MY BROTHER'S KEEPER
BY BEN SCHENKMAN
You all may recall when I reviewed Ben's "Let Sleeping Gods Lie" I imposed an internal question, did I just discover one of the best writers of opening chapters in a book? I am pleased to say I found my answer when I finished Chapter 1 of My Brother's Keeper. In fact I can't remember a moment maybe since Dune or Paige L Christie's Draigon Weather where I had to pause my reading and reflect on just what I read. The visceral attack on all five senses within the written word that Ben exhibits here is masterful to say the least. It one of those things you read and it sits with you long after you have finished it. I went back twice and re-read it and there is a reason for that that I will get to within this review. I tell you as someone who is obsessed with death, fascinated by secular practices and deep rooted age old religious beliefs in how to handle not just the death but the mourning and ritualistic practice of mourning this book may be one of the best captured sense of that within the Jewish faith I have ever read. The way that Ben chooses to utilize first person POV to approach it is even more powerful and it feels personal, its feels real, and that is when he grabs you, and he is one of the best I have read at grabbing you and then fucking you all up with what's to come.
To be fair I thought Let Sleeping Gods had peaks and valleys and it was hard to live up to the expectations of what that first chapter brought, though in that book, as with this one as well there is something inherently different about a Ben Schenkman read which I can say with absolute certainty, now having read two of his books, you may have a hard time getting to where he is going sometimes but when he gets you there, oh hold on because you are about to be twisted up like you never have before (more on that later in this review).
In full disclosure I know Ben, I have had conversations and been around when he discusses this book. So I already had the preconceived notion, right or wrong (and honestly if you ever have watched a movie trailer and never developed that yourself you are really lying to yourself) that this was more personal to him than anything else he had it written and he just uses an amazing amount of detailing to show that, even in the more absurd and fantastical twisting that this story takes.
This about Max, a man fraught with a loner mentality, thrust into the world of his twin brother whom he buries in that 1st chapter, Solomon, or Sol as everyone knows him. He becomes defacto Uncle to a young man in Jacob and brother in law to Sol's widow Gabby, both of whom he has never met until this funeral. As a Private Investigator but moreover as a Twin the more he learns through interactions with the community that is kind of taken back upon discovering Sol had a twin brother Max starts to suspect this was not just Sol dying. There are more nefarious and mystic elements involved.
Max as a character is interesting and when you get to the full arch of Max you understand why you kind of feel the way you do when reading all of this from his perspective. His arm's length approaches, his sixth sense aptitude they all bear fruit for what is to come in the very interesting murder mystery wrapped in a thrilling adventure. At first I was a little soured by Max and Ben's writing of him. There just seemed to be something off about it. What Ben does so well though is stay true to Max and thus my frustration gleamed into admiration the more I thought about it, after reading the last words on the page.
Every other character here is rich and deep, even the ancillary ones and whom you might suspect as an innocent bystander becomes very suspect throughout your innate spidey sense as a reader and while you aren't always right, when you get to the ones that matter it rocks you back even harder than you could have expected. I could name one character in particular that itched the back of my neck for the entire reading of this book. it is also the one that turns out to be my favorite character here. I would give you that name but then I am doing the work of reading this for you. Trust me when you read it you will know who I am speaking, probably from the first moment of suspicion really.
That is where Ben is so good as a writer, he is a magician with manipulating senses and directions. This book twists and turns you and does so through the eyes of its narrator. That when it reaches its final twist you throw up your hands and go bravo sir, bravo.
There is a lot of Ben beyond personal in this book too, I see almost identical things between Sleeping and this one, signatures of Ben Schenkman, and don't get me wrong that's not bad but it tracks. Especially when it comes to the fighting elements. I almost feel a little bit of cut and paste there. While they aren't word for word the same its the same mannerisms and approaches. So in a way its comforting because it feels like you know the author's way but it also lends itself to interesting dilemma that I wrestle with from both books, there is a weird awkwardness to these moments that I think endears me to the character, an almost I want to be cooler than I am kind of thing and in those moments its when you see the character so strongly that its hard to get back into the rhythm that was established before the fighting and conjuring. I don't know that I wasn't prepared for it or if it feels spatially indifferent from any of the tone the book takes before and after but it trips me up for a second.
However Ben is very good at finding the rhythm again. Sometimes there is a little meandering to that I think is a tad unnecessary but all in all once you are invested in this, those tiny moments become even more tiny. Ben never loses you and is very clever in giving you just enough to chew on for a moment before he decides to pull the rug out from under you.
This is smart writing at its best and that is why I needed to go back and reread Chapter 1, not just because it may be the best Chapter 1 I have ever read, its certainly up there but because it shines a light on what you come to really appreciate when you read the last chapter, you are not as fucking crazy as you think you are, yes that buzzing on the back of your neck was there for a reason.
That's all I'll say about that. IYKYK
This is a great book, a great read, and great tribute to something that I know that even if I didn't know Ben personally would easily resolve that this book was very personal to him. Go get My Brother's Keeper if you like your Urban Fantasy with a touch of humility and reverence.
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