Phoenix: A Brother's Life

J.D. Dolan

ISBN 10: 0375403426 / ISBN 13: 9780375403422

Edité par Knopf, 2000

A propos de cet article

A memoir of impeccable beauty--funny, sad, wise--about brotherhood, family, and the domestic arc of American life since the shiny-bright fifties. At the edge of the desert, in Los Angeles, J.D. Dolan grew up in the postwar boom of hopeful plenty, in a family not unlike those everyone watched on TV: Mom at home, Dad at work, the kids tantalized by teenage freedoms and adult responsibilities. The youngest of five, J.D.--Jay--found a second set of parents in his oldest brother and sister, whose great advantage was in being far cooler. John, in particular, was his hero, teaching him to fish and shoot, to ride motorcycles, to want to be a grown-up, a soldier, a man. Such dreams aren't made to come true, or not for long. Despite all this glorious promise, the Dolans were eventually battered by silence, resentment, misdirection, and, years later, by John's death in a horrific explosion. In re-creating both expectant childhood and adult regret, Dolan confronts and redeems his family's complications and failures, and grants literary permanence to a personal history--at once elusive, distressing, and magical--at the heart of the American dream. 'This book rises from the ashes,' Mary Karr has written, 'and takes a reader with it.'.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9780375403422

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Phoenix: A Brother's Life
• Éditeur: Knopf
• Date de parution: 2000
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0375403426
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780375403422
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: New

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Book by Dolan JD

Présentation de l'éditeur

A beautifully rendered portrait of family and loss, of childhood and manhood by a supremely gifted writer evaluating the sum of his experiences and emerging with a moving work of the highest level.

J. D. Dolan was vacationing in Paris when he received a telephone call telling him to fly home immediately. A horrible accident had put his big brother John in a Phoenix burn unit with third degree burns over 90 percent of his body. As a child in 1960s Los Angeles, J. D. shared with John the unspoken bond that exists only between brothers. But as time passed and their excursions together ended, so did their conversation. For reasons known to John alone, they existed with each other only in silence, and now, in what would be their final days together, there would be precious few opportunities to talk. Phoenix is J. D. Dolan's personal reflections on the agonizing weeks spent coming to terms with his brother's fate, and his attempt to bring their relationship into perspective.