Sam and His Brother Len

By John Manderino

This is the funny, poignant story of two brothers growing up in the early '60s. Manderino lightly approaches the underside of the middle American family in a tumultuous period of history. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0897334078
• ISBN13: 9780897334075
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Another winner

I'm reading this author's entire oeuvre, and I have yet to be even mildly disappointed. Every book--and I'm reading them out of order--is a surprise and delight. Manderino is a master of the vignette/short story, and this novel is a series of episodes in the coming of age of two brothers. For me, the big surprise of SAM AND HIS BROTHER LEN is the immense cumulative power of the stories. By the time you get to the end, you have no doubt at all that you've read a really wonderful novel (about brotherly love) that is greater than the sum of its parts.

funny and endearing

As I approached the end I slowed down my reading because I didn't want it to end.

Wonderfully funny - yet touching - a great read.

This book is such a wonderful portrayal of two young men moving through various stages of their lives. They, and the other characters in the book, are very realistic, complex portrayals of humans with all their frailities. The turns their lives take are entertaining even when disturbing. That complexity is what gives the book such depth, even while being extremely funny. And even when the boys lives seem to be moving on independent of each other, you can see how their relationship informs who they are and how they react to the events in their lives.

A wonderful, painfully funny, evocative book.

This book is such a beautiful potrayal of two brothers growing up during the sixties. It all rings true: the way they speak, their concerns and obsessions, their surroundings and the characters who people their world. This is one of the funniest coming-of age books around, funny in a way that is painfully real.