The Hundred Brothers

The Hundred Brothers

"The Hundred Brothers is a 1997 novel by American author Donald Antrim. The substance of the novel consists of the nocturnal reunion of one hundred brothers in the library of their ancestral home, as they attempt to locate and inter the ashes of their deceased father, an insane monarch, drink heavily, and manifest a variety of mildly homicidal sibling rivalries."

middle-aged male malaise, next book!

"I love my brothers and I hate my brothers. Most of all I hate myself, when, during an evening, I find myself alone in the crowd, without a dear old comrade to help me through the terrors. I try not to feel oppressed but I cannot help my feelings, whenever I gaze along one of our interminable shelves of books trailing off into the library's gray regions. titles on books spines can hardly be rad even in adequate light. age and damp have faded the authors' names

the next book is salem's lot

since we are in the spooky month of October

I liked the John Barleycorn Corn King reference as well as the foot fetish

"I sometimes imagine our red library as a kind of bleak and unruly interpersonal anxiety zone."

how lonely we are.

the last part of this quote is particularly interesting, to me it seems almost like a 4th wall break. Antrim is coming to terms with how insignificant his own accomplishments (A published author, winner of the PEN/Faulkner award) has been.

>malaise
true, this essentially sums up the entire book.
Doug and his brothers are uneasy, nervous, neurotic, ill... (some even physically).
The central event bringing them together (the death of the father) is many times glossed over as Doug trundles through a series insignificant conflicts with a number of his brothers.

kek

I'm having that nostaglic feeling of not having read the book before the in-class discussion. Next thing I know, mom's gonna be whopping my ass like the good old days.

Summarize, talk more about these things for the rabble and spectators

What the fuck is this horse shit

Yo should someone read this book, or should they invest a little more time in something more vexing and artful? You know, something like Blood Meridian. Haven't seen anyone discuss that book before.

Except for a blonde Italian with freaky Steve Buscemi eyes.

You are horse shit

This book wasn't bad, blood meridian was good, you could pick it apart. My dog has bug eyes not me you Irish fuck

So, just paraphrasing from the wiki, John Barleycorn is an Anglo/Wiccan myth that represents the cereal crop barley personified. In the folk song, John endures any number of indignities until he is eventually killed, representing the cycle of planting and reaping the harvest of barley. So, Doug as John Barleycorn = ???

Now you have my respect, sorry I got out of line like that, Vito Cornelius. You guys watch Luke Cage yet?

"This opening sentence also contains the book's first and last reference to a particular woman, Jane, who is responsible for the disappearance of the hundredth brother. "It's as if, according to the novel's logic, the mere naming of a Significant Other is enough to exclude a brother from the narrative.""

ie a bunch of insular betas who fear women so much, they'll dissociate from anyone, even blood relations, who aberate from the lonely life they know.

Oh that's deep, nice find too

There are a group of brothers with wives though

I guess they stick together and look at pornography the whole time... so yeah

this is a good find too, well put.