The Brothers Bishop by Bart Yates

Title: The Brothers Bishop  
Author: Bart Yates
Publisher: Kensington
Length: Novel/300 pages
Buy the book: Ebook,  Paperback

Blurb:

Tommy and Nathan Bishop are as different as two brothers can be. Carefree and careless, Tommy is the golden boy who takes men into his bed with a seductive smile and turns them out just as quickly. No one can resist him – and no one can control him, either. That salient point certainly isn’t lost on his brother. Nathan is all about control. At thirty-one, he is as dark and complicated as Tommy is light and easy, and he is bitter beyond his years. While Tommy left for the excitement of New York City, Nathan has stayed behind, teaching high school English in their provincial hometown, surrounded by the reminders of their ruined family history and the legacy of anger that runs through him like a scar.

Now, Tommy has come home to the family cottage by the sea for the summer, bringing his unstable, sexual powder keg of an entourage – and the distant echoes of his family’s tumultuous past – with him. Tommy and his lover Philip are teetering on the brink of disaster, while their married friends, Camille and Kyle, perfect their steps in a dance of denial, each partner pulling Nathan deeper into the fray.

And when one of Nathan’s troubled students, Simon, begins visiting the house, the slow fuse is lit on a highly combustible mix. 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.

Review:

Sometimes you hurt people for no reason. Just because you can.

The Brothers Bishop is an intense, masterfully written and stunning tale of relationships. The issues tackled are dark, powerful, and very effecting as the story shows the intricate and complicated relationship between two brothers, shaped by an abusive, depressed father. The writing is incredible and really draws the reader into the emotion and drama of the characters. Although the subject matter is intense and heavy, the riveting narration keeps you glued to the story. Not a light read, but one that will stay with you for a very long time.

The extended blurb does a very good job of summarizing the main action. The story takes place over a period of weeks as irresponsible, carefree lover Tommy decides to bring his latest boy toy and new best friends to the cottage he owns with his brother Nathan. Tommy’s take no prisoners and no responsibility actions cause friction among everyone but his undeniable charm burns away most anger and resentment. When Tommy starts to get involved with Nathan’s underage student, his actions could have long reaching repercussions, forcing everyone to examine their lives past and present.

The writing is first person from Nathan’s perspective. He weaves current actions with memories of his dysfunctional childhood and explanations. Nathan attempts to explain his dual reaction of intense frustration and absolute devotion to Tommy by way of memories and glimpses into their past. Many of these revolve around their cruel and emotionally abusive father, which has numerous parallels to Nathan’s tightly controlled anger and depression issues. Nathan also states quite plainly that he was involved sexually with his brother. Perhaps this is scandalous or distasteful but the narrator offers these facts baldly and without regret or remorse. They are simply events that happened in his past similar to his father throwing him through a glass door. You soon come to realize that even as honest as Nathan appears to be in telling his story, he also lies and becomes unreliable because he is flawed and only human as well.

Nathan’s voice is unique and very engaging. The superb writing brings out the emotions of the characters so incredibly well I found myself getting angry when Nathan did, yet understanding how quickly that anger fell away in the face of Tommy’s charm. There are a lot of issues tackled from incest, abuse, pedophilia, suicide, depression, and it questions the reader to decide what is right and wrong. The characters are very complex with parallels frequently made. No character is insignificant from the wife Camille that drinks too much yet offers unexpected support and sympathy to her husband Kyle, a deeply closeted gay man that is making tentative steps to self discovery in all the wrong ways, and even the boy toy Phillip Tommy uses. Each of these and other characters highlight and expose the personalities of the main characters, Tommy and Nathan. Each comes to live with a humanity that you can’t help but relate to, whether you like the characters or not.

There are a lot of themes and issues tackled in the book as I’ve said and for the majority, each of these is handled with a mastery that is sometimes breathtaking. The incest theme is very strong and essential to the story as the two brothers yearn desperately for love and acceptance, something denied to them as children and seek it in each other. Yet that doesn’t satisfy either brother even as it remains an important piece of their past and future. The story offers no apologies for the themes of incest, abuse, and pedophilia but instead lays the characters and their actions bare for the reader to absorb and understand. The writing is sometimes haunting and poignant with sharp punches of emotion and despair. The topic of depression and despair are very prevalent as they exist within both men but handled very differently. If anything due to this the ending is almost unbelievable, at least for me, as I think Nathan’s final decisions are a bit unrealistic given his character.

There is a subplot about excavating Nathan’s backyard for potential relics of a lost tribe that has many parallels to the story yet is somewhat clunky and distracting. The storyline doesn’t tie in very well to the main focus on brothers’ relationship and eventually reveals information that is somewhat contradictory to the story. This is one of the few missteps in an otherwise intense, dramatic story that remains chilling and interesting. Some of the glimpses back are also clunky and awkwardly integrated with the current action, yet the solid writing and compelling story helps smooth over rough spots.

The story is really about love, despair, and acceptance as told through the intense relationship of two brothers. They each deal with their pain in very different ways and are dependant on each other in both necessary and yet hurtful ways. Their love and pain are laid out in an honest and brutal portrayal that you simply can’t look away from while offering a fascinating look at the complexity of many different characters. This may sound like an emotionally heavy book and it is to an extent, it’s not always easy to read yet the narration is never too dark and depressing. It feels honest and real without manipulated drama in a way few novels achieve. It delves into difficult issues without depressing the reader, a skill that is incredible and hard to find. If you’re looking for a complicated, incredible book about the difficult relationship between brothers, check this out. It’ll stay with you.