"Brotherly Love" by Kevin Boy

Music suggestion for this reading: Jelena Tomašević feat. Bora Dugić - Oro

The song I posted is about two things: protection and tradition. In the same way, I feel those are the main points of conflict in Kevin Boy's story "Brotherly Love". Uncle William and Father Steven are living their lives. Steven has children and both have terrible work hours. At Steven's song Jacob's birthday, the two celebrate tradition in the place where generations of their family have celebrated all their achievements and traditions, the family estate. Unfortunately, the two brothers have not achieved the success needed to successfully continue owning the property, and William has suggested that they take some unknown offer from a character known only as Leslie to allow them to move to St. Louis, where the family would start anew. Steven is reluctant until a break-in that night endangers the family.

By far, the best thing about this text is the narrative voice and the character voices. Everybody is distinct. Samantha is bratty in a likeable way, while Jacob is more stoic. The main character has a good-natured practicality about his voice that endears him to easy interaction and melding to the personalities of the other characters. These voices help the reader to read through the long (but important) build-up to the actual conflict. Another extremely successful element is the use of dialogue. As I already mentioned, the characters have been fully developed, and the dialogue goes a long way in showing this. It also has many witty moments and humor.

The area the story falls short in, however, is the general plotting. As I mentioned, the introduction is long but important. It helps to set up the dynamics of the family and build a solid character. The real area of weakness in plotting doesn't come until the main plot is introduced. Here, it feels like too little information is given to the reader for him to fully understand what is going on. Who is Leslie? What is her offer? What jobs do William and Steven currently have? Why can't the successfully stay in their own house? These questions never get adequately answered in the main plot. Because of this, I'd love to see some more put into the piece, especially in backstory.