Brotherly Love - Softcover
In the City of Brotherly Love, a car skids off the ice and ignites a chain of events that changes everything for eight-year-old Peter Flood. Peter’s father is a powerful man, a union boss with mob connections, but all the power in the world is useless to a grieving son. Raised by his uncle, Peter tries to distance himself from the casual brutality of the family business, gravitating instead toward a small South Philly gym. Peter’s cousin Michael—his “brother”—moves in another direction: into small-time intimidation and the trappings of a union prince. Neither, however, can outrun the logic of violence as they’re dragged into a world of bad blood and a chilling cycle of betrayal and retribution.
Praise for Brotherly Love
“A first-rate novel and a masterly evocation of that undercivilized and unfree America . . . The grace and confidence of [Pete Dexter’s] prose conveys absolute authenticity.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Enviably artful work—carefully wrought, canny in its insights, sly in its presentation, sneaky in its revelations.”—Chicago Tribune
“Extraordinarily poignant . . . Brotherly Love is all bulletproof prose and flinty-eyed bravissimo. . . . But the quieter, sadder aspects of the novel are its strongest points.”—The Boston Globe
“Tautly and often exquisitely written.”—Los Angeles Times
Praise for Brotherly Love
“A first-rate novel and a masterly evocation of that undercivilized and unfree America . . . The grace and confidence of [Pete Dexter’s] prose conveys absolute authenticity.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Enviably artful work—carefully wrought, canny in its insights, sly in its presentation, sneaky in its revelations.”—Chicago Tribune
“Extraordinarily poignant . . . Brotherly Love is all bulletproof prose and flinty-eyed bravissimo. . . . But the quieter, sadder aspects of the novel are its strongest points.”—The Boston Globe
“Tautly and often exquisitely written.”—Los Angeles Times
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About the Author:
Pete Dexter is the author of the National Book Award–winning novel Paris Trout as well as Spooner, Paper Trails, God’s Pocket, Deadwood, Brotherly Love, and Train. He has been a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Sacramento Bee, and has contributed to many magazines, including Esquire, Sports Illustrated, and Playboy. His screenplays include Rush and Mulholland Falls. Dexter was born in Michigan and raised in Georgia, Illinois, and eastern South Dakota. He lives on an island off the coast of Washington.
From Kirkus Reviews:
In his first novel since his NBA-winner Paris Trout (1988), Dexter tells the story of two cousins raised in a mob family in South Philadelphia. Peter Flood is only eight when he loses his little sister (to a neighbor's skidding car), then his grief-shattered mother (to a mental hospital), and finally his father Charley, ex-roofer and union boss. This is 1961; the Irish Floods control union jobs, the Italians and their aging boss Constantine control the streets. Disregarding Constantine's warning, Charley kills his aforementioned neighbor, an on-the-take cop, whereupon he is escorted to a meeting by his brother Phil from which he never returns. Not surprisingly, the relationship between the taciturn Peter and his uncle Phil, and sadistic cousin Michael, will be tense and wary. ``Youse are brothers,'' declares Phil; but that doesn't stop Michael from bashing his sleeping cousin with a hammer. Peter's refuge is the boxing gym run by Nick DiMaggio, a warmhearted type who builds while the mob destroys; nonetheless, when Phil is killed by the Italians (avenging the earlier rubout of Constantine), Peter agrees to help Michael reestablish control. Only when Michael orders Nick and his son Harry to be hit does Peter rebel, shooting his cousin at point-blank range. This novel is as dark as Paris Trout but lacks its narrative power, which derived from Trout's indomitable will battling the townsfolk. Here there is a similar tension in the fine opening section, Charley listening to his blood, his union brothers trying to stop the unstoppable; after that, the novel drifts and stalls. Peter is too passive for a struggle between the cousins to develop; nothing comes of the rumored war between the Irish and the Italians. We settle for a slow dance around Michael, a vicious creep but not big enough to pull everything together. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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- PublisherFlamingo
- Publication date1993
- ISBN 10 0006545076
- ISBN 13 9780006545071
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages304
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