The Brothers Bishop

by Bart Yates

Paperback, 2006

Status

Available

Call number

PS3625 .A75 B76 2006

Genres

Collection

LGBTQ Iowa Archives & LIbrary

Publication

Kensington (2006), Edition: New edition, 288 pages

Description

With his searing debut novel, Leave Myself Behind, Bart Yates announced his arrival as a major new talent in gay fiction. Now, with that same stunning wit and heartbreaking lyricism, he explores the explosive, unshakeable bond between two brothers and the one summer that changes their lives forever.

User reviews

LibraryThing member zeegeezer

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.

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LibraryThing member krysteria

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. 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.

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LibraryThing member sandburg

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.

LibraryThing member phoebesmum

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.

LibraryThing member crtsjffrsn

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 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.)

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