by Milton Hatoum
Two Brothers – would be the literal translation of the title Hatoum describes all he opposite of what you would expect from brothers and their relationship. It is a story of deep hatred and vicious revenge. The reader never get know why. The story teller – another person close to the family – is more interested in his own fate in the relation two the two brothers. He is the sun of the maid in the household, and one of the brothers seems to be his father. Until the end it is not revealed who it is, but the reader get a lot of thought food to digest, interpret and analyze. Depending on your own personality you will come to tour own, specific conclusion. I found that effect interesting, because I took my side in that intra-family war.
Who is the family? Father and mother are immigrants from Lebanon. They came around 19000 to Manaus. in the Brazilian Amazon. It is a marriage of great passion, but also one of control on the mother’s part. The guy does not want to have kids since he considers them as unnecessary from his essential purpose of life: love and love-making to his wife. She insists and gives birth to male twins. It seems to be hatred from the first breath. The younger one (by seconds) is spoiled by his mother and shows already as kid all kinds of unconfined passion: jealousy, love, outbursts of violence. Yaqub the elder is more measured, he seems all the opposite. but both units the hatred to each other. There is also a sister who has very ambiguous relations to both. The text suggest clearly incest.
That life-spawn story happens on the background of the prosperous, then decadent, then again prosperous city of Manaus with its tropical climate and vegetation – sometime suffocating as the tension in the family’s house. This topical background gives the novel a very special touch.
So far it is my favorite book by Hatoum.
Who is the family? Father and mother are immigrants from Lebanon. They came around 19000 to Manaus. in the Brazilian Amazon. It is a marriage of great passion, but also one of control on the mother’s part. The guy does not want to have kids since he considers them as unnecessary from his essential purpose of life: love and love-making to his wife. She insists and gives birth to male twins. It seems to be hatred from the first breath. The younger one (by seconds) is spoiled by his mother and shows already as kid all kinds of unconfined passion: jealousy, love, outbursts of violence. Yaqub the elder is more measured, he seems all the opposite. but both units the hatred to each other. There is also a sister who has very ambiguous relations to both. The text suggest clearly incest.
That life-spawn story happens on the background of the prosperous, then decadent, then again prosperous city of Manaus with its tropical climate and vegetation – sometime suffocating as the tension in the family’s house. This topical background gives the novel a very special touch.
So far it is my favorite book by Hatoum.
Facts:
English title: The Brothers
Original title: Dois Irmãos
Published: 2000
