lasts well beyond the reading: the writers’ voices resonating long after the book is closed." (Blogcritics, April 2009)

"[Brothers] will quite likely appeal to readers in their parental roles, to women with brothers, and just about everybody else in one manner or another." -The Denver Post (July 2009)

"[Brothers] is a wonderful read dealing with the funny, sad, complex, comforting, competitive relationships between brothers. I can't wait for Andrew Blauner to come out with ‘Sisters.’ Highly recommended." (Travel Watch, 2009)

"Among a number of similar titles aimed at sisters, this collection is as nostalgic and intimate as any. At least a handful of these tales will connect with anyone who's a brother, or who has one." -PublishersWeekly.com (June 29,2009)

"This book is like a big brother reminding you of what is important in life. It will make you want to pick up the phone and call out: Brother where art thou?" - The Boston Globe (June 2009) 

Novelist Frank McCourt’s rollicking essay detailing each of his brothers’ strengths and weaknesses is a fitting introduction to literary agent Blauner’s assortment of sibling ruminations. First up is the friendly fire exchanged between Benjamin and Fred Cheever, who take turns volleying their opinions on each other and how they separately perceived their upbringing in the shadow of a Pulitzer Prize–winning father. In "Secrets and Bones," Rolling Stone writer Mikal Gilmore reflects on the nature of family ties—a "fidelity born of blood"—during a bittersweet reunion with his "relinquished" brother Frank. Ethan Canin’s "American Beauty" touches on the frivolity and melodramatic intercourse of family. Tobias Wolff’s recollection, one of the best in the compilation, examines the "shambles of a summer" spent with his brother Geoffrey in the wake of their father’s nervous breakdown. David Sedaris offers an amusingly over-the-top, potty-mouthed family fable. Coming to terms with his brother Robert’s harrowingly sad mental illness becomes Jay Neugeboren’s key to happiness. David Kaczynski dissects life with "Unabomber" brother Ted as he describes the drastic repercussions of Ted’s cumulative psychological deterioration. Insisting it was "veneration" and not rivalry, Chris Bohjalian describes his motivation in mimicking his brother’s younger years, while rivalry certainly propels Daniel Menaker’s footnote-laden tale of family dynamics. Blauner (co-editor: Anatomy of Baseball, 2008, etc.) closes the anthology with a hilarious interview of Nathaniel and Simon Rich, who animate the push-pull fraternization of close-knit brothers. An accomplished paean to brotherly love. (Kirkus Reviews, April 2009)

From the Publisher