Name: Brewster: A Novel
ISBN: 9780393348835

Mark Slouka

Still reeling from the death of his older brother, a sixteen-year-old track star befriends a street-fighting rebel and together they search for redemption amidst the social changes of 1968.

Brewster: A Novel

Siya S

Well, I seriously don’t know where to start. I’ve finished this book in 2 days and ultimately got a massive headache after because I stayed up so late trying to finish the whole book in one night. Migraine aside, this book is like a gigantic blow in my face. This book is a portable storm…like, a portable disaster…a time bomb waiting to explode and destroy something in you. The writing is poetic; beautiful and calm and soothing, but of course there is something more to that. My reading experience went on like this: I started out calm and kind of love the pace of it, but deep down I knew something bad would happen, but then I tried to deny the bad feeling building in my gut and bravely continued forward to the last 100 pages and suddenly I KNEW what’s going to happen, but then it’s too late to stop because I’d come too far so I had no choice but to move on straight right to the eye of the storm, got hit pretty hard and died miserably on my bed. It was heartbreaking.

Brewster is a coming-of-age story focused on the love and friendship among four unlikeliest friends: Jon Mosher, the narrator, is a straight-A track star from a family of immigrant German with dark past on the death of his older brother; Ray Cappaciano, a rebellious guy from a broken family – his mom has ran off long since he was young – and now living with his racist ex-cop father who drinks all day; Frank “Jesus” Krapinski, a religious, Sunday school kind of guy who doubts his parents’ believe when they decided to cut his pregnant sister out of their lives; and Karen Dorsey, Ray’s girlfriend, who comes to their lives and make things more tolerable. Despite all the differences, these kids have the same dream of the young; they want to break free from their family’s obligation and leave Brewster for the brighter sky.

As someone who always long for a journey and always feel the need of leaving town to a better place, I can relate to these people a lot. All the dreams in the world will never be enough when it comes to real life full of responsibilities and burdens in which we could not leave behind. I see a bit of myself in Jon, the underrated, always being overlooked by everybody else. I also see myself in Ray, with the highest need of leaving but there’s always something to drag him behind, and could finally leave when it’s too late. Then it’s Karen and Frank, whose family has a big influence on every step of their lives they just cannot bare to let them down.

I guess in the end, all of us has our own type of Brewster, something we always want to break free from. So, this is a book for everyone as a reminder for what’s it like to be young and powerless. Everything you do doesn’t matter, as well as everything you say. It reminds you of real life full of choices and chances, full of hopes and disappointments, full of dreams. The ending leaves me haunted all night, wishing I could turn back to the time I did not know their destiny. In my dream these kids will make it out of Brewster together, living in a small apartment, working day jobs, taking night shifts. Karen and Ray having kids and Jon has become the greatest track star of all time. I wish it’s like that, I really do. But sometimes reality hurts bad and life is just a huge chunk of shit.

I think I will go for a light, brainless, chic-lit novel next. I don’t think I could handle anymore shit right now. I might want to cry later.

Brewster: A Novel

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