The Hundred Brothers

by Donald Antrim

There's Rob, Bob, Tom, Paul, Ralph, and Phil; Siegfried, the sculptor in burning steel; blind Albert and ninety-three-year-old Hiram; Foster, the New Age psychoanalyst; and Maxwell, the tropical botanist, who, since returning from the rain forest, has seemed a little screwed up somehow.  When PEN/Faulkner Award finalist Donald Antrim brings them and their eighty-nine equally eccentic kinsmen together in the decaying library of their family estate for cocktails, a light supper, and a little ritual sacrifice, the result suggests a high-speed collision between The Brothers Karamazov and the Brothers Marx.  Moving swiftly from slapstick to horror and back, The Hundred Brothers establishes Antrim as one of our most mordantly and satanically playful young writers, whose insights into the agonies of kinship are as serious as they are hilarious.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Literary Fiction, Literature, American, The United States Of America, Surreal

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1997

About the author

Donald Antrim is an American novelist. His first novel, Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World, was published in 1993. In 1999 The New Yorker named him as among the twenty best writers under the age of forty.

Antrim is a frequent contributor of fiction to The New Yorker and has written a number of critically acclaimed novels, including The Verificationist and The Hundred Brothers, which was a finalist for the 1998 PEN/Faulkner Award in fiction. He is also the author of The Afterlife, a 2006 memoir about his mother, Louanne Self. He has received grants and awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

Antrim is the brother of the artist Terry Leness and the son of Harry Antrim, a scholar of T. S. Eliot. Antrim has been associated with the writers David Foster Wallace and Jonathan Franzen, and the visual artist Christa Parravani.

He has taught prose fiction at the graduate school of New York University and was the Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow for Fiction at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany, for spring 2009. Antrim teaches in the MFA program at Columbia University. He lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[sAmAnE · Rating 4 out of 5]

ممکن است خاطرات ما به لحاظ تاریخی دقیق و معتبر نباشد. اما با وجود این فکر می‌کنم خاطرات دریافت‌ها و عواطف ما رو با دقت نسبی نشون میدن. احساساتمون بهمون میگن که حال و روزمون چی باشه! قبول نداری؟ ما همه خاطرات و بینش‌ها و احساساتمون رو روی هم انباشته می‌کنیم و ماییم که به دلخواه خودمون اون‌ها رو می‌فهمیم و تعبیر می‌کنیم.

کتاب داستان صد تا برادره که در یک کتابخانه جمع شده‌اند، یکی از برادرهاست که راوی داستانه. محل داستان کتابخانه‌ایه که براشون یادآور خاطرات کهنه‌ی کودکی‌ست. جایی که هیچ کنج آرومی نداره.
راوی احساسات متناقضی به برادرانش داره و با همین احساسات اون‌ها رو توصیف میکنه. گاهی حس میکنه عاشق اون‌هاست و گاهی ازشون تنفر داره...
همینطور احساسات متناقضی به خودش داره.... داستان میخواد روابط فردی و میان فردی، خانوادگی و حس انزوا رو در قالب یک دورهمی نشون بده. معضلات پیچیده‌ی خانوادگی رو نشون بده که شاید مجموعه‌ای از زخم‌های روحی و روانی باشند که طی قرن‌ها نسل به نسل منتقل شده‌اند.

از این نویسنده کتاب جدیدی هم اومده که حتما می‌خونم.

[°•.Melina°•. · Rating 2 out of 5]

ببینید...واقعا نمیدونم چجوری براش ریویو بنویسم.
از یه طرف زیرچشمی ازش خوشم میاد از یه طرف حتی از ژانرش هم بدم میاد.("آمریکای معاصر")از یه طرف میخوام بگم الان مثلا نویسنده فکر کرده چون اسمِ صد تا برادر رو ردیف کرده و ۱۸۰ صفحه بدون هیچ پلات و هدف خاصی همینجوری اون بازار شامِ دورهمیشونو توصیف کرده و یکی دو تا صحنه‌ی عجیب‌الخلقه از جمله ادرار روی کتاب‌های کتابخونه نوشته، خیلی شاهکار کرده و دیگه داستایفسکی زمانه شده؟
(آخه یجوری‌ام تو پشت کتابو اینا نوشته "دو صفحه اسم ۱۰۰ برادر" که انگار مثلا یه بچه ۲ ساله نمیتونه ۱۰۰ تا اسم ردیف هم کنه)

ببینید مشکل من با معاصر همینه و خب توجه کنید که مشکل "منه". که حس میکنم دارم افتخار میدم که به جای شاهکارهای ادبی جهان که تو کتابخونم داره خاک میخوره میام یه معاصر امتحان میکنم،بعد اینجوری ناامیدم میکنه.

