Fathers, sons, and brothers

the long version

Across three generations, and from one side of the continent to another, Bret Lott weaves together three generations of the men in his family: his father and his two uncles, his own two brothers, and his two sons. Swiftly and surely re-creating the moments of anger and love, work and play, intimacy and distance, he evokes the subtle ties that bind father to son and brother to brother. The similarities and differences between then and now, between father and son, shine with particular clarity, especially in the hands of a writer who can make the quietest moments of everyday life shout with joy or howl with pain.