The Brothers K
Ratings8
Average rating4
Started out in a quite promising way, but once the narrative shifted to include another son's take on his dad, presented like a school report, I lost interest. Love the riffs on religion, not so much the cutesy take on life of half the narrative (at least for the first third of the book–I am not going to finish this one).
Nothing wrong with this, but when I find myself playing more Bejeweled than reading in the evenings, it's time to move on to a new book.
3.5 really with a crap load of reservations, but there was lots to like about this novel so I'm bumping it up rather than down. Give me a week and I could change my mind.
The saga of the Chance family, Hugh and Laura and their 6 offspring, battling and torn apart by the family's two loves: Baseball and Religion. And because it's an American novel set in the 60/70ies, at some point the Vietnam war makes an important appearance. The characters are vivid and alluring, slightly too wordsmart, the writing is funny, sometimes a little bit too cruel. I was all ready to love this a lot, but somewhere in the middle it becomes a bit too meandering, too segmented. And I wasn't really a fan of the reveal about the mother in the end either, but by that point I was very invested in everyone's happiness again.
An amazing story of family and faith. This was my book club pick...and I was the only person to finish. It takes a while to get into as the characters are introduced. Stick with it! This book is more than worth the energy!