Brotherly Love
by Pete Dexter
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Fiction. Literature. Mystery. HTML: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 show more “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. show less
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Member Reviews
Brotherly Love has one of the most gripping, disturbing, and violent beginnings I’ve read. The violence and menace never abate throughout the story. It’s not a bang-bang mindless violence, but a grinding, wrenching threat that bursts into blackness and dissipates, until it happens again. Pete Dexter is so skillful that he keeps the tension alive the entire time.
Peter and Michael Flood are cousins in Philadelphia thrown together as children by the death of Peter’s father. In fact both of their fathers have been killed because of their criminal connections. They’re a union, and organized crime, family. Michael never evolves from a greedy youngster, taking what he wants. Peter is a bright spot in the story, although he’s engulfed show more by the ugliness that he never really tries hard enough to escape.
Nick DiMaggio, a former boxer who owns a boxing gym over an auto repair shop, is another bright spot that Peter gravitates toward. Nick has built the life that he wants and tries to steer clear of Michael and his type. “These fuckin’ guys,” “Everywhere they go, it’s like they broke in.” But he knows he can’t avoid them forever and is going to be compelled to choose sides at some point. “Maybe three times in your life something new happens and you know the right thing to do. The rest of the time…” Michael, Peter, Nick and the other characters are expertly created and believable.
Dexter’s adeptly told story of inherited violence is leavened by a subplot of redemption and glimpses of humanity. show less
Peter and Michael Flood are cousins in Philadelphia thrown together as children by the death of Peter’s father. In fact both of their fathers have been killed because of their criminal connections. They’re a union, and organized crime, family. Michael never evolves from a greedy youngster, taking what he wants. Peter is a bright spot in the story, although he’s engulfed show more by the ugliness that he never really tries hard enough to escape.
Nick DiMaggio, a former boxer who owns a boxing gym over an auto repair shop, is another bright spot that Peter gravitates toward. Nick has built the life that he wants and tries to steer clear of Michael and his type. “These fuckin’ guys,” “Everywhere they go, it’s like they broke in.” But he knows he can’t avoid them forever and is going to be compelled to choose sides at some point. “Maybe three times in your life something new happens and you know the right thing to do. The rest of the time…” Michael, Peter, Nick and the other characters are expertly created and believable.
Dexter’s adeptly told story of inherited violence is leavened by a subplot of redemption and glimpses of humanity. show less
The story of two cousins brought up in mafia-like trade unions with violence and death which they then perpetuate into their short adulthoods. Interesting as a character study and for its Philadelphia setting.
Not his best
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18+ Works 4,830 Members
Novelist, journalist, and poet Pete Dexter was born in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1943. As a student at the University of South Dakota, where he attended on and off for ten years, he wrote poetry and won a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. After graduating in 1970, he found work as a newspaper reporter. While working as a columnist for show more the Philadelphia Daily News, Dexter was nearly beaten to death by readers who disapproved of a piece he wrote about a drug-related murder. That experience helped propel him into fiction writing, and in 1984, he published God's Pocket. Dexter won a National Book Award in 1988 for his novel Paris Trout, a book that exemplifies his characteristic blending of humor and violence. As a journalist, his work has also appeared in such periodicals as Esquire and Playboy. Paper Trails, published in 2007, is a compilation of columns he wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News and The Sacramento Bee from the 1970s to the 1990s. He also wrote the novel Spooner in 2009. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Brotherly Love
- Original publication date
- 1991
- Important places
- Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Original language
- English
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 311
- Popularity
- 101,666
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.70)
- Languages
- 5 — Dutch, English, French, German, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 18
- ASINs
- 5
