Brothers (Goldman novel)

Brothers

First edition
Author William Goldman
Country United States
Language English
Publisher Warner Books
Publication date
 1986
Pages 310
ISBN 0-446-51279-6

Brothers is a thriller novel by William Goldman. It is the sequel to his 1972 novel Marathon Man and as of 2015, is Goldman's last novel.

Goldman later called it "a not-very-terrific book."[1]

Plot

In the sequel, Doc "Scylla" Levy, brother of Marathon Man's protagonist Babe Levy, survives his stabbing. The plot concerns an effort to instigate World War III by means of simultaneous, worldwide terrorist attacks, which Scylla attempts to stop.[2]

Background

Goldman later recalled, "I'd written one sequel before, which was Father's Day, and I had this notion that Doc wasn't dead and I thought, 'Shit, I'll bring him back and see what happens.'[3]

Goldman stopped writing novels after the publication of Brothers:

It was one of those funny things. It just ended. It came as a shock to me. I don't know what happened. My wife left me the next year and that certainly was a change... When I was a novelist - those thirty years - something comes along and hits you and you think, 'Oh my God, that might be interesting,' but I haven't had an idea for that for twenty years now. If I started writing a novel tomorrow it wouldn't shock me because, as we all know, it's all instinctive.[4]

Reception

The New York Times said said Brothers "is hardly a novel at all but a comic book without pictures, something along the lines of Masters of the Universe. Even the characters have similar names... [it] isn't a novel at all but a book about killing."[5] The Los Angeles Times called it "Sneaky, diabolic, a bit depraved, disturbing, maddening, heartbreaking, manipulative and fascinating."[6]

References

  1. ↑ Argent, Daniel (5 March 2015). "“Nobody Knows Anything” – William Goldman". Creative Screenwriting.
  2. ↑ 'Brothers by William Goldman' (Warner: $17.95; 320 pp.) Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 17 May 1987: K6.
  3. ↑ Egan p 206
  4. ↑ Egan p 212
  5. ↑ Dobyns, Stephen (February 15, 1987). "MA'S PERFECT KILLER". New York Times.
  6. ↑ Lochte, Dick (May 17, 1987). "Brothers by William Goldman". Los Angeles Times.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.