The Brave

This book was beautiful. Which sounds like a weird way to describe a book, especially one with a few murders in the plot... But beautiful is such a great word for it.

The characters were all great. I loved Tommy and Diane. Cal was another great character. The story follows Tommy through his life growing up in England, moving to Hollywood, and eventually "settling down" in Montana. The whole way through I was so captivated by what he was going through. The opening scene with Tommy and his mother is so captivating that I couldn't help but care what happens to Tommy through the rest of the story.

The writing was beautiful in this story. Since it was an audiobook that I read I can imagine some of the imagery was as much from the writing as show more it was from the narrator's voice. But either way I could see everything that was going on. The descriptions weren't long and drawn out, but everything I saw in my head was on a large scale. I didn't just see where the action was happening, if they were in a room I saw the whole room, if they were outside I could see the whole scaling landscape around the area. I think the writing and the narration were such a perfect fit for each other that this book really was able to take on a life of it's own for me.

The story itself was great also. The story jumps around in Tommy's life. Each part of the story answers one question and then raises another. Even when the story jumps forward it somehow is able to answer the questions from the past... The story wasn't always fast-paced, but it wasn't boring either. Everything about this story just hit that perfect balance.

The narrator for this one was amazing. I don't like to see who narrates before I start and audiobook because then as I'm listening to the book all the characters take on the narrator (especially if it is someone famous). While I was listening I kept thinking to myself this voice is so familiar, and when I finished and looked to see who it was I realized why I liked the narration so much. Michael Emerson has such a great voice. I loved Lost, and even though I didn't so much like Ben I do like the guy who plays Ben. He was able to give each of the characters their own voice, without making them sound fake or "put on". I loved the narration as much as I loved the story.

A review copy of this title was provided by Hachette Book Group. show less

This book starts off with a kid in boarding school being horribly bullied, and as a reader you desperately want him to get one over on the bullies. Well as far as that goes, this book delivers in magnificent style. The Speech Day section was such a joy. When it comes to living the dream, central character Tommy does it in some style. Of course it all has to go horribly wrong, as the very first chapter makes clear, but what a journey.

This had a slightly more low-brow feel than the author’s other work, but you can’t fault it for readability.

The motto of the boarding school to which Tommy Bedford is dispatched is Fortune Favours the Brave. It's 1959 and the school bristles with bullies and sadistic staff. Tommy, a quirky loner, obsessed with cowboys and Indians, needs all the bravery he can summon. Salvation comes when his glamorous actress sister is swept off to Hollywood by one of his heroes, TV cowboy Ray Montane. But with the Cold War looming, the sinister side of Tinseltown seeps through and Tommy and Diane soon find themselves in jeopardy. Forty years on, Tommy has to confront his boyhood ghosts when his own son finds himself charged with murder.

My Thoughts:

I had read ‘The Divide’ before which I really enjoyed but have never fancied anything else by Nicholas show more Evans. This book however is for book group so I have given it ago and have to say was quite surprised how much I did like it.

The book is very easy to read and has a nice flow to it. The story is told with flashbacks to Tommy’s childhood and then in the present. I enjoyed the flashbacks a lot more than Toms’s adult life.

My favourite character had to be Diane and I was with her all the way and if I had been in her shoes then I know I would have done the same. Will ask at book group what they think might have happened if the truth had been told at the time. Can’t really say here as I don’t want to create any spoilers.

My only negative is that I found the book predictable and I did guess quite early on what was the first major thing to happen to Tommy and later in the book again I guessed the second major revelation. I also found the book a little sugary at the end. The book was a cosy read and is perfect for a Sunday afternoon when stopping in is an option due to all the rain. show less

Tommy Bedford is seen visiting his mother, so he can say goodby before she is executed after being found guilty of murder.

The novel opens in 1959, in England where Tom is eight-years-old and lives in a fantasy world of cowboys and Indians. He's a quiet boy and dealing with a bed wetting issue. His parents are sympathetic but much older than the parents of most of his friends.

When he's sent to Ashlawn Prep Boarding School, he faces bullying and sadistic behavior by one of the staff. It gets so bad that he smuggles a letter to his sister, begging her to get him out of the school.

His sister, Diane, is an actress and it isn't until the next year that she can help. She has become a successful actress and moved to Hollywood. She begins dating show more Ray Montane, who is famous for his cowboy character, Red McGraw.

Imagine the effect on a little boy, now age nine, when his actress sister and her famous husband, arrive at his boarding school. Tom's esteem soars but then he becomes confused when his sister admits that she's really his mother. Then she tells him that she and Ray will be able to provide for him in their Hollywood home.

The story is interlaced between events of the past and what is happening currently. We learn of the circumstances when sixteen-year-old Diane became pregnant and see Tom, now in his fifties, is a divorced filmmaker and writer. The emotional abuse he had growing up has led to his escape into alcohol which ruined his marriage and changed the rest of his life.

This is a powerful, character driven novel. The pacing is done gradually so the reader can see more of the events that shape the novel.

Tom and Diane are sympathetic characters and the author of "The Horse Whisperer," has created another novel that will entertain readers. show less

A friend of mine highly recommended this book to me, which leaves me pondering what to say to her. I think the book was fine, predictable, but not outstanding. The story is character driven, flipping between Tommy Bedford's childhood and the events unfolding there (between life in an English boarding school through a move to Hollywood with his starlet sister and her cowboy-movie-star boyfriend) and current day events, where adult Tom Bedford tries to both patch his failed relationship with his Marine son, who is on trial for murder while serving in Iraq. None of the story-lines were a surprise, in fact they were pretty predictable, but it was interesting to see how Evans played them out. Not sure that I'd call the book outstanding, but show more it was an easy read on a chilly day. I guess when your first book is a run-away best seller, it may be hard to keep the pace alive. show less

Cowboys in Hollywood.

This book started out with a powerful first chapter, where young Tommy visits his mother in prison, on death row, the day before her execution. The following chapters, however, didn't live up to the original promise. I found the two time frames - Tommy as a child and then as Tom, the adult, were confusing, possibly because so many of the characters remained the same. I struggled to keep myself in the correct era. By the middle of the book I'd totally lost interest and my rating dropped by another star.

Young Tommy is cowboy mad, he watches all the westerns on TV, has his favourite cowboy characters and plays cowboys and Indians in his garden. When he is sent to boarding school at just five years old, he is considered show more strange by his peers. He is bullied by boys and staff alike, until rescue comes in the form of a real-life cowboy.
As an adult, divorced from his wife and estranged from his son, Danny, he lives a lonely existence as a script writer. Then Danny is accused of murder and the family is reunited in his defense.

All books have their strengths and weaknesses and I was impressed by Evans' descriptions of Hollywood and the wilds of Montana. However, I found the plot rather plodding, with not a lot of reward. There wasn't much depth in the narration, jumping from school in England, to the razzmatazz of Hollywood, to ranching in Montana, without going into much detail at each phase. Personally, I think you would have to be a cowboy fan to really enjoy this book, and in that respect it is a bit dated, westerns being now, very much a thing of the past.

Nicholas Evans was originally a movie script writer and that was how this book read. He has already cut out all the detail that is usually erased when a book becomes a movie.
A light read, voted three stars by myself and the members of my book group. show less

I listened to the audiobook version of The Brave read by Michael Emerson (Lost) and it was wonderful. It's one of those books that vacillates between the present and 40 years earlier. It starts off with a visit to death row by a 13 year old boy to his mother. The reason for her conviction is kept from the reader until the very end of the book and the author weaves a very suspenseful tale that really kept my interest.