BookBriefing: The Brothers Bishop by Bart Yates
The Brothers Bishop
Author: Bart Yates
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corporation
Date: July 2006
ISBN: 0758209126
ISBN-13: 9780758209122
What the publishers said
During a heady two-week party filled with drunken revelations, bitter jealousies, caustic jabs, and tender reconciliations, Tommy and Nathan will confront the legacy of their twisted family history-the angry, abusive father and the tragic death of their mother-and finally, to the one secret that has shaped their entire lives. It is a summer that will challenge everything Nathan remembers and unravel Tommy’s carefully constructed facade, drawing them both unwittingly into a drama with echoes of the past…one with unforeseen and very dangerous consequences. At once both brutally honest and beautifully tender, The Brothers Bishop is a riveting story about the war we wage on those we love best, the cost of forgiveness, and the necessary pain of becoming fully human.
Kensington Books
What the author said
Tommy's coming home tomorrow, with his new scrotal-buddy and a young married couple in tow. He called last week and asked if he could come see me, but he waited until I said yes before he told me he was bringing an entourage. When I told him I wasn't really in the mood to entertain anybody besides him, he got pissed. "Don't be a dick, Nathan. You've had the cottage to yourself for three years. Is it going to kill you to have a little company for a couple of weeks?"
Bart Yates
What the critics said
Yates flirts with Christopher Rice-style melodrama but ultimately finds hard-won joy in hot-button issues.
Out.com
What the readers said
He takes emotionally wrenching subject matter and mixes it with characters that should be easily predictable and transparent and turns them into these simple yet epic portrayals of the intricacy of the human condition...
Amazon.com
Ugh, ultimately I just couldn't come to care about either of these 2 brothers who wallow in their misery. I just wanted to slap them and say get a grip or at least go to therapy.
Amazon.com
What I said
Incest, paedophilia, child abuse, suicide: The Brothers Bishop is just another tale of everyday life in Connecticut. But it's also a haunting story, and one that manages to combine those two imposters - tears and laughter - in beautiful, economically written prose. The book reminds us of that eternal verity: everything is relative.