1975; 257 pages. New Author? : No. Genres : Hard-boiled Crime;
New York City Fiction; Urban Life. Overall
Rating : 7*/10.
The Order of St. Crispin is certainly not
the biggest group of monks within the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, at their monastery in New York City,
there are only sixteen of the brethren.
But they have found peace
there. Their abbey sits on a large plot
of land, with high, windowless walls that make its monks forget that they live
on busy Park Avenue.
It’s an island of calm in a sea of urban hustle-and-bustle.
Technically they don’t own the
site, but they’ve been paying a nominal annual rent for nigh unto two centuries. It’s quite the pittance for some
very valuable property, but everyone is happy about the arrangement. Until now.
Someone wants to buy the old
monastery and the land it’s on, tear it down, and build stores in its
place. Holy Smokes! Surely there’s a lease, and surely it specifies some
sort of protection the Order has against this!
Let’s check it to make sure.
Erm, yeah. The only copy of the lease the monastery has
seems to have disappeared.
What’s To Like...
Brothers Keepers is told from the first-person POV of one of the monks at the abbey, Brother
Benedict. He’s actually the one who
first uncovers the takeover plot, since one of his duties is to leave the
monastery every Sunday, go to the local newsstand, and purchase the Sunday New
York Times edition.
The main storyline is of course
figuring out how to save the monastery’s present location, but other plot
threads crop up as well. Finding the
missing lease is critical, and if that can’t be done, then let’s see if we can
find a copy of it. The owner of the property certainly has one.
But there is an equally
intriguing personal side thread. Brother
Benedict is asked to accompany the head abbot, Brother Oliver, when they go to discuss
things with various worldly people who can influence the decision whether to
raze the monastery or not. This leads to
Brother Benedict “Traveling” (the word is always
capitalized in the story) by himself. He’s exposed to “the
Ways of the Flesh”, something he gave up years ago when he entered
the brotherhood. This leads to an
additional plotline: will Brother Benedict recant his vows and leave the
monastery?
I liked the way Donald Westlake portrays life in a monastery in the modern world. We get convincing glimpses into the lives and history of all sixteen monks, plus one very bedraggled priest who stops by once a week to take confession from each monk.
I also enjoyed going back in time—Brothers Keepers was written
fifty years ago—to a very different world.
One with typewriters, smoking in public places, Ford Pintos, telephone
operators, and a Sunday New York Times issue that will only cost you 60 cents.
The ending resolves the main
storyline and all of the secondary ones, although the door is left open as to whether Brother Benedict spends the rest of his life in a
monastery. But since Donald Westrlake
passed away in 2008, I suspect this will remain a one-and-done novel.
Ratings…
Amazon:
4.3/5
based on 340 ratings and 35 reviews.
Goodreads: 3.81/5 based on 723
ratings and 89 reviews.
Excerpts...
The Solinex Building was one rectangle
repeated seven million times. In glass,
in chrome, and in what might have been but probably was not stone. It was set back from the public sidewalk,
leaving space for a fountain with a statue in it. The statue was an abstract, but seemed to
represent a one-winged airplane with measles which had just missed its landing
on an aircraft carrier and was diving nose-first into the ocean. At least that’s the way it looked to me.
Apparently it looked otherwise to Brother
Oliver. “Lot’s wife,” he commented as we
went by. (loc. 966)
“You’ve discussed this with Father
Banzolini?
“Only certain aspects of it,” I said. “In confession.”
“Oh.”
“Father Banzolini thinks I’m temporarily
insane.”
Brother Oliver gave me a look of utter
astonishment. “He what?”
“Well, he didn’t phrase it that way,” I
said. “He just said I wasn’t responsible
for my actions at the moment.”
Brother Oliver shook his head. “I’m not entirely convinced a Freudian priest
is a viable hybrid.” (loc.
2104)
Kindle Details…
Brothers
Keepers presently sells for $7.99 at Amazon. There are a couple dozen Donald Westlake
novels available in e-book format, a majority of which fall in the $7.99-$9.99
price range. Alternatively, you can wait and hope for them to be discounted, which happens on occasion.
“What a lot of
Buildings there are,” I said. And yet
they want more.” (. . .) “It’s an edifice complex,” Brother Oliver explained. (loc. 958)
There’s very little profanity
in the first half of Brothers Keepers, when
Brother Benedict spends most of his time in the abbey. Later on, when he’s immersed in worldliness,
and has resumed using his birth name, the rate of cussing picks up. Still, I only counted 33 instances in the
whole story. Plus one adult situation.
The bigger issue was the
ending. I envisaged three or four
possible ways to resolve the set of plotlines, and very much looked forward to
seeing which path was used. Instead, Donald
Westlake comes up with a different one, which normally is a plus. But here it’s unexciting, felt rushed,
and disappointing. At least to me.
Still, the story kept me
interested up until the end, with plenty of subtle wit and keen insight into living in
the heart of New York City in a spiritual retreat. But if you've never read anything by Donald Westlake, just don’t make this your introduction to his work. Instead, choose one of
the books in his “Dortmunder” series.
Every one of those is good.
7 Stars. One last thing. I was pleasantly surprised by nod to one of the most cutting-edge comedy acts tin television history: The Smothers Brothers Show. It was one of my favorite TV shows at that time, and that still holds true.
