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tommooney's review
4.0
This was a hell of a lot of fun. Like a modern day western, this wild tale manages to be both a great adventure, a tender story of brotherly love and at times absolutely hilarious.
Reads like a mix of Patrick deWitt, Annie Proulx and Johnny Cash. My only reservation is that it's a teeny bit long, maybe could have been 50 or 60 pages shorter.
Still, it's great adventure writing.
Reads like a mix of Patrick deWitt, Annie Proulx and Johnny Cash. My only reservation is that it's a teeny bit long, maybe could have been 50 or 60 pages shorter.
Still, it's great adventure writing.
liisp_cvr2cvr's review
3.0
If you would like to experience good storytelling, then pick up a copy of No Good Brother and allow Tim Harding, the older brother of Jake, tell you exactly what happened… No Good Brother is an interesting mix of thrilling, at times dangerous, adventure delivered through the prism of humour. Tim and Jake are an example of brothers where, as individuals, one is the voice of reason and the other is a magnet for trouble. Put these two together and a number of things can happen- sometimes the voice of reason wins over, sometimes the ties are cut… Tim and Jake together- well, they could create month’s worth of material for America’s Funniest Home Videos. There was quite a few laugh out loud moments for me…
No human being is alike, even when it comes to siblings and it is so that the older brother Tim gets sucked into Jake’s shenanigans. Since a tragic life-changing moment in the brothers’ lives, their paths went in opposite directions. Tim went and got a job on a boat, Jake went and got himself landed in prison. Now Jake is back and he needs to pay back some favours to the Delaney gang. Tim, being the big brother that he is, naturally wants to help Jake even though I kind of felt there was some serious guilt-tripping involved.
No Good Brother really delivers on what it promises. An epic adventure headlining two brothers, a quality racehorse, a boat, border control, hen party and the dangerous Delaney gang. As I would not want to ruin the surprise element for any potential readers, I can only say that my imagination failed my expectations- what the two brothers get mixed into is, frankly put, mental! And yet, no matter how unbelievably crazy the story gets, the beauty of this book lies in the author’s ability to set the scenes through Tim’s storytelling. Wrapped into an observant and descriptive prose, the trek across land and sea is peppered with as much tension as it is with comic relief…
Loyalties and laws are broken as the two brothers journey to pay back a debt to the Delaney gang, and as they aim to do just that- pay a debt- Tim and Jake reminisce about their family’s tragic past and discover some unexpected truths which add a new level of risk and fear to the already dangerous situation.
What can I say- it was an interesting book. I laughed and at times groaned at the brothers’ silliness; mostly I enjoyed the descriptions which helped set the scenes. It was one of those books that allowed me to sit back and relax without having to think too much. There’s no mystery, there’s no who dunnit, there’s no hidden agendas… it’s a straightforward adventure beefed up with one of the most dynamic brotherly relationships to prove that blood is always thicker than water and family always comes first, no matter how hopeless a situation will get.
Sneaking off felt shady and dishonest but those were feelings I generally associated with my brother, and any plan of his which involved me.
No human being is alike, even when it comes to siblings and it is so that the older brother Tim gets sucked into Jake’s shenanigans. Since a tragic life-changing moment in the brothers’ lives, their paths went in opposite directions. Tim went and got a job on a boat, Jake went and got himself landed in prison. Now Jake is back and he needs to pay back some favours to the Delaney gang. Tim, being the big brother that he is, naturally wants to help Jake even though I kind of felt there was some serious guilt-tripping involved.
No Good Brother really delivers on what it promises. An epic adventure headlining two brothers, a quality racehorse, a boat, border control, hen party and the dangerous Delaney gang. As I would not want to ruin the surprise element for any potential readers, I can only say that my imagination failed my expectations- what the two brothers get mixed into is, frankly put, mental! And yet, no matter how unbelievably crazy the story gets, the beauty of this book lies in the author’s ability to set the scenes through Tim’s storytelling. Wrapped into an observant and descriptive prose, the trek across land and sea is peppered with as much tension as it is with comic relief…
The truth is, my loyalty to my brother was so strong that I would have gone along with pretty much any plan, no matter how dumb or foolhardy or crazy, no matter what.
Loyalties and laws are broken as the two brothers journey to pay back a debt to the Delaney gang, and as they aim to do just that- pay a debt- Tim and Jake reminisce about their family’s tragic past and discover some unexpected truths which add a new level of risk and fear to the already dangerous situation.
What can I say- it was an interesting book. I laughed and at times groaned at the brothers’ silliness; mostly I enjoyed the descriptions which helped set the scenes. It was one of those books that allowed me to sit back and relax without having to think too much. There’s no mystery, there’s no who dunnit, there’s no hidden agendas… it’s a straightforward adventure beefed up with one of the most dynamic brotherly relationships to prove that blood is always thicker than water and family always comes first, no matter how hopeless a situation will get.
nigelbrown's review
4.0
“The funniest book I’ve read in years…”
It’s not funny.
