THE BROTHER YEARS

A determined but pugnacious lower-class family strives to cling to its perch in an upscale suburb.

As Willie Brennan, the narrator of Burke’s fourth novel, prepares to enter high school, he’s feeling ill at ease with his surroundings. He’s in open conflict with his smart, athletic, and bullying older brother, Coyle, who delivers regular beatings. His father is a taskmaster to his wife and four children while straining to make ends meet working multiple jobs. And though they’re hanging on in Seneca, a wealthy Chicago suburb, Willie receives constant reminders that he belongs to “the weird, poor family in the rich neighborhood.” In time, Willie will endure the ostracism and entitlement of his peers, bemoan dad’s ill-advised schemes to keep money flowing and maintain peace in the home, and do a stint in juvie. Burke wants to tell this story with a light touch while managing serious themes of class divisions and abuse, a circle he squares by having Willie tell this story from a nostalgic perspective. (The novel opens in 1979.) It’s not an entirely effective strategy; the conflict between Willie and Coyle seems to merit a darker treatment, mom and the younger siblings add little to the story, and some incidents are sitcom-simple (the time dad bought a boat, the time dad met Bob Seger…). Willie’s character has the virtue of being cleareyed and candid: He thoughtfully recalls how a climactic tennis match revealed just how much a rich kid can get away with and how dad’s head-down work ethic blinded him and his children to more complex social dynamics. Willie finishes his sophomore year wiser, if not exactly triumphant: “Almost despite myself, I had learned how to operate in that rich-kid world.” It’s all rich novel fodder but unevenly executed.

A seriocomic coming-of-age story that labors to balance the "serio" and "comic."