Goat Brothers

by Larry Colton

Book Overview

A magazine writer describes his years as a fraternity boy at Berkeley in the early 1960s, discussing his ambitious classmates, their dreams, and their disappointments during a decade of promise.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038524407X
• ISBN13: 9780385244077
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 559 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful, sad, honest...an awesome blend of emotions

Larry Colton does a great job of telling the tales of a group of college buddies. Colton, a former major league pitcher, does not favor his career over the stories of the others. He is blunt, funny, melancholic and pretty much every other emotion somewhere in the book. I thought I would enjoy the baseball parts (and I did), but I really loved reading about the rest of the college buddies. With such great talent, I hope Larry writes another book, just on his own career.

Excellent story of 60s Campus Life

I first read this book when it came out about 7 years ago & am just now getting around to reviewing it. I remember the story as if I'd just read it last week-5 frat boys who became Big Men On Campus, their stories are true and there's never a dull moment. It's all here, the keg parties, the football games, the protests, etc. The book would've made a great tv mini-series, providing they let Larry Colton write the screenplay. Anyway, if this ever comes back in print you should make it a point to buy it. Highly recommended.

Frat Life In The Sixties

I first blitzed through this book when it initially came out and thoroughly enjoyed it as I too was a member of the same Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity .... only on another campus at the same time the author was at Berkeley. I found the experiences of fraternity life frighteningly very similar. More remarkable, however, is the candor and honesty the author exhibited in disclosing with his readers the results of his choices made in early adulthood that manifest themselves with a vengence in later life. This book paralells the five lives of both more responsible and lesser responsible young men and the consequences that inevitably take place. The Author lets us in to his inner most circle of friends and family including his famous mother-in-law Hedy Lamarr who died this week. Having just read her obituary I was provoked to reread "Goat Brothers" again after 8 years. Now, with sons and daughters of my own in college, and like Larry having a precious daughter with an eating disorder, I can't think of a better book to have them read to show them the criticality of their young adult decisions and the impact those decisions will have on the rest of their lives. I only wish there was some way to contact the author Larry Colton, to inquire about any other books he's finished or working on, to wish him well, slip him the secret phi phi grip and salute him with a sincere "ppka Brother!".

Hunt this one out!

Worth the pursuit--both to purchase as an out-of-print and to read, ponder, and absorb as writing, as a study, and as a meditation of sorts. I admired everything about this work, and if transitions are sometimes awkward, they are also heroic, as the attempt to convey so much in one book is huge and heroic. Colton's an athletic writer, and disciplined--he's carried over his sports talents to the writing life.I keep looking for a new Colton book...

Excellent book about the early 1960's

This book is for readers (maybe particularly men) who want to read about and try to understand the early 1960's. A haunting true story of fraternity brothers at the University of California (football star Craig Morton is one of them) and how their lives developed both in and after college. Great reading.