Synopsis/blurb...
In All You Despise, Piccirilli’s characteristically lean prose grimly illustrates the high price of redemption and the violent limits of brotherly love.
When a nameless man awakens to find his blood-spattered brother passed out in his trailer it sets off a chain of painful, hard-hitting events that tests family loyalty and shows the savage impact of a father’s dark legacy.
Fast-paced and packing a visceral punch, All You Despise will keep the reader anxiously turning pages all the way to its unexpected conclusion.
Another hard-hitting novella from the late Tom Piccirilli that delivers heart as well as action.
Two brothers, one literally living with the words his late father left him - 'Take care of your brother.'
Danny, a violent drunk and neglectful father is now a killer courtesy of a drunken RTA that he can't even recall. His brother takes care of things. He is his carer, his mopper upper, his provider of a place to crash when he's too out of it to go home. Almost his enabler as Danny never takes responsibility for his actions and only ever offers insincere apologies and regrets.
Danny can't or won't reform and learn. SNAP! His brother takes care of him one more time, just maybe not what their father had quite envisaged.
Heart, character, family dynamics, elements of jealousy and coveting a brother's wife - I'm sure Moses had something written in stone about that.
I've enjoyed a few of Piccirilli's punchy novellas in the past. There's a lot more from him I want to read in the future. I'm still saddened by his untimely death in 2015. Taken way too early.
Read - (listened to) May, 2022
Published - 2010
Page count - 78 (1 hr 40 mins)
Source - Audible purchase
Format - Audible
This one does sound intense, Col. And there is something about that 'my brother's keeper' mindset. I can see how Danny's brother feels the compulsion to take care of him, to clean up his messes, and so on. It's an interesting phenomenon to explore, and I can see how that would appeal.
ReplyDeleteMargot, lots going on and the family dynamic is at the heart of it. I do like Piccirilli's work, more often than not.
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