Book Review: Three Weeks with my Brother

One of the best blessings my parents ever provided were siblings. I count myself very fortunate to have grown up with four other children in our home. The only thing which could make this blessing richer would be if we could strengthen our sibling bond even more as we age. While growing up, we moved every two or three years, and my siblings were the solid consistency I fell back on time and again. Our shared lives provided many of the stories I cherish. Those are the same stories my nieces and nephews clamor for, whenever we are together. Tragedy has pulled a few of us closer together, but it has actually pulled a few of us apart as well.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons I love reading memoirs. I get to eavesdrop on someone else's stories. Of course, I often lean towards memoirs of authors, since I enjoy writing. One of my favorites would have to be Stephen King's memoir, On Writing. I mentioned before that when I read that book, I actually read funny bits of it out loud to my ES, who would laugh along with me and then request the stories again the following evening.

I stumbled upon this memoir by Nicholas Sparks and am so grateful that I did. I was looking for another book to listen to while driving (all these doctor visits are killing us financially, but I can't complain about the extra time I get for listening to books on CD). Nicholas Sparks, well-known author of A Walk to Remember and The Rescue (surprisingly, the only two of his books I have read), wrote this memoir with his brother, Micah, after going on a three-week trip around the world. It looked appealing on three levels. First, it was a memoir by an author. Second, it was about world travel. Finally, it was about brothers.

These brothers share such a tight bond that they could travel for three weeks and not grow weary of each other or end up in some sort of argument. Nicholas attributes some of their closeness to a tactic his mother introduced after a fight when they were kids. She asked each child to volunteer up three things their siblings had done for them that day. My father would use a similar tactic when we fought, usually requiring us to come up with TEN things we liked about the sibling we were presently seething over. I suppose the daily questions caused the Sparks children to be on the lookout for answers during the day. If that could significantly bond my boys together, I'd be willing to make that a nightly ritual (having them list THREE, not TEN!).

If my sons manage to have the kind of relationship with their brothers that Nicholas and Micah share, they will indeed be greatly blessed. However, I wouldn't wish a similar childhood or the depth of family tragedy which I'm guessing did far more to strengthen their bond. Stories of their childhood are interwoven between descriptions of their travels.

From the very first chapter, I knew I was going to enjoy the book. Nicholas begins by explaining life in his own household with five children. I laughed because the issues felt so familiar (even though I don't have five, our chaos levels sometimes explode). I teared up as he described the isolation of his mother, as she cared for the three of them in an isolated country house while her husband worked and pursued schooling. Early on, he managed to flesh out the characters so that I really wanted to know what happened in their lives. And, plenty happened - poverty, moves, injuries, mischief, success and death.

Although the destinations in their travels weren't necessarily places I would have chosen, the descriptions were interesting and often comical. I remember tiring of our numerous visits to cathedrals when I was studying with Wheaton-in-England. Nicholas and Micah felt the same way as they were inundated with lectures on "jars and bowls."

But far more interesting than the travels, were the descriptions of their family life and the adventures they had as young boys. I find myself wanting to go back and read the novels Nicholas Sparks has written, in the order they were written. I want to see where his life experiences spilled out into the pages of his novels.

If you are a fan of Spark's books, or are interested in reading about a close sibling relationship forged by years of wandering and a fair amount of trials, then you really must read this book. The narrator did an outstanding job, but I sought out a print copy so I could view the photos (I had a feeling there were probably photos). The book itself doesn't hold many tips for would-be-writers, like King's book does, but I did find plenty of this information at Nicholas Spark's web-site, http://www.nicholassparks.com/. Plus, it was fun to read about the process of writing this book, in addition to the answers to frequently asked questions about the book.