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The Looking Glass Brother
Peter von Ziegesar had just moved to New York and was awaiting the birth of his first child when a dark shape stepped from the looking glass of his past on to a Greenwich Village street. The Looking Glass Brother is Peter von Ziegesar's remarkable memoir of a life that began in the exquisite enclaves of Long Island's gilded age families and is now lived, in part, as the keeper of his homeless and schizophrenic stepbrother, Little Peter. The Looking Glass Brother is a feast of memories from one of the last, great estates on Long Island's Peacock Point. Summers were filled with the glistening water of the Long Island Sound, pristine beaches, croquet games, butlers in formal wear serving dinners and an endless stream of cocktails. When, after a string of affairs Peter's father left his mother and remarried, the idyll was broken and several stepchildren, including Little Peter, entered von Ziegesar's life from the looking glass of his father's new family. Little Peter was an angelic and brilliant young boy who spiraled down during adolescence to become one more homeless man living on the street. In this big-hearted memoir, Peter von Ziegesar mixes memories of life on Peacock Point with the turbulent joys of fatherhood and the responsibility he feels for his brother, a man with the same name as his, but a man who lives a desperate and very different life.
- GenresMemoirNonfiction
336 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 25, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 2, 2014
I hate to leave a bad review, but was expressly requested to since I won the book in a Goodreads giveaway. I'm always excited to win things (especially books!) and was looking forward to reading this one, but couldn't even make it as far as some of these other readers who gave up (I tried. It was the only book with me during a six-hour car ride!). I don't even know if I can put this on my "read" shelf considering I couldn't force myself past page 30, making this book only the fourth I have ever not finished in my life.
What little of a story there is jumps around incoherently, the grammar and punctuation is awful to the point of being distracting, and the word choice was glaringly inconsistent: at times it was childishly simple and at others it was clear someone dug around the alphabet soup of a thesaurus to find a fancy word. Altogether a huge disappointment.
What little of a story there is jumps around incoherently, the grammar and punctuation is awful to the point of being distracting, and the word choice was glaringly inconsistent: at times it was childishly simple and at others it was clear someone dug around the alphabet soup of a thesaurus to find a fancy word. Altogether a huge disappointment.
May 26, 2014
I was excited to receive a copy of "The Looking Glass Brother" from the "Goodreads Giveaway". When their parents marry, each has a son named Peter. So they were called Peter & Little Peter. The book takes a look at what it's like to be a person with schizophrenia & living on the streets--also the experience of von Ziegesar having a brother with schizophrenia. I felt that it is probably even more difficult than the author described it.
The family is pretty dysfunctional. I found the book, unfortunately rather boring at times. I did read the entire book, however.
I would suggest you read it if you have no knowledge of what it means to be the person involved or a family member.
The family is pretty dysfunctional. I found the book, unfortunately rather boring at times. I did read the entire book, however.
I would suggest you read it if you have no knowledge of what it means to be the person involved or a family member.
September 1, 2014
I bought this book partly because I am interested in mental health issues. The book raised lots of issues:
Why do some people have resilience and no drive or too much drive and can this be fixed? The book is mostly, one way or another, about the father that the two boys share, who is mostly held accountable for a lot of the boys' pain.
The style changes for the better with the decision to document Peter’s life: I realized this first when the lady in the hotel writes something upside down and Peter starts making little expressions with his eyes: ‘how could the author remember these little interesting details?’ I wondered: ‘is he making them up?’ which would, of course, be a valid way to express the truths that he wanted to convey, but no, of course, later it emerges that he realized that something interesting was going on and started writing about it on bits of paper. Great art can only come from this sort of long term chronicling and close observation of real life, and not from just sitting imagining things in one’s room for a week. Or at least, you need both perhaps.
It is also at the point where the babies arrive that the book gets bet-ter because suddenly there is connection and passion and the reader thinks: is this really a good way to describe babies: as mannequins? Can one really get away with taking a baby to work all day at art shows? (cool!) And yes, lots of readers love their babies in this way and can relate but also are a bit surprised and challenged by this way of describing them, which is again what is good. Surprise is one of the nicest things in life, I decided this week.
It's nice to read about other people's influences, some familiar and some to investigate: what is this other book Salinger book: Franny and Zooey?
