The Brothers: 2a Novel

Weird ironies of American mass culture highlight the quandaries of characters reaching middle age in Barthelme's understated, low-key tale of filial relations and midlife crises set in contemporary Mississippi. Shortly before his 44th birthday, recently divorced Del Tribute relocates to Biloxi, where his brother Bud lives. But Bud is on the road to Hollywood, where he seeks revitalization and success, and Del finds himself sharing a house with his attractive sister-in-law Margaret. Their mutual affection rapidly goes beyond acceptable bounds, creating guilt, awkwardness and confusion upon Bud's return. While Del begins a new life that soon includes Jen, a sexy young true-crime buff, Bud and Margaret try to repair their marriage, and all four grapple with their changing relationships. Barthelme ( Natural Selection ) revisits familiar themes of love, sex, marital strife, divorce and midlife depression set against the landscape of postmodern America (from computer bulletin board services to mass advertising to roadside vendors) with his trademark precision, ear for trendy, idiomatic speech and eye for paradox. A slow, ruminative narrative written in spare, sardonic prose and packed with odd insights and up-to-the-minute detail, the novel is a leisurely tour through a milieu to which Barthelme is undoubtedly the foremost guide. (Sept.)