Becoming Brothers - Hardcover

Waskow, Howard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0029339979 ISBN 13: 9780029339978

Publisher: Free Press, 1993

Synopsis

In alternating chapters, two brothers recapture their Baltimore childhood of the 1940s and 1950s, the jealousy and estrangement that plagued their relationship for many years, and their difficult, but ultimately rewarding reconciliation.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Two brothers--one a family therapist (Howard), the other head of the Center for Jewish Renewal in Philadelphia and author of These Holy Sparks, 1983, etc. (Arthur)--come to terms with their past and present relationship. Despite a loving mother's constant plea to ``be close to your brother above all!,'' the Waskows have felt overriding anger and resentment toward each other throughout most of their lives. The early chapters here--told in the authors' alternating voices- -reconstruct childhood memories. While Howard devotes his boyhood Saturdays to playing sports, Arthur, always the outsider, passes his at the local library, ``disconnected from other people''; also painstakingly recalled are the boys' vibrant mother, Honey--who spends much of their youth fighting tuberculosis--and their infrequent trips to the local Orthodox synagogue. We're offered intimate, poignant glimpses of family tragedies--ranging from life- threatening illnesses to a suicide--but there's an inexplicable void regarding the brothers' wives, divorces, and children. At the nadir of their relationship, Howard once retaliates with, ``I really may have to kill you some day after all.'' But only a few years later, at midlife, the Waskows' relationship turns on the family's wrenching decision not to prolong Honey's life on a respirator--a crisis that forges a new bond between the brothers. Particularly interesting here are the Waskows' divergent responses to Judaism. Neither brother seems to have come to terms with the other's approach: To Howard, Judaism is an avoidable burden; to Arthur, it's a life-affirming force. When Howard remarries, the only Jewish reference at his wedding is a prayer devised by Arthur in their mother's memory. Arthur suggests that Howard's Judaism is limited to nostalgia, but Howard protests that his wedding banquet is richly Jewish, ``overspilled with whitefish, chopped liver...knishes, kishke, and challah.'' To the now mature Arthur, a leading figure in American Jewish renewal, this response is theologically bankrupt but no longer a personal insult. Despite enduring differences, the Waskows offer an appealing human drama in writing themselves back to fraternity. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

The suppression of rage between two American Jewish brothers--and how they yet managed to achieve reconciliation--is the subject of this deeply felt account of a sibling relationship. Now in their 50s, both published authors, Howard, a family therapist, and Arthur, a leader of the Jewish renewal movement, alternate in evoking family members and other inhabitants of the middle-class, Baltimore Jewish ghetto of their childhood, and in defining the complex origins of their deep hostility. Raised to be alike despite divergent temperaments, they only later understood how they had desperately "wrestled for position and acceptance," especially from their strong-willed mother. Brought together by years of searching dialogue and by her final illness, they forged a new bond of respect and love culminating in this memorable book. Jewish Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0029339979
• ISBN 13: 9780029339978
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218