On page 169 there is a bit about people who have troubles making up their minds what they are going to do with their lives. This applies too to the people with mental health problems whom I know including myself and some of my friends. The cousins similarly intend to take up a traditional profession but are only interested in art or movie making or reporting on them. With the addition of Sport, this describes virtually every single child educated in the town where we live.
I liked the idea that the author and Jim had involved Little Peter in a project, this was a really good idea to help him by creating some-thing positive together, which helped them too. The looking glass aspect was good too: both brothers are deeply flawed, and both are talented and well educated too: one could so easily slip into the other, one feels.
Little Peter’s character shifts throughout the book, which is an as-pect of mental health, I think, so that sometimes he seems fairly normal; a normal bloke whose gap year went very very wrong, and then, particularly around his sister, he seems monstrous.
By writing about his homeless friends the author is making literature inclusive, and is acknowledging the problems of his family in a way that past generations have failed to do. I was surprised that the famous Cecily allowed such intimate details of her past to be publicized, and I hope she gave her permission, and also, I am quite impressed.
I didn’t think it was a great book, but it was a good book that made me think a lot and was stimulating. It gives a glimpse into another world, or rather, two very contrasting different worlds, the glamor-ous but suicidal world of the ancestral Long Island home and the drug infested world of modern cities, ironically safer, in some ways, that the former.
The phrase that came back to me later was something that the drug dealer friend Lester said: how many of us spend our lives preparing ourselves against being ‘sucker punched’: we live in a continual vigilance, fearing that something terrible is just around the corner. I could definitely relate to that.
I liked the book. It was about surviving in a bleak and mad world in the best way you can, and the author manages well and looks after people nicely in the best way he can.
Why do some people have resilience and no drive or too much drive and can this be fixed? The book is mostly, one way or another, about the father that the two boys share, who is mostly held accountable for a lot of the boys' pain.
The style changes for the better with the decision to document Peter’s life: I realized this first when the lady in the hotel writes something upside down and Peter starts making little expressions with his eyes: ‘how could the author remember these little interesting details?’ I wondered: ‘is he making them up?’ which would, of course, be a valid way to express the truths that he wanted to convey, but no, of course, later it emerges that he realized that something interesting was going on and started writing about it on bits of paper. Great art can only come from this sort of long term chronicling and close observation of real life, and not from just sitting imagining things in one’s room for a week. Or at least, you need both perhaps.
It is also at the point where the babies arrive that the book gets bet-ter because suddenly there is connection and passion and the reader thinks: is this really a good way to describe babies: as mannequins? Can one really get away with taking a baby to work all day at art shows? (cool!) And yes, lots of readers love their babies in this way and can relate but also are a bit surprised and challenged by this way of describing them, which is again what is good. Surprise is one of the nicest things in life, I decided this week.
It's nice to read about other people's influences, some familiar and some to investigate: what is this other book Salinger book: Franny and Zooey?
On page 169 there is a bit about people who have troubles making up their minds what they are going to do with their lives. This applies too to the people with mental health problems whom I know including myself and some of my friends. The cousins similarly intend to take up a traditional profession but are only interested in art or movie making or reporting on them. With the addition of Sport, this describes virtually every single child educated in the town where we live.
I liked the idea that the author and Jim had involved Little Peter in a project, this was a really good idea to help him by creating some-thing positive together, which helped them too. The looking glass aspect was good too: both brothers are deeply flawed, and both are talented and well educated too: one could so easily slip into the other, one feels.
Little Peter’s character shifts throughout the book, which is an as-pect of mental health, I think, so that sometimes he seems fairly normal; a normal bloke whose gap year went very very wrong, and then, particularly around his sister, he seems monstrous.
By writing about his homeless friends the author is making literature inclusive, and is acknowledging the problems of his family in a way that past generations have failed to do. I was surprised that the famous Cecily allowed such intimate details of her past to be publicized, and I hope she gave her permission, and also, I am quite impressed.
I didn’t think it was a great book, but it was a good book that made me think a lot and was stimulating. It gives a glimpse into another world, or rather, two very contrasting different worlds, the glamor-ous but suicidal world of the ancestral Long Island home and the drug infested world of modern cities, ironically safer, in some ways, that the former.
The phrase that came back to me later was something that the drug dealer friend Lester said: how many of us spend our lives preparing ourselves against being ‘sucker punched’: we live in a continual vigilance, fearing that something terrible is just around the corner. I could definitely relate to that.