ولی خب میگم دیگه بعضی جاها هم گول نویسنده رو میخوردم و زیرلبی میگفتم "هه دمت گرم چه صحنه‌ یا دیالوگ فلانی".ولی خب کافی نبود، در حد ۲ ستاره🤷🏼‍♀️
بنظرم اگر روش یکم کار میکرد یا پلات درست حسابی میداد قشنگ پتانسیل یه "گذشته‌ی رازآمیز" دوم بودن رو داشت!

اما یک چیزی به شخصه برام مهم و اررشمنده تو کتاب خوندن و اونم به یاد داشتنِ اون چند صفحه‌ایه که ذهنم تو کتاب زندگی کرده.
و حقیقتا قراره خوب یادم بمونتش.و دو ستاره رو به همین دادم. "صد تااا برادر تو یه کتابخونه‌ی عظیم‌الجثه‌ی خانوادگی، بال زدن خفاش‌ها و داخل شدن برف از پنجره و خاکسترِ گمشده‌ی پدرشون"

خلاصه که آره.‌.فکر کنم اگر بخوام خیلی روشن‌فکرانه ریویو رو تموم کنم و کلاسِ "آمریکای معاصر" خوندن رو نگه دارم، باید بگم که تجربه‌ی "عجیب" و غریبی بود و شاید حتی اگر بخوام به کسی پیشنهادش کنم بخاطر اینه که اونم این عجیب بودنو تجربه کنه و بشینیم درموردش حرف بزنیمو بخندیم!

میرم ببینم تو سایت.ها میتونم تحلیل‌های بیشتری ازش پیدا کنم که یکم بیشتر ازش خوشم بیاد یا نه.
ولی(بنظر من) حیفِ اسمِ باشکوه ادبیات که داره به این سمتِ پوچ و عجیب و توهمی میره.

[Marcus Mennes · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re like me then you find exaggeration, at least in principle, to be exceedingly funny. A certain type of absurdity is created when too much of something is introduced, when a situation builds & builds to an anticipated level, and then, as they say, goes over the top.

In Donald Antrim’s novel there are literally one hundred brothers living together in a big, sordid mansion. It is a short book without sections or chapters, and should be read, I presume, with some momentum. Within the first few pages we are introduced to each brother in the dysfunctional fraternity, through the p.o.v. of Doug, one of the brothers. The narrative takes place during a single evening, set in the estate’s library where the brothers have gathered for a ceremonial supper. Hilarious antics ensue…impossible to summarize. The humor operates on the “how many clowns can you squeeze into the clown car” kind of dynamic. It is a fun romp, and reads like a Monty Python sketch — clever, silly, a little bonkers, and something completely different.

[Mohammad · Rating 4 out of 5]

به نظر میرسه صد برادر به حقیقتی فراتر از خود اشاره داره بدون اینکه متعهد به اون حقیقتی باشه که بهش اشاره میکنه. مثلاً آیا فروپاشی خانه تفسیری بر سقوط اقتدار پدرسالار است؟ یا عدم وجود انرژی زنانه در خانه، باعث سنگدلی و اضطراب و کلافگی برادران شده؟ شاید. اما این احتمالات چیزی نیست جز اشاراتی مبهم که در تاریکی کابوس بی‌رحمانه‌ی آنتریم شناورند. تعداد کمی از نویسندگان معاصر میتونن با خلاقیت آنتریم یادآوری کنند که بهترین داستان میتونه صرفاً در مورد لذتی باشه که از بازی آزاد تخیل حاصل میشه. از صد برادر چه خوشتون بیاد چه نه، شروع بامزه و سبک روایی خلاقانه‌اش تا مدت‌ها در خاطرتون خواهد ماند.
اگر قصد خوندنش رو دارید پیشنهاد میکنم ماجرای هکاتونخِئیرِس یا غول‌های صددست اساطیر یونان رو مطالعه کنید. همینطور مفهوم استعاری ترانه‌ی فولکلور جان بارلی کورن که راوی داستان چند باری بهش اشاره میکنه هم میتونه در فهم بهتر کتاب کمک کننده باشه

[Adelina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Solipsistic late-90s trash. I hate this entire genre. Imagine if a young Michael Chabon decided he'd make a better William Burroughs than Philip Roth, but just didn't have it in him to do all those hallucinogens and thought maybe a mild Vicodin binge would send him into enough of a creative fit to churn out a couple hundred pages of social criticism. No, on second thought, that would be better than this pap.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dream like this: in fragments and loops; in absurdity and utter truth.

[Hossein · Rating 2 out of 5]

جاناتان فرنزن حسابی تو مقدمه ازش تعریف کرد ولی حوصله‌م رو خیلی سر برد.
همچنان رمان‌های کلاسیک‌تر رو ترجیح میدم.