The protagonists are possibly, the two dumbest people on the planet, it would not be possible to make that many dumb decisions consecutively, without making any sensible ones, but I guess that’s one of the reasons it’s such an enjoyable read.
I can see why some readers would find it funny with the mess, confusion and slapstick, also how it might just work on celluloid, so what I should say, is, I…. Didn’t find it funny.
Fun, but not funny.
It’s not funny.
The protagonists are possibly, the two dumbest people on the planet, it would not be possible to make that many dumb decisions consecutively, without making any sensible ones, but I guess that’s one of the reasons it’s such an enjoyable read.
I can see why some readers would find it funny with the mess, confusion and slapstick, also how it might just work on celluloid, so what I should say, is, I…. Didn’t find it funny.
Fun, but not funny.
dianelaw's review
4.0
A story of family loyalty.
I found the book, told in the first person, was well written and engaging - starting off slowly and building to a big crescendo.
You really got to know the main characters but I was exasperated at how they could consistently make such bad decisions. It was probably meant to be funny but I just found it to be frustrating.
I enjoyed that it took place in and around Vancouver.
I found the book, told in the first person, was well written and engaging - starting off slowly and building to a big crescendo.
You really got to know the main characters but I was exasperated at how they could consistently make such bad decisions. It was probably meant to be funny but I just found it to be frustrating.
I enjoyed that it took place in and around Vancouver.
katheastman's review
4.0
No Good Brother gets off to a leisurely start as we see the boat Tim crews on winding down after the herring season. You get a real sense of how important this boat is to the family business which operates it and how the crew works together like a family, whether they’re related by blood or not. Tim’s made himself invaluable as a crew member and is being coaxed into becoming a more permanent part of the actual family at the heart of it.
Which is when his younger brother, Jake, turns up and things take a detour out to sea and across the border… It’s easy to see Jake as the No Good Brother of the title but once Tim has (admittedly reluctantly) agreed to help his brother and they get underway, he often seems the more incorrigible of the two and the one that’s driving the action forward, making it harder to turn back and attempt any form of reparation or escape the almost certain punishment or worse that awaits them. They are despite their differences, both as bad as each other which is perhaps what’s meant by No Good Brother.
Even without knowing about their past shared sorrow, I think I would have championed this pair of scoundrels though. I couldn’t help but warm to them: I laughed at each madcap episode, while also willing them to get away with it. Especially when they come up against more sinister forces in the book. This is no doubt helped by spending time with them as well as what they find once they cross the border, and how they react to it. And a hat tip here to Tyler Keevil’s fresh take on the rescuer on a white horse trope.
If you enjoyed Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers, I think you’ll like No Good Brother. It feels like a good buddy road trip movie in book form except they’re brothers, most of the time they’re at sea in a boat and, even when they are on land, their transport is more off-road than on. No Good Brother is a wonderful, wild ride of a read: packed full of emotion and brotherly love, moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity alongside those of real danger. Loved it.
Which is when his younger brother, Jake, turns up and things take a detour out to sea and across the border… It’s easy to see Jake as the No Good Brother of the title but once Tim has (admittedly reluctantly) agreed to help his brother and they get underway, he often seems the more incorrigible of the two and the one that’s driving the action forward, making it harder to turn back and attempt any form of reparation or escape the almost certain punishment or worse that awaits them. They are despite their differences, both as bad as each other which is perhaps what’s meant by No Good Brother.
Even without knowing about their past shared sorrow, I think I would have championed this pair of scoundrels though. I couldn’t help but warm to them: I laughed at each madcap episode, while also willing them to get away with it. Especially when they come up against more sinister forces in the book. This is no doubt helped by spending time with them as well as what they find once they cross the border, and how they react to it. And a hat tip here to Tyler Keevil’s fresh take on the rescuer on a white horse trope.
If you enjoyed Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers, I think you’ll like No Good Brother. It feels like a good buddy road trip movie in book form except they’re brothers, most of the time they’re at sea in a boat and, even when they are on land, their transport is more off-road than on. No Good Brother is a wonderful, wild ride of a read: packed full of emotion and brotherly love, moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity alongside those of real danger. Loved it.
riverwise's review
5.0
The last Tyler Keevil novel I read was his phantasmagorical road trip The Drive, which I hugely enjoyed. This is a different beast, one much more grounded in reality, but it's just as good a read. Our narrator is a fisherman, working a difficult but above board life until his brother, out of jail and involved with some gangsters, shows up needing his help....that's all the plot description you're going to get, because the twists, turns and reveals of the novel are half the fun. Basically, if you like Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska album, you're going to love this. It captures that same sense of hardscrabble lives, of trying to live the best you can under impossible circumstances. One of the epigraphs at the beginning is from the song Highway Patrolman, and it's perfect for this tale of brotherly loyalty trumping the sensible and safe, frankly better, alternatives. Sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's (darkly) funny, sometimes it's unbearably tense, but it's always very very readable.
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