Summer Brother

December 7, 2020
A teenager’s life is upended by the unexpected return home of his disabled brother in this unsettling novel from Dutch writer Robben (You Have Me to Love). Brian Chevalier, 13, lives in a ramshackle trailer with his underemployed father, Maurice. His older brother, Lucien, who has unspecified congenital disability, has been living in a group home, until Maurice accepts a subsidy to take care of Lucien and saddles Brian with all the work while he leaves for long, unexplained chunks of time. With the help of neighbor Emile, squeamish and impatient Brian tries his best. He also risks Lucien’s safety, tying him to a bed so he can leave to visit Selma, a 19-year-old resident of Lucien’s home, who encourages Brian to sexually experiment with her. As Maurice’s shady, threatening landlords pressure him to pay off debts and Brian’s new school year approaches, Brian and Lucien’s concerned mother, from whom Maurice is estranged, brings the tenuous situation to a head. Flashbacks explain the disintegration of Brian’s family and his conflicted feelings about his brother, though the distressing treatment of the disabled characters feels oddly gratuitous. Robben’s tragic tale of generational dysfunction muddies the waters to inscrutable effect.

January 1, 2021
In this thoughtful, empathetic Dutch novel, a 13-year-old boy struggles to care for his disabled brother. Since his parents split up, Brian Chevalier hasn't seen his mother or his older brother, Lucien, who is mentally and physically disabled, very often. He lives with his father, Maurice, in a trailer, learning to underpay shopkeepers and squeeze extra money out of tenants in the extra trailer they manage. But when the care home where Lucien lives lets Maurice know he'll have to move home temporarily due to renovations, Brian's life dramatically changes. His mother is on her honeymoon, and Lucien can't stay with her, leaving Brian responsible for Lucien. Although he loves his brother, Brian is too young to care for him by himself, and Maurice is often nowhere to be found. A new, friendly neighbor, Emile, tries to help out but only attracts Maurice's wrath while the owners of the trailer, Jean and Henri, threaten to evict them. Robben, who has written one other novel for adults (You Have Me To Love, 2018) as well as a number of books for children, skillfully conjures a sense of unease, most notably through Brian's first-person narration. Like most children who grow up in neglectful or abusive households, Brian does not fully understand that his father's behavior is inappropriate, dangerous, or both, and he treats his brother with sometimes cavalier disregard, at one point tying him to the bed in order to leave to go see a girl at the care home on whom he has a crush. This can be upsetting, yet Brian's love for his brother, and Robben's care in writing his disabled characters, remains clear throughout this nuanced novel. A sensitive yet unsentimental depiction of poverty and disability from the perspective of an abled character.

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