THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230031
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book review
SOURCE: BY BARRETT R. RICHARDSON
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
COMBINE A fictional grandson of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a bit of fact, some ambition, lust and murder, and you've got William F. Buckley Jr.'s latest, ``Brothers No More'' (Doubleday, 294 pp., $23.95), a fast-paced yarn involving two men who fought in Italy in World War II, then went their separate ways.
Their battlefield bonding has a bizarre twist to it: one man shows bravery under fire, while the other wounds himself rather than face the enemy. FDR's ``grandson,'' Danny O'Hara, covers for his friend Henry Chafee's combat hesitation and gets him decorated with a Purple Heart, perhaps more as a cynical joke than an act of compassion.
After the war the men attend Yale - no surprise, as it is Buckley's alma mater - then pursue separate careers, Danny becoming president of a 22-hotel chain and Henry becoming a journalist. The men remain close; Danny marries Henry's sister, Caroline, thus making them brothers-in-law.
Buckley splits his novel into alternating sections that develop the disparate lives of the two men. Henry goes off to cover the Vietnam War, and Danny rips off his hotel chain with some creative fraud, siphoning off vast sums into an account that appears to benefit the Hyde Park library of granddaddy Roosevelt.
During the course of the novel, the war hero's character steadily deteriorates while the erstwhile coward blossoms in courage and moxie as a Time correspondent in Vietnam. Buckley skillfully tracks their lives, bringing them together for a comeuppance in a powerful showdown.
Except for Danny's fully defined character as womanizer, crook and killer, the other dramatis personnae verge on being one-dimensional with Buckley relying more on action than personality to move his novel along. Overall, ``Brothers No More'' is light entertainment that provides an up-close view of New England affluence and privilege.
Buckley's 37th book and 11th novel, ``Brothers No More'' adds another feather in the cap of this versatile author, editor, columnist, TV personality and sailor. MEMO: Barrett R. Richardson is a retired staff editor who teaches English
part-time at Tidewater Community College.
by CNB