I liked the book. It was about surviving in a bleak and mad world in the best way you can, and the author manages well and looks after people nicely in the best way he can.
June 20, 2014
I think I liked this book. I know I definitely liked the first half better than the second half.
I received this book via the Goodreads giveaway. I received a hard cover book, similar to the picture on this page. The subtitle (The preposterous, moving, hilarious, and frequently terrifying story of my gilded age Long Island family, my philandering father, and the homeless stepbrother who share my name) is not on the book. Not anywhere. Now that I see the subtitle, the book makes a bit more sense. I was reading it off of just the title: The Looking Glass Brother. I had assumed from the title that the book was about the brother. It is not.
This book really is about Big Peter (the author), his family, his family's history, and his stepbrother Little Peter. It is an interesting history, not one that many people can relate to, but that doesn't matter. It's the familial relationships that others can relate to. Both Big Peter and Little Peter long for the love and acceptance of their father (sometimes it's a mother, this story is about the father). Everyone has someone in the family that rubs people the wrong way, seems to be the black sheep, is tolerated by some but not all. Big Peter seems to be the peace maker of the family. He is the one who is tolerant, who negotiates, and mends fences. Little Peter makes life difficult for others because his life is difficult.
What I really liked: the writing. The author is very gifted with words. He is a great storyteller. The details make the story come alive. His love for his stepbrother really comes through, though Little Peter is difficult to love most of the time. I appreciate the effort Big Peter has made in making things right in his family. I also appreciate Big Peter's honesty. He admits a lot in this book.
What I didn't really like: there is an unresolved scene from Wisconsin. I wanted to know more about what happened. I was left hanging. I eventually grew tired of the stories of the older family members. I know (now) that this book is about the Long Island family, too, but I don't see how that adds to the overall story. I feel like I don't know what's happening with Little Peter at the end of the book. I suppose it's just more of the same, and the stories that we read are a snapshot of what Peter's entire life will be. I was also disappointed that poor Magnum got barely a mention in the book! Not fair for the third child!!!
Going back to the subtitle, the stories are preposterous at times. Some stories are moving. I found one or two hilarious. And I think some of the stories were more terrifying at the time to the author, but they didn't translate as much to me as being terrifying.
This is probably a great read for anyone who has a member of their family who suffers from mental illness and/or addiction. It will ring true for you. Also, if you have had a parent who does not show love in a typical loving parent kind of way, you will understand and feel what the author is talking about. You will empathize with his desire to know love and to not raise his children the same way. It's a slow read book, and I think worth it.
I received this book via the Goodreads giveaway. I received a hard cover book, similar to the picture on this page. The subtitle (The preposterous, moving, hilarious, and frequently terrifying story of my gilded age Long Island family, my philandering father, and the homeless stepbrother who share my name) is not on the book. Not anywhere. Now that I see the subtitle, the book makes a bit more sense. I was reading it off of just the title: The Looking Glass Brother. I had assumed from the title that the book was about the brother. It is not.
This book really is about Big Peter (the author), his family, his family's history, and his stepbrother Little Peter. It is an interesting history, not one that many people can relate to, but that doesn't matter. It's the familial relationships that others can relate to. Both Big Peter and Little Peter long for the love and acceptance of their father (sometimes it's a mother, this story is about the father). Everyone has someone in the family that rubs people the wrong way, seems to be the black sheep, is tolerated by some but not all. Big Peter seems to be the peace maker of the family. He is the one who is tolerant, who negotiates, and mends fences. Little Peter makes life difficult for others because his life is difficult.
What I really liked: the writing. The author is very gifted with words. He is a great storyteller. The details make the story come alive. His love for his stepbrother really comes through, though Little Peter is difficult to love most of the time. I appreciate the effort Big Peter has made in making things right in his family. I also appreciate Big Peter's honesty. He admits a lot in this book.
What I didn't really like: there is an unresolved scene from Wisconsin. I wanted to know more about what happened. I was left hanging. I eventually grew tired of the stories of the older family members. I know (now) that this book is about the Long Island family, too, but I don't see how that adds to the overall story. I feel like I don't know what's happening with Little Peter at the end of the book. I suppose it's just more of the same, and the stories that we read are a snapshot of what Peter's entire life will be. I was also disappointed that poor Magnum got barely a mention in the book! Not fair for the third child!!!
