The Brothers Bishop
by Bart Yates
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Description
Fiction. 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 show more 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—their angry, abusive father and the tragic death of their mother—and finally, 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. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
When Nathan Bishop's brother Tommy informs him at the last minute that he's coming to visit for the weekend with some friends from the city, Nathan can't help but groan and roll his eyes. But even though he knows it won't be all fun and games, he's hardly prepared for everything that the weekend will bring - not only in terms of confronting his past (and his brother's) but also for their present and their future.
There's a lot in this book that pushes boundaries and it's nothing if it's not an emotional roller coaster. But it is very well written and it tells a story that I think could move a stone. I wanted to reach into the pages and change the course of events so many times, but I knew they were headed the way they needed to show more go.
Content warning:mentions of incest, child abuse, statutory rape, suicide
(Aside: I wasn't very keen on the author having a character use 'retarded' as a pejorative. I could have just chalked that up to a method of demonstrating the character's ignorance if it wasn't for the fact that he used the term himself in a similar way in the dedication at the beginning of the book.) show less
There's a lot in this book that pushes boundaries and it's nothing if it's not an emotional roller coaster. But it is very well written and it tells a story that I think could move a stone. I wanted to reach into the pages and change the course of events so many times, but I knew they were headed the way they needed to show more go.
Content warning:
(Aside: I wasn't very keen on the author having a character use 'retarded' as a pejorative. I could have just chalked that up to a method of demonstrating the character's ignorance if it wasn't for the fact that he used the term himself in a similar way in the dedication at the beginning of the book.) show less
Okay, serious spoiler alert! OHMYGOD! Did Bart have to kill of my favorite character? Did he have to commit suicide? Did he have to run off to swim in the ocean and never come back? That sucks! But I guess Yates couldn't find any other way to get Tommy out of the rape charge, after he fell for one of his brother's students. I liked this one ALOT better than Yates last book (Leave Myself Behind). The characters were real and vulnerable and I easily pictured them in my head. They came alive. I gave his first book high marks, however, because it not only had a depth as far as characters, settings and feelings went, but also because it was an enjoyable book. It made me laugh. This one did no such thing. It's much darker. Much more serious. show more Of course, the story is being told by a very serious man, Nathan. The background on Nathan and Tommy's childhoods was just as vivid at the present day storyline.
On a scale of 1 to 10, a 9. show less
On a scale of 1 to 10, a 9. show less
In this heart-wrenching and well written book, Yates esplores very dark themes portraying powerful and sometimes obnoxious characters (they made quite poor decisions!)
Bart Yates has become one of my favorite authors.
Bart Yates has become one of my favorite authors.
Not as enjoyable as Leave Myself Behind, Yates' first novel. Mainly because the first-person narrator is such an unsympathetic, unpleasant man. The situation and the outcomes are much more complex, however.
Weird, disturbing story that's very well written. I couldn't put it down.
Oh, my goodness, this must be the most depressing gay book I've ever read. It has incest, it has underage sex, it has child abuse, it has suicide – AND NOT IN A GOOD WAY. Readable, but not exactly a laugh a minute.
Simon is abused during summer school by his teacher's brother
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Author Information
7 Works 930 Members
Common Knowledge
- People/Characters
- Nathan Bishop; Tommy Bishop; Simon Hart; Philip; Camille; Kyle
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 277
- Popularity
- 116,143
- Reviews
- 10
- Rating
- (3.91)
- Languages
- Dutch, English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 3
