Book review: ‘The Brothers Bishop’ by Bart Yates

Unpredictable, emotional, unsettling, relatable on many unexpected levels… Bart Yates’ debut novel is a wonderfully written piece of fiction dealing with the complexity of family history, identity and sexuality, written from the perspective of a deeply introverted man. 

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“The Brothers Bishop” turned out to be a perfect summer read for me, as I love books set in small towns with quirky and troubled characters. A lovely beach cottage on the sandy shore of the Atlantic Ocean serves as the background to dramatic, sexually-charged events triggered by the arrival of Nathan’s younger brother Tommy who’d left the town some years ago. Tommy brings along a group of friends who invade Nathan’s beach house, turning his lonesome, quiet life upside down. As it soon transpires, each one of the visitors came with a lot of baggage other than their suitcases. Old wounds are reopened, there’s a lot of bitchiness and resentment all around, mixed with genuine love and care. Then there are other people, Nathan’s students, as well as old family friends and foes who contribute to the story with their own additional, yet well linked narratives.

Both brothers have personal issues, to say the least. Nathan decided to stay in town, eventually becoming a high school teacher, seemingly content with living as a recluse. Tommy, on the other hand, left for the big city, changing jobs almost as frequently as his sexual partners. In spite of great differences between them, both go on living with memories of their late father’s cruel abusive behaviour towards them, and of their mother’s untimely death. Then there are things they did to and with each other: I don’t think the word “incest” was mentioned at any point in the book, but the Bishops as teenagers used to be all over each other. It’s interesting how the author normalizes it (perhaps even celebrates it, as an expression of the brothers’ defiance), while at the same time making it the underlying cause of subsequent tragic events. It’s the siblings’ original sin, as it were, tainting them for life. Love between the Bishops both binds and unravels, consoles and injures, liberates and oppresses. In other words, it’s genuine.

There’s depth to both of them—and the other characters as well. The author leaves no one in the book without a proper character treatment, not even the marginal figures. Their aspirations and disillusionments are something everyone can relate to. In that sense, it would be a mistake to treat this book solely as part of the gay fiction niche. It’s a well-written and refreshingly unpretentious piece of writing that easily gets all five stars from me.

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Bart Yates – official website

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COVER IMAGE CREDITS

Nina Conte via Unsplash