Going back to the subtitle, the stories are preposterous at times. Some stories are moving. I found one or two hilarious. And I think some of the stories were more terrifying at the time to the author, but they didn't translate as much to me as being terrifying.
This is probably a great read for anyone who has a member of their family who suffers from mental illness and/or addiction. It will ring true for you. Also, if you have had a parent who does not show love in a typical loving parent kind of way, you will understand and feel what the author is talking about. You will empathize with his desire to know love and to not raise his children the same way. It's a slow read book, and I think worth it.
June 3, 2014
UNCLE! I made it to 158 and just could not finish this terrible book. I received this as a Goodreads Giveaway. It goes without saying that this did not influence my review. Here are some of the problems with this book, in no particular order.
1) The author has no idea what story he is telling. There are several possibilities (none all that interesting) and he can't seem to decide on a narrative. I had thought this would be an examination of how a promising boy with every imaginable advantage could end up on the street. It was not that.
2) None of von Ziegesar's friends or family are interesting. That is not a dig, most people are not that interesting. That is why most people do not have books written about them.
3) The author includes exhausting detail on the most absurd things. You will know every feature of his wife's outfits (which are not good), the precise streetscape of every single street he is on (and there are many), the contents of every bag, glass, drawer, etc. Every person, no matter how incidental is described as if we were to be tasked with creating a police sketch at the end of the paragraph. I could not think of an example so I opened the book at random and this is the first sentence I saw (about the office of a psychiatrist his brother saw and who does not matter to the story): "A vase of artificial flowers; an Impressionist print in a yellowing mat: a kitsch drawing of a ballerina; some low-slung Danish modern furniture, circa 1960, recovered in brown material; an air conditioner; wall outlets and a small, conical air purifier (whose main function was probably to drown out the confessions of patients), all in yellowing ivory plastic like bad teeth." Mr. von Ziegasar, I have read Proust and understand the beauty of the mundane, and you are no Proust.
4) Lifetime movies notwithstanding, people affected by mental illness do not all start out as wonderful people who are then magically transformed into monsters, like some werewolf tale. Some people are horrible and nasty and then they become mentally ill. The author's stepbrother is one of these people. The fact that he is an asshole does not mean that this guy deserves schizophrenia. It is a terrible illness and no one deserves to be ill. Still, he is an asshole, spoiled and petulant, and it is hard to really care about him. His appearances in the story are only sporadic, but to the extent this book has any structure it is built around this jerk so it would be handy if there were a reason to care if he lives or dies.
5) Someone stop this guy before he uses another metaphor or simile. I began to involuntarily wince when I sensed another was coming.
There is more, but continuing the list would be piling on. Sorry to be so negative, I am sure the writer is a perfectly fine person, but I seriously could not think of a single positive thing to say.
1) The author has no idea what story he is telling. There are several possibilities (none all that interesting) and he can't seem to decide on a narrative. I had thought this would be an examination of how a promising boy with every imaginable advantage could end up on the street. It was not that.
2) None of von Ziegesar's friends or family are interesting. That is not a dig, most people are not that interesting. That is why most people do not have books written about them.
3) The author includes exhausting detail on the most absurd things. You will know every feature of his wife's outfits (which are not good), the precise streetscape of every single street he is on (and there are many), the contents of every bag, glass, drawer, etc. Every person, no matter how incidental is described as if we were to be tasked with creating a police sketch at the end of the paragraph. I could not think of an example so I opened the book at random and this is the first sentence I saw (about the office of a psychiatrist his brother saw and who does not matter to the story): "A vase of artificial flowers; an Impressionist print in a yellowing mat: a kitsch drawing of a ballerina; some low-slung Danish modern furniture, circa 1960, recovered in brown material; an air conditioner; wall outlets and a small, conical air purifier (whose main function was probably to drown out the confessions of patients), all in yellowing ivory plastic like bad teeth." Mr. von Ziegasar, I have read Proust and understand the beauty of the mundane, and you are no Proust.
