Apples & Oranges- My
Brother and Me, Lost and Found
Marie Brenner
Reviewed by Ashley
Merrill
Heart
warming and Heart wrenching, this true account of a
brother and sister was an interesting read. There were many good
qualities to
the book, and a few criticisms to the book. First and foremost I feel
as though
Marie Brenner’s target audience was herself. I don’t mean that in a
disrespectful way at all; what I mean by that is that she knew her
brother
better than any of us, and therefore most likely got more out of the
this book
than any of us. It was her memories that she was a part of and she
turned them
into a book that she can not only share with an audience, but one that
she can
take out and have a written account of a this period in her life.
What I really liked about this book was that you could
feel the love these two siblings shared. Her brother found out he was
dying of
cancer and continued to live his life to the absolute fullest, refusing
to
settle down and try just one treatment. He traveled the world trying to
find as
many treatments as he could, and at the same time continued to live his
dream
of growing apples. Marie Brenner showed us that they did their fair
share of
fighting, and showed us that more than half the time they weren’t even
on the
same wave length when it came to understanding one another, but they
still
loved each other fiercely. I could feel
that love in her writing.
I found that I was confused a lot of the time while
reading this because it jumped from one time to another, one memory to
another,
one conversation to another without any real order. This goes back to
the
comment I made about this being a book for mainly her. In Marie
Brenner’s eyes,
I’m sure this book made sense and there was nothing confusing about
what she
was telling, but to the rest of the world who did not experience their
relationship, we were left in some confusion. I don’t think this really
hindered the book too much though.
As
I expected, the end of this story; of their journey as
brother and sister, was not a happy one. I was not expecting it to end
the way
it did though, so my heart definitely fluttered in surprise, and my
pulse
quickened. The end of Carl’s life happened more quickly than I was
expecting.
Having lost a close relative in that exact same way, struck an even
deeper cord
with me.
I
would recommend this book to anyone who understands
what it is like to be a sibling. I would recommend this to anyone who
truly
knows what it takes to be a sibling, and all of the emotions involved;
intense
frustration, intense hatred, and intense love. Siblings are not like
friends,
they are a part of you; they get under your skin and no matter how much
they
make you angry and how much you think you hate them and can never
understand
their ways, you will do anything for them and fight with them through
any
battle, regardless of the consequences. This is what Marie Brenner did.
She was
a wonderful sibling.
FRONT STREET REVIEWS HOME PAGE