I’m working my way through the Caudill list, and I’ve been putting off reading this book because it looked a little silly.  Check out the cover image – doesn’t the kid look like he’s playing dress-up?  I wasn’t excited about this book, but last night I decided it was time to get through this book.  And POW – I read the entire book in one sitting last night.  What does this tell you?  Yes, the book is pretty short.  But it’s also a remarkably well-written book about an interesting young man.

The main character, the youngest brother in a family of five brothers, is called Brother.  His real name is Ignatius, and he hates it.  They live on a large farm, and they raise beef cattle and sheep.  His grandfather is a Quaker, and his mother a staunch Roman Catholic.  Both are devoutly religious, though their beliefs are so different, and they seem to have worked out a comfortable coexistence.  The story of the grandparents, who live with Brother, is as much a part of Brother’s story as his father’s deployment to Iraq as a battalion commander in the Reserve, and his brothers’ various responsibilities away from home – one brother is a unit commander in the army, two are in college, and one is living at a boarding high school.  With his father and brothers away, Brother remains on the family ranch with his aging grandparents and a “hired man,” named Ernesto, from Venezuela.

The result of all of these absences is a simmering, emotional conflict between Brother and his concern for the people and things that matter to him.  He worries about his father.  He worries about his Grandfather and his ability to do the work of ranching.  He worries about the orphaned sheep that he adopts and cares for.  And he worries about his future – Brother turns twelve in the middle of the book, and he feels like his family and community expect him to decide what he will become.  He knows that he will be expected to join the military, and he accepts that.  But what path will he take beyond that?

I think the charm of this book, for me, was the carefully crafted snapshots of characters.  There are no bad guys in this book, but there are a lot of subtle details that make the characters feel full and complex.  The family dynamics – the concerns among the brothers for the health of the grandfather, the way that they accidentally hurt each other – are realistic and wrenching.  It’s a sensitive but simple portrait of a complicated family.  I enjoyed it mostly for that reason.