4) Lifetime movies notwithstanding, people affected by mental illness do not all start out as wonderful people who are then magically transformed into monsters, like some werewolf tale. Some people are horrible and nasty and then they become mentally ill. The author's stepbrother is one of these people. The fact that he is an asshole does not mean that this guy deserves schizophrenia. It is a terrible illness and no one deserves to be ill. Still, he is an asshole, spoiled and petulant, and it is hard to really care about him. His appearances in the story are only sporadic, but to the extent this book has any structure it is built around this jerk so it would be handy if there were a reason to care if he lives or dies.
5) Someone stop this guy before he uses another metaphor or simile. I began to involuntarily wince when I sensed another was coming.
There is more, but continuing the list would be piling on. Sorry to be so negative, I am sure the writer is a perfectly fine person, but I seriously could not think of a single positive thing to say.
May 29, 2014
When I started The Looking Glass Brother I wasn't sure it would be able to hold my attention, and although I came to wish it was more memoir and less biography of his step-brother, it certainly did. At first I was very interested in his step-brother's story, but unfortunately I didn't find him to be a very redemptive character and I eventually lost interest in what kind of trouble he would get himself into next while assuming someone else would solve the problem for him. The author's story was much more interesting to me. His childhood summers at his maternal family's beachfront Long Island compound. His troubled suburban youth in Connecticut. The young adulthood spent roaming the country and in Kansas City and New York. His fascinating family history as told by his parents and old slides. This was all much more relatable to me than his step-brother's problems were, but that's subjective, and that may be what makes this book work. It's two opposite stories of two boys raised mostly by the same father, but not together. It's two opposite stories told concurrently and in that way I think it conveys that all siblings are like this. Opposites that may not attract on the surface, may not always relate with one another, but below everything there's a current that binds them.
(Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book for review.)
(Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book for review.)
August 7, 2014
I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review on Goodreads.
The good: The prose is gorgeous, and the book starts out with a bang, the author introducing him to his mentally ill stepbrother, "Little" Peter. The portrayal of mental illness is compassionate, unflinchingly real, and written in a way that breaks your heart.
The author doesn't mince words when it comes to analyzing his own problems (as well as those of his dysfunctional family) with drugs and the like. I always appreciate that - its easy to gloss over happy stories or make yourself seem the hero, and von Ziesgar doesn't fall into that trap and stays honest about his own shortcomings.
The bad: While obviously a very talented writer, the story is all over the place, past, present, family history etc and sometimes is very hard to keep your interest. You keep wanting to go back to "Little" Peter in the present and get more glimpses into his life. Maybe that wouldn't have been possible. It took me a while to get through this book.
Overall, the book has a sad or at least resigned tone, which is again very realistic when dealing with those that suffer from mental illnesses and the fact that our resources are woefully inadequate to really help them in a significant manner.
The good: The prose is gorgeous, and the book starts out with a bang, the author introducing him to his mentally ill stepbrother, "Little" Peter. The portrayal of mental illness is compassionate, unflinchingly real, and written in a way that breaks your heart.
The author doesn't mince words when it comes to analyzing his own problems (as well as those of his dysfunctional family) with drugs and the like. I always appreciate that - its easy to gloss over happy stories or make yourself seem the hero, and von Ziesgar doesn't fall into that trap and stays honest about his own shortcomings.
The bad: While obviously a very talented writer, the story is all over the place, past, present, family history etc and sometimes is very hard to keep your interest. You keep wanting to go back to "Little" Peter in the present and get more glimpses into his life. Maybe that wouldn't have been possible. It took me a while to get through this book.
Overall, the book has a sad or at least resigned tone, which is again very realistic when dealing with those that suffer from mental illnesses and the fact that our resources are woefully inadequate to really help them in a significant manner.
September 10, 2014
**I won this book as a Goodreads First Reads - which I was annoyed to discover that the book had been sent out to me with a page already torn in half**
This book was not really what the cover leads you to believe. Someone else said the author couldn't seem to figure out where he wanted to go with the telling of the story. I expected to be reading a book about this man and his schizophrenic step-brother, which I guess, to some degree he does do.
Unlike many others, I did manage to finish the whole book. The writing was interesting, while the story was not. I kept waiting for him to focus on one thing and it never happened. At some points, von Ziegesar does into intense detail about things, but these things had little to do with the story, and did not help the focus. He wrote a whole chapter where he describes looking at photos of his parents wedding and picturing himself there. What did that have to do with the story?
