Becoming Brothers

The suppression of rage between two American Jewish brothers--and how they yet managed to achieve reconciliation--is the subject of this deeply felt account of a sibling relationship. Now in their 50s, both published authors, Howard, a family therapist, and Arthur, a leader of the Jewish renewal movement, alternate in evoking family members and other inhabitants of the middle-class, Baltimore Jewish ghetto of their childhood, and in defining the complex origins of their deep hostility. Raised to be alike despite divergent temperaments, they only later understood how they had desperately ``wrestled for position and acceptance,'' especially from their strong-willed mother. Brought together by years of searching dialogue and by her final illness, they forged a new bond of respect and love culminating in this memorable book. Jewish Book Club alternate. (July)