Brothers Pdf Summary
From the bestselling National Book Award finalist, a masterful blend of history and memoir featuring the author’s four brothers and iconic brothers in history—the Thoreaus, the Van Goghs, the Kelloggs, the Marx brothers, and the Booths.
George Howe Colt’s The Big House is, as the New Yorker said, “full of surprises and contains more than seems possible: a family memoir, a brief history of the Cape, an investigation of nostalgia, a study of class, and a meditation on the privileges and burdens of the past.” Colt’s new book, Brothers, is an equally idiosyncratic and masterful blend of memoir and history featuring both the author’s three brothers and iconic brothers in history—the Booths, the Van Goghs, the Kelloggs, the Marx Brothers, and the Thoreaus.
Colt believes he would be a different man had he not grown up in a family of four brothers. He movingly recounts the adoration, envy, affection, resentment, and compassion in their shifting relationships from childhood through middle age, also rendering a volatile decade in American life: the 1960s. Some of the Colt men now have children; all have found their own paths; all now consider their brothers to be their closest friends.
In alternate chapters, Colt parallels his quest to understand how his own brothers shaped his life with an examination of the rich and complex relationships between iconic brothers in history. He explores how Edwin Booth grew up to become the greatest actor on the nineteenth-century American stage while his younger brother John grew up to assassinate a president. How Will Kellogg worked for his overbearing older brother John Harvey as a subservient yes-man for two decades until he finally broke free and launched the cereal empire that outlasted all his brother’s enterprises. How Vincent van Gogh would never have survived without the financial and emotional support of his younger brother, Theo, in a claustrophobic relationship that both defined and confined them. How Henry David Thoreau’s life was shadowed by the early death of his older brother, John, who haunted and inspired his writing. And how the Marx Brothers collaborated on the screen but competed offstage for women, money, and fame.
Illuminating and affecting, this book will be revelatory for any parent of sons, any sibling, anyone curious about how a man’s life can be molded by his brothers. Colt’s magnificent book is a testament to the abiding power of fraternal love.
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Brothers Review
VINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 stars Chock full of interesting detail!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 10, 2013
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BROTHERS by George Howe Colt is an unusual book in that it jumps back and forth between the doings of the four Colt brothers and other celebrity type brothers. Although they’re extremely likable, perhaps the Colt segments are too long.
Some of what Colt discovers about brothers in general is old hat. The oldest brother tends to bond with his parents, tends to be more successful, seems more like a little adult. The youngest is more creative and has a tendency to take more chances. The poor guy or guys in the middle don’t get as much attention from their parents and don’t have as much self confidence.
Although he covers several dozen brother groups, Colt concentrates on the Kelloggs (think breakfast cereals), The Boothes, The Marx brothers, The Van Goghs , and Henry and John Thoreau.
Maybe it’s because I have five brothers and no sisters, I found this book fascinating. For instance Edwin Booth suffered from depression most of his life despite being the greatest actor of his day. The two older Booth brothers, June and Edwin, were also loyal to the Union, while John was a loyal rebel. John was also spoiled rotten by his older sister while Edwin acted as a “dresser” for his father, Junius Brutus Booth, (also considered the greatest actor of his times). The father was also mentally ill, although Colt suggests this may have been an act to draw crowds.
Perhaps the most interesting brothers (predictably I suppose) were the Marxes. Colt explains how they got their names. Their mother Minnie, whose younger brother was a vaudeville star, put them on the road at an early age and they got the names from a fellow performer while playing poker. Harpo because of the instrument he played; Groucho because of his disposition, Chico because he chased women constantly, Gummo because of his gum shoes. Zeppo became Zeppo because he imitated another performer named Zippo who was an exercise nut. Gummo is the least known because Minnie had him enlist in the army during WWI to save the stars of the act, Groucho and Harpo, from the draft. He did perform with his brothers for nine years prior to this however. Colt never explains why he never rejoined the act. The happiest of the brothers was Chico, despite gambling away his money as fast as he got it; ironically the unhappiest was the most successful, Julius “Groucho” Marx, who was, you guessed it, a middle child.
Back to the Colt brothers. Most were travelers; Ned became a foreign correspondent for NBC and in his youth spent time on a cattle ranch in Argentina. George, himself, went to Paris trying to imitate the stereotypical poet. Harry became a doctor and worked for a time on a Zuni reservation. Only Mark, the youngest stuck to home, but he worked as the recycling manager at a school for the blind. Ned wasn’t the youngest, but there are several years between him and Mark, which made him fit the baby of the family role.
Some of the other brothers touched upon are Jesse and Frank James, Henry and William James, Saul Bellow and brothers, The Kennedys etc., etc.
3.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating stories about historical personalities!
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 29, 2021
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Full disclosure, I grew up in the middle poor in a family of five boys and two girls so I was naturally eager to read this book. The stories of the brothers other than the author’s family are extremely interesting. Not so the author’s family. His personal story reeks of money and privilege when it talks about boarding school, Harvard, summers on Cape Cod, golf, tennis, croquet, Paris, ski weekends, TV station internship, and foreign language quotes. Every family should have his problems! My advice is to skip the chapters about the author’s family and enjoy the rest of the book.
5.0 out of 5 stars Sibling rivalry and love
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 14, 2015
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George Howe Colt was nominated for the National Book Award for The Big House, which chronicles a family summer home through three generations of his family. That book was intensely personal, and in Brothers, Colt uses a similar conceit, interleaving stories of famous brothers with those of his own childhood growing up with three brothers (and no sisters). The famous brothers he chooses to profile are colorful and interesting (John Wilkes and Edwin Booth; the Kellogg brothers; Theo and Vincent Van Gogh; the Marx Brothers; and John and Henry Thoreau), and the emotions raised by their stories run the gamut from tragic to infuriating to comical. He also intersperses scientific findings about the effects of birth order, sibling rivalry, and sibling death. Behind it all is the story of his own family’s struggles and eventual redemption. This is one of the most satisfying books I have read in a long time.
About George Howe Coltl Author Of Brothers pdf Book
George Howe Colt is the bestselling author Of Brothers pdf Book, which was a National Book Award finalist and a New York Times notable book. He is married to the American author Anne Fadiman and lives with his family in Western Massachusetts.
Brothers pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : Scribner; First Edition (November 27, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1416547770
- ISBN-13 : 978-1416547778
- Item Weight : 1.4 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,881,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #948 in Sibling Relationships (Books)
- #40,791 in Historical Biographies (Books)
- #83,818 in Memoirs (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 4.2 out of 5 stars 33 ratings
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