The whole book came off to me as very pretentious. The author makes sure to point out these people who have been a part of his life, who in some way were important or famous. It's as if he believes that his relationship with them makes his life/story more important. No. No, it does not.
I would not recommend this book to anyone.
This book was not really what the cover leads you to believe. Someone else said the author couldn't seem to figure out where he wanted to go with the telling of the story. I expected to be reading a book about this man and his schizophrenic step-brother, which I guess, to some degree he does do.
Unlike many others, I did manage to finish the whole book. The writing was interesting, while the story was not. I kept waiting for him to focus on one thing and it never happened. At some points, von Ziegesar does into intense detail about things, but these things had little to do with the story, and did not help the focus. He wrote a whole chapter where he describes looking at photos of his parents wedding and picturing himself there. What did that have to do with the story?
The whole book came off to me as very pretentious. The author makes sure to point out these people who have been a part of his life, who in some way were important or famous. It's as if he believes that his relationship with them makes his life/story more important. No. No, it does not.
I would not recommend this book to anyone.
June 5, 2014
The Looking Glass Brother
So many homeless mentally ill people appear in newspaper articles. I’ve always looked at it as a problem, but probably not one that my family would ever face. “Big” Peter Von Ziegesar’s story of his family and his mentally ill brother changed how I looked at this problem. Von Ziegesar’s step-brother has struggled with mental illness. He’s spent time in jail for physical violence, he’s been in rehab and has bounced around from city to city. When “Little” Peter shows up in New York City, Big Peter is determined to help him. Cleaning him up, paying for food and room, doesn’t lead to improvement in Little Peter. This book is more than just a sad story about Little Peter, it is the story of their family. Summers in Long Island at his maternal great-grandmother’s compound sound idyllic, but the family is fractured and Big Peter’s struggles are included. This is a memoir that will stay with me for many days. The looking glass brother reflects back on me to show the bleak life of the mentally ill. GOODREADS REVIEW COPY
So many homeless mentally ill people appear in newspaper articles. I’ve always looked at it as a problem, but probably not one that my family would ever face. “Big” Peter Von Ziegesar’s story of his family and his mentally ill brother changed how I looked at this problem. Von Ziegesar’s step-brother has struggled with mental illness. He’s spent time in jail for physical violence, he’s been in rehab and has bounced around from city to city. When “Little” Peter shows up in New York City, Big Peter is determined to help him. Cleaning him up, paying for food and room, doesn’t lead to improvement in Little Peter. This book is more than just a sad story about Little Peter, it is the story of their family. Summers in Long Island at his maternal great-grandmother’s compound sound idyllic, but the family is fractured and Big Peter’s struggles are included. This is a memoir that will stay with me for many days. The looking glass brother reflects back on me to show the bleak life of the mentally ill. GOODREADS REVIEW COPY
June 19, 2014
I won this on goodreads. While I thought the writing was excellent, I have to say that the story didn't grab me. This is why I am not much of a memoir fan I guess. I find them usually whiny and/or self-serving. There's a lot going on here and only part of it deals with the brother (actually step brother) of the title. I found that part most interesting, as von Ziegasar tries to help his mentally ill, alcoholic/drug addled step brother who has actually carved out a life for himself that he prefers to what everyone else wants for him. The rest of the book revolves around a rather privileged, dysfunctional family, not the least of whom is a philandering, selfish father. What bothered me the most, I guess, is the casual way the author mentions his own drug abuse, as though it is the most natural thing in the world--which apparently it IS in his world--but CMON, dude--you're a Dad who proclaims to not want to repeat the selfish mistakes of YOUR dad! Again, I found the writing itself impressive. Just not my favorite genre.
January 24, 2017
The Looking Glass Brother, by Peter Von Ziegesar, is my one hundred sixty - second book that I have received and read from Goodreads. This story is about Peter Von Ziegesar, the story of his gilded Long Island family. He talkes of his mentally ill stepbrother "Little Peter", and problems and his struggles with mental illness. The story is about two brothers from different mothers. Both with the same name of Peter Von Ziegesar. Little Peter his half brother, started out life as a handsome and a child prodigy of the violin, who ends up turning into a homeless schizophrenia. The story tells about how he takes on the task of taking care of his brother. How many people do you know including yourself taking on the task of reaching out to help a family member, even more so a half brother.
