BROTHERS

by Ben Bova

first published 1995.

When I first examined Brothers I was a bit dismayed to find its construction utilizing the "different chapter, different viewpoint" technique, the very same style which had forced me to read Monsarrat's Kapillan Of Maltain two unsatisfying operations... all the odds, and then all the evens.
But Ben Bova has done a rather better job with what is, in fact, a very difficult technique. His chapters are short, so that the reader does not lose the thread of the narrative, and the register and voice of each viewpoint's dialogue is authentically maintained. Even the many flashback or flash-forward sequences are well signalled and slip seamlessly into the structure. Perhaps those of my reviewing colleagues at Amazon, who so panned this work, should try their hand at this genre....Folks, it is harder than it looks, and Bova has done it well!

Working in pharmacy, and also serving, from time to time, on a panel which examines potential names for newly patented prototype medications, I was naturally interested in the medical research background to this story...and could well imagine the authenticity of the underlying conflicts as the factions representing medical and social ethics, political aspirations, avarice versus selflessness, and humanitarianism versus personal ambition fought it out against a University laboratory background ...test tubes at ten paces!

The theme of genetic modification , in this case the viability of empowering the human body to grow its own replacement parts,thus requiring no donor organs and no surgery, is probably even more keenly debated now than when this book was written five years ago...and the points this book makes, or leaves for us to ponder, are still the subject of much media exploration, and a lot of bandwagonning and bandstanding!!.....

The brothers of the story, Arthur, the protective elder, and Jesse , the indulged younger, represent the conflict of research for financial gain versus research to aid the poor and needy...though, as in real life, the two philosophies waver, weaken at times, even change direction, the whole issue complicated by the fact that both men have been engaged to the same woman, but only one has married her!

Add to this a few potboiler subplots.......a mother dying of cancer, too late for the research to help her, a suicidal, cancer-prone genetic researcher in love with the lab's experimental , near-human chimp, an ultrasound that predicts a spina-bifida child (who COULD be helped), an evangelizing clergymen, ambitious politicians, lobbying academic factions,, patent-poaching foreign firms, agressive journalists, the inevitable animal-rights liberationists , some dramatic courtroom detail..and you have something for everyone here!!

And with the New York background so vividly described, and the details of each character's appearance, wardrobe and restaurant selections made so available to us, one need almost not wait for the movie to be made.... except that one has the sneaking suspicion that Bova intended this novel to be televised.......pity Paul Newman and Robert Redford are getting a bit long in the tooth.....Suppose we'll just have to settle for Tom Cruise and Hugh Grant...and a fake New York accent!!

READ "BROTHERS BY BEN BOVA...IT ISN'T AS BAD AS EVERYONE SAYS!!
DARE I ADMIT I ENJOYED IT?

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	When I first examined Brothers I was a bit dismayed to find its construction utilizing the "different chapter, different viewpoint" technique, the very same style which had forced me to read Monsarrat's Kapillan Of Maltain two unsatisfying operations... all the odds, and then all the evens. But Ben Bova has done a rather better job with what is, in fact, a very difficult technique. His chapters are short, so that the reader does not lose the thread of the narrative, and the register and voice of each viewpoint's dialogue is authentically maintained. Even the many flashback or flash-forward sequences are well signalled and slip seamlessly into the structure. Perhaps those of my reviewing colleagues at Amazon, who so panned this work, should try their hand at this genre....Folks, it is harder than it looks, and Bova has done it well!
	Working in pharmacy, and also serving, from time to time, on a panel which examines potential names for newly patented prototype medications, I was naturally interested in the medical research background to this story...and could well imagine the authenticity of the underlying conflicts as the factions representing medical and social ethics, political aspirations, avarice versus selflessness, and humanitarianism versus personal ambition fought it out against a University laboratory background ...test tubes at ten paces!
	The theme of genetic modification , in this case the viability of empowering the human body to grow its own replacement parts,thus requiring no donor organs and no surgery, is probably even more keenly debated now than when this book was written five years ago...and the points this book makes, or leaves for us to ponder, are still the subject of much media exploration, and a lot of bandwagonning and bandstanding!!.....
	The brothers of the story, Arthur, the protective elder, and Jesse , the indulged younger, represent the conflict of research for financial gain versus research to aid the poor and needy...though, as in real life, the two philosophies waver, weaken at times, even change direction, the whole issue complicated by the fact that both men have been engaged to the same woman, but only one has married her!
	Add to this a few potboiler subplots.......a mother dying of cancer, too late for the research to help her, a suicidal, cancer-prone genetic researcher in love with the lab's experimental , near-human chimp, an ultrasound that predicts a spina-bifida child (who COULD be helped), an evangelizing clergymen, ambitious politicians, lobbying academic factions,, patent-poaching foreign firms, agressive journalists, the inevitable animal-rights liberationists , some dramatic courtroom detail..and you have something for everyone here!!
	And with the New York background so vividly described, and the details of each character's appearance, wardrobe and restaurant selections made so available to us, one need almost not wait for the movie to be made.... except that one has the sneaking suspicion that Bova intended this novel to be televised.......pity Paul Newman and Robert Redford are getting a bit long in the tooth.....Suppose we'll just have to settle for Tom Cruise and Hugh Grant...and a fake New York accent!!
	READ "BROTHERS BY BEN BOVA...IT ISN'T AS BAD AS EVERYONE SAYS!! DARE I ADMIT I ENJOYED IT?