[MiNa Sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

در یک کلام متفاوت‌ :ایده نو، کشش داستان، ارجاعات و اشارات جذاب

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surreal, poignant, and occasionally beautiful.

[Stephanie Sun · Rating 2 out of 5]

"You wouldn't think a bug race could be so exciting."

You wouldn't think a book by a certified genius would be so vapid and tiresome.

The Hundred Brothers is not plotless so much as personalityless. You can see the author trying really, really hard (including having his main character literally piss on the classics), but this book never makes the case for post-modernism, or itself.

An extra star for originality and ambition of the concept.

I recommend, instead, The Mezzanine for droll stream-of-consciousness first-person narration, Revolutionary Road for daddy issues, and The Cabin in the Woods for intelligent deconstruction of sacrifice rites.

[Jemimah · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as I can tell, Donald Antrim has something of an over-active, yet alarmingly direct, imagination.

Ninety nine of one hundred brothers reunite in their family library for a dinner at which they hope to decide what to do with their father's ashes. The brothers are all individually named but very few are characterised; probably because most of them appear to have some form of personality disorder, addiction or an utterly abysmal ability to interact with other beings. There are squabbles, scuffles, and I'm fairly sure that at one point someone receives a good beating from an elderly brother with a zimmer frame.

The Hundred Brothers is, I think, best described as a series of paradoxes bound up in wit and an extremely eye-catching pink cover: the brothers love each other but hate each other, they meet to accomplish something but don't and the narrator, Doug, does a fantastic job of getting the reader on side but is entirely unreliable in his narrative. The book is brilliantly and memorably written, in a depraved kind of way. Antrim's depiction of family is close enough to reality to be alarming but also far enough away for us to laugh at how much like an amusing, hellish nightmare it all is.

I have no doubt that there are many deeper meanings and insights to be extracted from this book but, to be honest, the satiric drag of the narrative required some effort to read beyond. I got the feeling that uncomfortable social observations ran very close beneath the clever language and I didn't want to read into them. Instead, I stole some of the wittier phrases for my own use and left it at that.

[Topher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell in love with this novel when I heard Mr. Antrim read from it a the PEN/Faulkner awards eons ago. It is so quirky and frantic. I keep it by my bedside.

[Nfpendleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple but brilliant absurd comedy.

[Kerfe · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to force myself to read half of this. I can't say it was dreadful--the writing is OK, though nothing special. But I was bored. There was nothing to compel me to turn the page, or even open the book again.

It's apparently supposed to be funny. Maybe you need to be male? (though to be honest, I'm not that crazy about chick-lit either).

Maybe I'm just not hip enough to understand the obscure references.

Anyway, I didn't get it, and really, who cares?

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK ROCKS, IT ROCKS A FAT MIGHTY HORSE ASS.

[Christopher]

Hilarious. I recommend this novel. I enjoyed the freedom that radiates from this book.

"Getting up from the love seat was difficult. Virgil had trouble. It was a matter of leverage. The love seat was low and our knees were high."

"Doug, got a minute?"
"Sure."
"I'm having a little problem with God."
"What's up?"
"Life after death."

[Benjy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to this one after reading and loving Antrim's other two novels. I waited years to read it because I was hoping he'd come out with another one and I wouldn't need to give up the exhilaration that comes from reading one of his novels for the first time. Eventually, I gave in.

As you might be able to tell from the description of the book, this presents the most daunting of the formal challenges of his books and, though his general thoroughness and intricacy gives way to mayhem more readily (and at the cost of letting certain facts and explanations slip aside in ways they do not in his other writing), it has the same general subdued absurdist tone of his others. I'd definitely recommend the Verificationist and Mr Robinson over this one, though it is a real corker.

My main problems with the book come from an ending that doesn't as deftly dismount from the narrative in the way that I supposed it should (based on the confidence in resolution proposed by the rest of the book) and some undelivered promises (what has become of George, the people in the fields, Barry's strange and sudden illness?). I get that it is missing the point but so much of the book works in spite of its chaos and surrealism that I felt slightly let down that only, say 98% of it was pulled off, not 100%.

Still, I greatly enjoyed it. Write another book already, Donald!

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 200 page short story, a farce, that all takes place over the course of on evening. The characters ARE the plot, which is to say, the plot is how a family of 100 adult brothers might interact at a dinner. If it goes any deeper than that, someone needs to explain it to me. I was entertained in parts, but mostly I just wanted to finish it, so I could check it off the list and return it to the library.

