(187 pages)
From the acclaimed author of "Cut" comes this new novel that explores the anguish of living with divided loyalties and the cost of keeping family secrets, as a young teen struggles to keep his family together when his father abandons them.
My Brothers keeper is the story of a single parent family consisting of mom, Eli who is slightly strange, has a bike called Tonto and a female cat called Mr Furry, Jake who has fallen into 'bad company' decided that his beloved baseball is uncool and started using drugs and finally Toby, a 13 year old who is going grey and whose best friend is the local shopkeeper called Mr. D (who also happens to be a pensioner). It is Toby who takes it upon himself to try and hold his family together after his alcoholic father left. He does so by covering up for his older brother Jake and hiding his moms bill because he knows she cant afford to pay them.Unfortunately Toby's best intentions dont always work out quite to plan and the family nearly enters meltdown before too long.
Patricia McCormick has succeeded in bringing to the fore the problems faced by teens today with regard to the availability of drugs and the hassles they can bring to a family. She also manages to touch upon the breakdown that can occur when one parent leaves, and the emotional turmoil that can be caused and what further problems it can lead to.
However, as good as the story was and as touching and likeable Toby appeared, the book seemed to be lacking a depth that would have allowed the reader to get more inside the world of the disintegrating family. The book is aimed at younger teenagers, so this may be the reason for the apparent surface nature of the drug abuse, but a great opportunity was missed to investigate and explore the sheer destructive nature of the problem at hand. I feel that the message could have been got across more clearly if the story had continued on further into 'what happened next'.
Overall this was an easy, likeable and touching read, bnut it was lacking some depth.
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