Phoenix
A Brother’s Lifeby J. D. Dolan
Knopf, 224 pp., $22
In Phoenix, J. D. Dolan delves into the complex relationship he shared with his older brother John, employing a disjointed narrative while attempting to find answers to why the once-close brothers lapsed into distance and silence. With sharp, taut prose, Dolan is most successful when painting his childhood in 1950s California — years spent with a remote father, a quiet mother, squabbling older sisters, and a beloved older brother. But then the two brothers drift apart, and Dolan, frustratingly, offers little explanation for this deteriorating closeness. The two are reunited years later, after John has suffered severe burns in a power-plant explosion and lays dying in an Arizona hospital. Dolan’s efforts to squeeze meaning and connection out of every past event sometimes feels forced. Such a flaw is true of so many memoirs, the “hot” literary form that annoyingly demands profound lessons learned from life. The strongest moments come when Dolan simply tells his story, not when he digs for meaning where none can be found.
This article appears in March 31 • 2000.