[Dennis · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a weird surrealist little number, fast reading, and quirky enough to keep me going throught he slow parts. Anyone discouraged by having to remember who all 100 brothers are need not; not all are central. Nor need you be troubled by the logistics of having a family of 100 brothers, you only need to enjoy it. Not a great book but okay enough.

[Ryan Chapman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book. Here's my hook: yes, it's about a hundred brothers. They're gathered in the family library to find their father's ashes and try and achieve some kind of fraternal peace. Every brother is introduced, by name, in the first sentence. There are no chapter or line breaks.

[Emily Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

couldn't finish. didn't care what was happening to the characters, didn't want to know what would happen.

[Lisa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Worst book I have ever read.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly insightful and compellingly witty, this was v enjoyable to read.

[Libby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I LOVED the idea of it , it just wasn’t for me.

[alexggrandma · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Jack Tate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Saw a review that described this as a long Monty Python skit but with more depth and that's exactly how it read. Had laugh out loud moments, only to be bookended by nauseatingly lonely moments.

[Austin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doug, the protagonist of this wickedly delicious novel, is gathering with 98 of his brothers in the giant library of their family mansion for a night of food, drink, and hedonistic revelry. The entire book (albeit short at a mere 188 pages) takes place during the course of this night. How does someone have 99 siblings to begin with, where is anyone else in the family, and why this night of all night do they meet? Well, it's never quite explained. We do meet all hundred brothers though, and Antrim even lists everyone of them in one very long first sentence. After that things quickly jump the tracks of any normally structured novel and descend into somewhat of a mad scene that goes on and on.

After a few pages we find out at least what the narrator's hope is for the night: that they finally find out what happened to their dead father's urn and put his memory to rest. But as fights break out, alcohol and drugs are consumed, bats get in, the windows are opened, a storm approaches, and old rivalries are re-explored, bedlam breaks out and we find that each brother has a more sinister goal, with the narrator Doug at the middle of their designs.

There are definitely more questions raised than answered, and much is unclear, which makes this little book a joy of speculation. What do the hundred brothers symbolize? Why is one missing? Why is a mother never mentioned? If the house is falling apart, what's to become of everyone?

A lot of fun to read with laugh-out-loud an hour after your bedtime moments (because you just can't put it down), this imaginative work is something like the Underground Man getting drunk and gaying it up at a huge party.

[Rosa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out strong, but became tiresome for me maybe 1/3 of the way from the end. The humor is what kept me going (in general, anything that makes me laugh will not be abandoned, no matter how disengaged I am otherwise), and the narrator's voice is steeped in somewhat bleak humor rooted in the absurd, my favorite. There are countless profound observations on spirituality, ritual, family, identity, what it means to be a man and a brother, usually conveyed through lovely writing - however, I guess I'm either too old-fashioned or not smart enough to fully connect w/ a postmodern structure, which is sort of like no structure at all - anything can happen at any point, and maybe already did, and what the heck is happening? There's nothing concrete to tie me to the story, which lessens the impact of all the lovely observations - I think part of it is that the whole thing is so loose, the narrator so increasingly unreliable, you almost feel like a dupe for being moved by anything he has to say. I'd say this goes for the whole experience of reading the book - you feel almost silly for being affected by it, because in the end it's hard to tell if Antrim's just screwing around. I've never read anything quite like this, and I can see why he's so well-regarded by his peers (both George Saunders and Jonathan Franzen have written forewards for Antrim's books) because he really is a dazzlingly smart writer, and I may even seek out more of his writing in the future, but for now I need a break....

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I read most of this book in one sitting (on a flight), which I think should be recommended for future readers of this book since 1) there are no chapters and 2) the events happen in the span of a few hours and kind of snowball from normal (well.... as normal as can be with 100 brothers involved) to completely chaotic. I think if I read this only in the morning on my way to work, I would have lost the thread.

I wouldn't say nothing happened, but the book seemed to be about character development, not about plot, so it could seem slow.

I thought the ending was actually pretty compelling. I couldn't tell you what exactly happened, though I have my suspicions, but I thought the book was creative and unusual. I would be interested in seeing how Antrim's other books are designed.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

You have only to read the back cover of this book to know what you are getting into so do it. It comes well recommended, it's by a "hot" author who publishes stories in the New Yorker, Jonathan Franzen is a fan, I dunno what more I can say. The book is short, 200 pages, funny all the way through, and clearly meant to be taken as a "literary novel" whatever that might be. But 200 pages of funny may just well be too many pages of funny, and maybe we could say the same for the intellectual gamesmanship. Depending on your mood, you may have a good time, but I wouldn't be comparing this stuff to Dostoevsky, Nicholson Baker would be more like it.

Don't buy this book unless you've read a few pages of it. Now you've been warned.

pp