The Brothers K

What a marvelous novel! The humanity that we read about in this book from this one family is so inspiring and so well- told that it not only shows that this author knows how to write well, it shows how one family can sometimes change the world. This story touches every emotion in a reader as this young family grows and grows and learns from the father dedication to his sport (baseball) and from their mother dedication toward her faith in God. When I began this book I knew nothing about this novel except the title! I let my Alexa read it to me, and I marveled at the ups and downs of this family which had two sets of twins (I think) and two other single births. Anyway, six children to feed, clothe and house and raise up to be the fine individuals they became even with all the hardships that came their way. But isn't that what life is all about!? I will never forget the lesson the Mother taught them: The older twins wanted to go to work and make money when they were probably 13. However, their mother showed them that they were not ready for the world of WORK. They kept pestering her about it and she "pulled an intervention," telling them, "You want to work, do ya? Well, from this day on you're going to do all the things that I do FOR YOU. From now on, you will cook for yourselves, wash you own clothes, clean you own rooms, change the linens on your beds, iron your clothes, cut you own hair, wash your own dishes, and pickup after yourselves." The boys agreed to it, probably because they thought it was do-able, and because they were stubborn and wanted their way, but more so, because they knew that Momma had spoken and that they now had no other option but to do what Momma had decreed. They were forced into doing all the WORK that Momma had been doing for them for years, and their eyes were opened as to all the effort that went into taking care of a family! And they learned what real work is like and honored their mother for doing it for them. They learned that they were NOT ready to go to work. But from the experience, they gained physical strength and skills that would last a lifetime.Momma was dedicated to her church, and her family learned later in life that they, too, had learned some scripture and values from attending the classes and hearing the sermons at church. The Word of God spoke to them, helped form their hearts and thinking, so much so, that when one of the boys who went to Vietnam as a soldier encountered a combat situation in which a young Vietnamese boy was killed or brutalized, this son was traumatized by the brutality done to the Vietnamese and could not perform his military duties. The army doctors put him through brain shocks to try to bring him out of his psychosis, but it only threw him into a worse brain fog. Then Momma and the other children had to go to where he was and see for herself that her son was not being abused. Some of her church friends went with her. I will not tell all of it, but there is no strength like a Momma's strength and no force greater on Earth that a Momma's love. You go to read what she does.I call this book a "tour de force," because it covers a wide range of subjects and issues with erudition, wisdom, feeling. This books makes you feel! This novel teaches of the human spirit's depths and perserverance. The members of this family are "every man." We all are subject to these needs, feeling, emotions, and foibles. The father in the book is central and primary. You start out thinking that it's a book about a baseball player and how he strives to keep playing the game he loves. But it is SOOOOOO much more! You think its about a poor, black family struggling to eek out a living in the 1950's and 1960's because the father wants to pitch ball to support his family. But the father injures his thumb on his pitching hand and has to drop out of pitching ball and become a base coach and work in a factory for a time. But then a doctor says he can remove the father's big toe and put it on his hand. This was to make him have prehensile ability and be able to pitch again, perhaps. There was a period of time in which the father was recuperating, and then he started building a long and narrow shed in his back yard in which he practiced pitching balls, no matter what the weather was. The four boys in the family learned from their father not to give up on their goals and not to settle for less. They learned the same thing from Momma as she kept teaching how to have faith by living it. She payed her tithes and offerings always and they knew her faith was real.This is so much more than a one topic book. Please, do yourself a favor and read or listen to this book, for you will gain so many blessings from it. And you guys out there who don't like "touchy" "feely" -- well, read it anyway, cause YOU need it! You women will learn a lot about baseball. I enjoyed that. I want to read more from this author.

I chose this book after reading a review in the New York Times. The beginning did not snare me right away, but once I knew the characters, I. could not put it down. Characterization is excellent. I came to truly like every person in the book. The plot is excellent, although I cannot point to a true climax. It is just a story about family. That is the plot. Sentence structure and word usage are complex and interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a good story and appreciates artful language. I truly loved it.

This is the first book I've read by this author. I read The Brothers Karamazov many years ago and thought a modern take or spin would be interesting.I understand the negative reviews but like baseball and fishing this book requires patience, There were times of dramatic tension, times of humor, and slower scenes. Like baseball, there are times when I was able to predict a play the author was making but that didn't make how he might get there less intriguing to me. Not every play worked but I mostly liked the game. About 1/3 of the way through I mentioned to a friend who LOVED this book that I could see where several things were going. His response was that it's not hard to figure out certain plotlines given the era, but that too often authors rely on "gotcha" moments. ["Death of a Salesman" spoiler alert: Willie Loman dies.]I liked the discussions of faith (religious and otherwise.) I also liked that the story jumped back-and-forth from one character to next. The author was able to do this without jumbling the timeline. The story unfolded in a fairly linear fashion like a baseball game. To the extent there were flashbacks they seemed analogous to, "Kade is at the plate. He batted .287 with RISP last year. Remember he has Winnie at second."There wasn't much I particularly disliked. It does seem odd to me that the character I felt I knew the least and to whom I was least interested in was the narrator.I loved The Brothers Karamazov, and this isn't that, but I liked it.

Very few books make you smile, chuckle at 2am when you can’t sleep, and cry at the end, but then smile again. The Brothers K is everything you want in a book and more. I am going to miss reading about this messed up, beautiful family.

Getting to know the people, their unique characteristics, the circumstances they faced and how they learned the dance of loving each other through it all, proved to be a page turner read.

This is a thoroughly gripping story about the twists and turns of family life. I could not put this book down.

This is a well-written and evocative book that follows the lives of a family dominated by the baseball-playing father. For an English reader this is always a problem as baseball is about as boring for us as cricket is for Americans. The novel uses the father's obsession with baseball to weave the storylines of the different family members together.It is a characteristically American book, with its messages about triumphing over adversity through hard work and dedication. Just when I was starting to get bored with this, however, I was thrown the odd curve ball and this is what made the book more compelling in the end.Watch out for the Bull Durham character: worth reading the book just to see him redrawn. He's not Costner

really good book -- especially if you like baseball

Though I had a struggle getting through all the baseball experiences, I was drawn more and more to the characters and their challenges.