I would like to thank goodreads and the author for picking me to read this book. I am sorry for not logging this book sooner, laid it down and just forgot to log it. I will be giving this book to my son to read, he is the Director of Mental Health. He is very interested in reading this book.
I would like to thank goodreads and the author for picking me to read this book. I am sorry for not logging this book sooner, laid it down and just forgot to log it. I will be giving this book to my son to read, he is the Director of Mental Health. He is very interested in reading this book.
August 28, 2016
I received a free copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I was not compensated in any way for this review.
I enjoyed most of this memoir, although I disagree that it's about his brother. It's much more about his entire family, particularly the middle. Which frankly, got pretty boring. I didn't really have much reason to care about his rather outlandish upper class extended family and their shenanigans in the early and middle part of last century. I was more interested in the story of his brother, which faded there.
The book would benefit from including dates, at least years. I found it highly confusing to move back and forth in time without any clues, and suddenly read about an event--that had been described before--as about to happen or not having happened yet.
Perhaps why I liked this book is that I don't think a single person in it resonates with my life at all.
I enjoyed most of this memoir, although I disagree that it's about his brother. It's much more about his entire family, particularly the middle. Which frankly, got pretty boring. I didn't really have much reason to care about his rather outlandish upper class extended family and their shenanigans in the early and middle part of last century. I was more interested in the story of his brother, which faded there.
The book would benefit from including dates, at least years. I found it highly confusing to move back and forth in time without any clues, and suddenly read about an event--that had been described before--as about to happen or not having happened yet.
Perhaps why I liked this book is that I don't think a single person in it resonates with my life at all.
June 2, 2014
I really enjoyed this memoir by Peter von Ziegesar- It's about his stepbrother of the same name- brothers from another mother- Little Peter, who started his handsome young life as a child prodigy of the violin. But even the privileged suffer from schizophrenia and homelessness, and this extremely well written story of the trials of taking care of his brother, especially when most other family members had given up, is remarkable. I've seen many homeless, and doubt they have the support that was lovingly given by the author- very trying on the patience. Therefore my sympathy is with them both- read and enjoy!
October 30, 2014
A beautiful story of mental illness, acceptance of self, and the bonds of friendship and family. Ziegesar weaves a complicated story of his life with a common denominator of his relationship with his brother. Throughout the story he struggles with coming to terms with a brother who will never lead a "normal life" and who's complex personality spans from good and loyal friend to needy dependent. Its a testament to a brother's loyalty through good times and bad.
June 13, 2014
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway!
The title page to chapter 10 has a quote on it that sums up this book accurately. "A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end...but not necessarily in that order" - Jean-Luc Godard
You never know from one chapter to the next what period of time you'll be in, or who's story is being shared. It was ok. Just a lot of random memories thrown into random chapters.
The title page to chapter 10 has a quote on it that sums up this book accurately. "A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end...but not necessarily in that order" - Jean-Luc Godard
You never know from one chapter to the next what period of time you'll be in, or who's story is being shared. It was ok. Just a lot of random memories thrown into random chapters.
January 4, 2016
I discovered this book from BuzzFeed; they interviewed the author via email ("How This Writer Learned To Cope With His Brother's Schizophrenia" by Kristie Lee Yandoli). The author, (big) Peter, narrated about his life with a "brother from another mother", (little) Peter. Little Peter has mental illness and is homeless, the latter by choice.
I really enjoyed reading this book and found it interesting to have an "inside look" into what it is like to care/love someone with schizophrenia.
I really enjoyed reading this book and found it interesting to have an "inside look" into what it is like to care/love someone with schizophrenia.
February 5, 2014
Honest, funny, heartbreaking, searching, helping. Peter von Ziegesar discovers many truths but not all the answers about himself, his brilliant and troubled brother and his colorful, privileged, and in some cases very unhappy family members.
June 20, 2014
A fascinating book. Goes back and forth between a vision of old world luxury and a brother's view of homelessness and mental illness. Opulence, despair, and then building up his new baby family away from the ashes of his descendants.
September 16, 2013
I liked the shifting timeline look at a dysfunctional family.
August 20, 2014
I could put this book down and leave it for days. There were parts that I enjoyed immensely and parts I wish he had left out.
September 3, 2015
Really wanted to like this book. But it wasn't for me. I have family who struggle with mental illness and it hits too close to home.
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