About The Book:
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 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 - the angry, abusive father and the tragic death of their mother
- and finally, to 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.
Review:
Bart Yates burns up the pages
with a writing style that very rapidly becomes addictive. He is able to say
more in a short paragraph that most writers can say in a chapter. There is a
sense of presence in his style that seduces the reader into the feeling of
being in the same space as his characters, making the story flow smoothly and
far too quickly!
And what characters
he as created in THE BROTHERS BISHOP! Nathan, the older, still lives an near
hermetic existence in his hometown of Walcott, Connecticut, in the same house
where he spent his childhood with his younger brother Tommy, their mother who
died in a freak accident of choking when the boys were small, their father who
after the death of the mother became a cruel and abusive parent. The father is
now dead and Nathan maintains the house intact, teaching school in the local
high school, trying to find happiness as a gay man without a partner.
Into this milieu
enters Tommy (now living in New York) together with his current squeeze Philip
(Tommy has a history of torrid but brief gay relationships), and a young
married couple Kyle and Camille (Kyle is a closeted gay man). They intend to
spend two summer weeks at the beach but the 'vacation' is far from relaxing.
Tommy soon takes notice of Simon, Kyle's 15-yer-old student (whose won father
is abusive and just happens to be the new District Attorney) and in time
progresses toward a disastrous liaison. Nathan struggles with yet another
intrusion into his privacy with the entrance of an archeological dig in his
cornfield, and that crimp in his privacy is heightened by the madness of Tommy
with Philip moving toward dissolution of a shallow relationship mirrored by
Kyle and Camille when Kyle gets far too involved with his physical needs with
men. Despite Nathan's warnings to Tommy that he is headed toward trouble with
his behavior with Simon, the inevitable happens and tragedy ensues for both of
the brothers.
One of the stunning
aspects of this fine novel is Yates' concept of brotherhood that binds Nathan
and Tommy, a brotherhood that has no equal in contemporary literature. The
brothers truly love each other and struggle through their childhood with an
abusive father, finding solace with each other, even to the point that they
carry on a mutually successful sex life with each other. In some writers' hands
this topic of incestuous relationship would be ruinous: in Yates hands he gives
us one of the most beautifully rich bondings that is equally sensuous and
spiritual. The boys are both so desperate to be loved that they find
satisfaction in each other ... and a few memories of their mother's love.
Nathan: 'I was only four years old, and I had never known what love really was
until the day I saw my mother singing to my brother. Before then it was only a
word, just an abstract concept I confused with simple affection. But that was
the day it became a reality, something palpable and awful and heart
stopping...If it doesn't drop you to your knees and make you shake like a set
dog, it's not love.'
With THE BROTHERS
BISHOP Yates confirms the promises made in LEAVE MYSELF BEHIND as one of the
more poignant and gifted writers, especially in gay fiction. It is one of those
books you hope never ends and when it ends with the heart-tugging tragedy Yates
has us by the throat. A finely written, intelligent, engrossing novel that begs
to be re-read. Highly Recommended.
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