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I picked up this book for a number of reasons, one of the reasons being that I do not know much about relationships between brothers. I am a female-my brother has no brothers, and my husband and son have no brothers. So, I thought I could learn more about brothers from this book. Also, I grew up in New England, so I thought I could learn more about the experience of being raised in the south. I was somewhat disappointed in the book-numerous fights between the brothers were documented, and some s...
Worth a quick read, very short sentimental story about growing up in the south and growing apart.
A revealing and provocative memoir of an illustrator I've long admired and knew nothing about. Very candid accounting of his very southern upbringing and difficult sibling relationship.
This is a book that struck me as one that would have made more sense as a privately published memoir for family and friends. Barry Moser is a brilliant artist and illustrator but a poor writer to my mind and ear. This is ostensibly the story of two siblings who grow up in the same prejudiced Southern household but go in very different directions with their careers and where they live (Barry in New England and his brother, Tommy, still down South). Barry's experiences growing up cause him to look...
"We Were Brothers" is a beautifully written memoir of 2 young brothers raised in the South in the 40's and 50's. Barry Moser writes eloquently about the time period and his family. Racism was a fact of life, even when not a fact of heart. It was understood and to a certain point, expected, by both blacks and whites. Barry mourns the fact that he and his brother, Tommy, never really close, are so different in attitudes, and that the gap between them is large. During his late 50's, he writes his b...
Memory and perspective. Bullying and its effects. Racial prejudice and the mixed messages received by brothers raised near Chattanooga, Tennessee. I am sure many of us realize how complicated relationships between siblings can be. Raised in the same house, our memories can be different, our experiences perceived differently. So it was between Barry and Tommy Moser. Bad experiences at military school and the long term effects. Physical fights between the brothers, with Barry, the younger most oft...
The tone of this book is highly conversational. I felt like Barry Moser was sitting next to me, telling me his stories. But what would be fine in conversation doesn't translate well to memoir.This book read like a collection of anecdotes--stories that might be interesting to family members, or those who grew up in Chattanooga in the 1940s/1950s, but I found it hard to connect. About halfway through the book I wanted to stop because it didn't seem like the story that was promised on the book jack...
This book turned out to just be OK for me. Although the author is a well known illustrator, I don't think his writing skills are quite up to the same par. Although I enjoyed learning about the increasingly strained relationship with his brother and it's eventual resolution, the story seemed to jump around from one incident to another...not very linear. Anyway--it was a quick read and my last one for this year!!!
Barry Moser is primarily known for his illustrations, some of which can be found on the pages of We Were Brothers. However, they are not the main focus of this memoir, which revisits over six decades of Barry's mostly fraught relationship with his older brother Tommy. Growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, both brothers were regularly exposed to the racism that is stereotypical of the South. (Note: seeing the South as a backwards, racist place is how people living in 98% White towns in New Englan...
As I had many times seen the pleasure Barry Moser’s art brought to children and adults alike I was eager to read his memoir. Of course, after years of admiring his work I had a picture of Moser the man in my mind - it was far from the truth. Born in Chattanooga at a time when the city was rife with racism and anti-Semitism Moser also found these views expressed in his own home and accepted by his older brother, Tommy. This created a rift between the two that widened with the years. In the schoo
Very evocative and moving. Moser's strong and lucid voice brings family tensions, political debates and rural America into intense relief; the characters are strong and beautifully drawn. The pull between loving and hating in families is truly well wrought. Highly recommended.
This book was released this month, but I read an advance reader copy. I am often disappointed by the marketing blurbs that are on the backs of ARCs because they are so sensationalized as to make you think you read a different book than described. I think that these blurbs oft times are dismissive of the work the author has actually done. This came close to being like that for me. Barry Moser is a renowned and award winning illustrator and his writing is gentle storytelling. There is drama in som...
This book was okay, I don't regret having read it--my criterion for a 2-star rating. Not something I would recommend to anyone else, though (a shame, too, because it's by a local author). To my recollection, I felt as if I was reading a stranger's musings about his life without his offering anything useful or particularly thought provoking to me in return. Moser's life story wasn't interesting enough to me to make this an enjoyable read on its own merits.
WE WERE BROTHERS; the audio bookBarry Moser Known best for his wonderful paintings and engravings that enliven scores of children's books. Moser now proves to be a gifted storyteller bringing his southern, racist childhood to life. Ostensibly about his brother, Tommy, this memoir captures the life of Chattanooga among the lower classes--both white and black--in the 1940s and 50s. Moser recounts in painterly detail his upbringing in two main lines of development: his life as younger sibling to...
This was a readable, but weird little book. It centers on the sibling rivalries and conflicts the author had with his brother, Tommy. While interesting, I felt as if I was intruding on a private family argument and should excuse myself. A side theme is the racism of his family and of Chattanooga, TN, in general. Moser's family never had any confrontations with their black neighbors, and, in fact, were very close friends with one black woman. Yet they were still virulent racists and convinced tha...
Read this while in the midst of an 'Equality for All' unit, teaching Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl with my 8th graders. Truly appreciate the honesty Barry Moser puts forth, as well as the clearly natural use of higher vocabulary.
In "We Were Brothers", Moser Barry shares with us a very personal and poignant part of his life. Inspite of the many successes, the failure to bond with his sibling troubles him till the end. He couldn't escape his brother's actions caused by an inferiority complex, which his brother carried most of his life. It is the story about the differences between two brothers, their estrangement and reconciliation in their twilight years.My takeaway:“Love is not love that can only love those already flaw...
We had met Barry Moser at the Brandywine River Museum a number of years ago when he had an exhibit there. Both his art and his talk were wonderful. I especially like the etchings he did for a King James Bible . . . spectacular. We have watched the movie about the making of that Bible (A Thief Among the Angels: Barry Moser and The Making of The Pennyroyal Caxton Bible) and I have a copy of it. When I saw that he had written this book, I was glad to buy and read it. He isa very interesting man.
I was not overly impressed by this book. I thought it was going to be more about how they came to have different beliefs, instead it was a book about sibling rivalry and them coming to understand each other the last few years of their lives.
A memoir of two brothers with very little in common whose division grows deeper after one leaves the south and turns from the racism that was part and parcel of their upbringing. Ultimately, their love for each other allows them to forge a truce, which while hard won remained tenuous and superficial.