We Were Brothers: A Memoir

by Barry Moser Narrated by Barry Moser

Overview

Brothers Barry and Tommy Moser were born of the same parents in Chattanooga, Tennessee, slept in the same bedroom, went to the same school, and were both poisoned by their family's deep racism and anti-Semitism. But as they grew older, their perspectives and their paths grew further and further apart. Barry left Chattanooga for New England and a life in the arts; Tommy stayed put and became a mortgage banker. From attitudes about race, to food, politics, and money, the brothers began to think so differently that they could no longer find common ground. For nearly forty years, there was more strife between them than affection. After one particularly fractious conversation when Barry was in his late fifties and Tommy was in his early sixties, their fragile relationship fell apart. With the raw emotions that so often surface when we talk of our siblings, Barry recalls how they were finally able to traverse that great divide and reconcile their troubled brotherhood before it was too late. We Were Brothers, written and illustrated by preeminent artist Barry Moser, is a powerful story of reunion told with candor and regret that captures the essence of sibling relationships, with all their complexities, contradictions, and mixed blessings.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“This boyhood memoir reveals much more than it ever explicitly states, with its tight focus on boyhood, brotherhood, estrangement, and reconciliation . . . With a prose style that is precise, understated, and that rarely veers toward sentimentality, Moser describes coming of age in Chattanooga in an era permeated by racism and where any sign of oddness or weakness encouraged bullying . . . With masterful narrative control, Moser reveals the narrowness of perspective as well as the limitations of memory.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Barry Moser writes about the savagery of racism and the savagery between brothers with thoughtful introspection. In his efforts to understand both what he did and what was done to him, he has given us a beautiful and deeply compassionate examination of life.” —Ann Patchett

“Barry Moser is a delightful storyteller--his descriptions of the time and place of his childhood are as vivid as his wonderful famed drawings. We Were Brothers is an honest and moving account that explores how differing beliefs can tear people apart; it also explores how a shared history and memories of a particular time can pave the way for acceptance and forgiveness.” —Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life

“We Were Brothers, Barry Moser’s beautiful--and beautifully illustrated--new book, tells the wrenching and redeeming story of brothers who take different paths and yet ultimately find their ways back to each other. Barry grows to be appalled by the racism he grew up accepting in Chattanooga, while Tommy, his angry and violent brother, embraces it. Their careful reconciliation after decades of strife and avoidance is sad, moving, and joyful all at the same time.” —Andrew Hudgins, author of The Joker

“We Were Brothers is a poignant look a twentieth-century Southern childhood, captured in all of its complexities both through words infused with a sly humor and drawings that convey their subjects’ souls. Beyond that, this is a narrative of difficult questions, as the author grapples with the experiences and ideals that drove the two Moser brothers apart. Ultimately, it’s a story of reconciliation, as well as a moving document of an inherited, inhabited world.” —Beth Ann Fennelly

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2015-06-03
This boyhood memoir reveals much more than it ever explicitly states, with its tight focus on boyhood, brotherhood, estrangement, and reconciliation. An art professor and National Book Award-winning illustrator (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 2011), Moser writes that his older brother, Tommy, was actually the better artist of the two. He was also more troubled, though when Tommy gets the climactic chance to speak (or write) in his own words, a different perspective emerges. "Most of my memories of that time have the visual qualities of dreams: the images are slightly out of focus and dissolve at the edge," writes the author. "The palette is muted and nearly void of color." With a prose style that is precise, understated, and that rarely veers toward sentimentality, Moser describes coming of age in Chattanooga in an era permeated by racism and where any sign of oddness or weakness encouraged bullying. Both boys carried a "chip of inferiority"—the author was fat, dyslexic, and not athletic; his brother had developmental problems that kept him behind in school. With his brother as instigator (in the author's memory), they fought so hard that the police once were summoned. Tommy dropped out of military school, remained an apparently unrepentant racist, and enjoyed more of a successful life than one might have expected. The author rejected the racism of his upbringing, studied theology, and became a preacher before he found renown as an artist (his illustrations highlight the chapters). Yet the narrative isn't simply that black and white—their mother's best, lifelong friend was black, and both boys enjoyed playing with a black friend—and a climactic exchange of letters suggests how deeply each brother had misjudged the other through their extended estrangement of adulthood. Before Tommy's death, they enjoyed eight years of a brotherhood they had never known before, and the author describes the book as "an homage to him as well as a history of our burdened brotherhood." With masterful narrative control, Moser reveals the narrowness of perspective as well as the limitations of memory.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170843015
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	10/20/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged

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