Plot
In the sequel, Henry David "Hank" Levy (nicknamed "Doc" and " Scylla"), brother of '' Marathon Mans protagonist Thomas Babington "Tom" Levy (a.k.a. "Babe"), survives his stabbing. The plot concerns an effort to instigate World War III by means of simultaneous, worldwide terrorist attacks, which Scylla attempts to stop. Scylla's job is to kill American scientists who made three inventions meant to give the United States a military advantage against the Soviet Union. There are two factions in the U.S. government, the Bloodies, advocating war, and Godists, who wish for more peaceful methods. Scylla initially convalesces on an island, as he had been in recovery for a decade. He later goes to New York State, both New York City and Upstate New York. AtBackground
Goldman later recalled, "I'd written one sequel before, which was ''Father's Day'', and I had this notion that Doc wasn't dead and I thought, 'Shit, I'll bring him back and see what happens.' Goldman stopped writing novels after the publication of ''Brothers'':It was one of those funny things. It just ended. It came as a shock to me. I don't know what happened. My wife left me the next year and that certainly was a change... When I was a novelist - those thirty years - something comes along and hits you and you think, 'Oh my God, that might be interesting,' but I haven't had an idea for that for twenty years now. If I started writing a novel tomorrow it wouldn't shock me because, as we all know, it's all instinctive.Goldman wrote 16 published novels in the 30 years from 1957 though 1986. Though he lived another 32 years after ''Brothers'' appeared, he never wrote another novel.
Characters
*Henry David "Doc" Levy a.k.a. Scylla - The main character, he is rescued from the events in ''Marathon Man'' and recovers. He no longer has fingerprints, he received a facelift, and his voice is different. Ma Perkins crafts him so he can be an assassin that cannot be tracked down. Kirkus Reviews described him as "Reception
Woodrell described it as "a fast-paced, mayhem-filled, occasionally funny, frequently clever novel." Lochte called it "Sneaky, diabolic, a bit depraved, disturbing, maddening, heartbreaking, manipulative and fascinating." '' Kirkus Reviews'' stated that "Goldman's slick delivery ..rovides fairly painless reading" but that ''Brothers'' did not have "the memorable punch of Marathon Man." Lehmann-Haupt wrote that the author "bewilders us as to his ultimate aims, and seeks to keep us entertained in the meantime with gimmicks" but that it does not " uzzle the readerconstructively." The '' West Coast Review of Books'' ranked it three of five stars (a "good" review) and stated that it was "a bona fide page-turner." Dobyns said ''Brothers'' "is hardly a novel at all but a comic book without pictures, something along the lines of '' Masters of the Universe''. Even the characters have similar names... tisn't a novel at all but a book about killing." ''Publishers Weekly'' also gave a negative review, stating that it was not a good sequel and "the book's basic premise fails to hold together." Murray wrote that it was mostly "disjointed and agonizingly slow" even though the author used "wit, much of it directed at his own wildly imaginative ploys." Goldman himself later called it "a not-very-terrific book."References
Further reading
*Egan, Sean, ''William Goldman: The Reluctant Storyteller'', Bear Manor Media 2014.External links
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