The Man Who Killed His Brother Ch 7

[kastenessen]

Brew is awakened by the phone the next morning, drenched in sweat, right in the middle of the third crisishe has been waiting for and...

...his poor sodden brain was yowling with thirst.

It's Ginny. She decides how to proceed the investigation, who is going to talk with whom, of the families to the dead girls. Brew finishes his breakfast and go out to rent a car. Then he heads for North Valley and the Christies. While going there...

By then I was sweating in the heat. The sun had a way beating down on me that was almost an insult-which didn't do anything for my mood either.

Well, the world always is against Brew.:(

Brew meets mrs Christie alone, without her husband John, and being kind of frank with her about their daughter's death, she tells him about the notes...that they were posted three days after Carol dissapeared, and that the strange thing was that there was a letter at all. Carol didn't like to write letters...They are also very afraid to loose their bussiness because of what has happened, if people were starting to believe that they had something to do with it. This doesn't really matter really, the thing is that they don't want to insult the memory of their little girl by lettting people know. They are beset by guilt, that they failed her somehow...and then there was of course this Acton. He scared them to be silent and not tell anybody, so it wouldn't interfere with the investigation...Brew's just waiting to get his hands on this Acton...

Brew got what he wanted and takes himself to the Larsen family. There he meets Bjorn and Magda, the parents of Ann Ruth, one of the dead girls. Bjorn Larsen is a sculptor, one of Puerta del Sol's most famous artists. They speak of their daughter and Brew uses Alathea's dissappearance as a leverage to get them talking. At first they are very reluctant. Acton told them not to speak to anyone...But now they tell Brew that they filed a complaint with the police immediately after their daughter had gone missing, but the police didn't take it seriously, and then the Larsen's withdrew it four days later because they recieved a letter from Ruth Ann where she said everything was OK. They withdrew it because they "...didn't wan't to violate her privacy if the police were to 'capture' her and bring her home against her will. " Brew has some second thoughts of the Larsen's. They don't seem to care enough of their daughter. They haven't even gone looking for her. But Bjorn Larsen says:

Children have the same rights as any other person. So many children grow up to be spoiled, irresponsible or unproductive because they are treated "like children"- which means that their parents are more interested in their own desires for power than in their children's rights.

Finally they show him the letter and it's message and it is as we suspected, a fake letter, dictated by someone else, not written by their daughter...The chapter ends with Brew thinking:

I didn't ask the Larsen's if I could take their note with me. I just took it and left. What else can you do with parents who trusts their children too much to try to protect them?

Some idealistic family these Larsen's aren't they? I find the "Larsen" quotes especially interesting. It would seem to me they are part of a recurring theme within SRD's authorship; it's the concept of balance and paradox, balance is very close to paradox... that there's a thin line here between doing what is right and what is wrong. The Larsen family's misdirected idealism let them fall on the wrong side, though it would seem there are thruth in what Bjorn Larsen is saying. But they couldn't walk the walk, couldn't balance their idealism and integrity against a human trait like protecting and caring for your offspring...

Another thing I discovered...things I love to discover. It don't have to mean anything but ... Bjorn Larsen is a sculptor and so is Reese in SRD's "Unworhty of the Angel", one of my fave short-stories by SRD. (Look into another post in this forum where I write a little about it.) I wonder if SRD has been an art-critic, or maybe an art-connaiseur. I believe he has some good points regarding arts in "Unworthy..." anyway, things said that is a reflection of his writings, and here a sculptor pops up again(well,"...Brother" was written round -77, and "Unworthy..." round -83) ...I also believe that there is a kind of "zen-quality" in sculpting and painting and this maybe mirrors SRD's interests in the martial-arts which he seems to have developed during the years...though I wouldn't say I know anything about martial arts but what I have read in books and seen in movies...


kastenessen

[Dragonlily]

I notice that as Brew wakes up he isn’t quite armored in his usual pessimism yet:

...thanking all the gods who watch over slobs like me...

So the world isn’t totally against Brew, at least when he’s half asleep. He’s still not quite able to take the credit himself, for his foresight in making lots of orange juice last night. Brew has to learn to notice these things about himself.

I ended up with a middle-aged Torino.

This car name doesn’t ring any bells with me. Was there really a car model by this name, or did SRD make it up? <frankly exposing my ignorance on the subject>

SRD wrote of Mrs. Christie:

She was under too much strain to fight me and her fear at the same time.

Dead-on bit of human observation by SRD.

We’re not getting a very winning introduction to Detective Acton, whom we haven’t met yet:

“He looked like he liked hurting us.

Brew is still looking for a place to explode, and Detective Acton is looking more and more like just the right place.

SRD gets in a little joke about Lujan Street where the Larsens live, about Brew trying to find his way there. He doesn’t feel much like joking about the Larsens themselves. They have accepted Ruth Ann’s death and Brew is bringing it back to the forefront of their minds, but that isn’t the worst of it. One of the things I remember most in THE MAN WHO KILLED HIS BROTHER is SRD’s unmistakably sincere anger with the laissez faire attitude expressed by the Larsens - and some other parents - toward their children. Fortunately, by the time I first read this I was old enough to see his point about parents protecting children, even from themselves. I’ve never been a parent, so it was a stretch to think from that point of view.

Bjorn Larsen is a sculptor and so is Reese in SRD's "Unworhty of the Angel", one of my fave short-stories by SRD. (Look into another post in this forum where I write a little about it.) I wonder if SRD has been an art-critic, or maybe an art-connaiseur. I believe he has some good points regarding arts in "Unworthy..." anyway, things said that is a reflection of his writings, and here a sculptor pops up again(well,"...Brother" was written round -77, and "Unworthy..." round -83) ...I also believe that there is a kind of "zen-quality" in sculpting and painting and this maybe mirrors SRD's interests in the martial-arts which he seems to have developed during the years...though I wouldn't say I know anything about martial arts but what I have read in books and seen in movies...

I like this connection you made, Kasten. I like certain styles of sculpture and painting very much, and connecting that appreciation with the mindset of successful martial arts sounds right to me. “Unworthy of the Angel” is one of my favorite SRD short stories, too. I agree with you, he makes some good points about art in it. I would have liked to get the feel of Mr Larsen's sculpture, but it wouldn't have fit into the plot.

[kastenessen]

...thanking all the gods who watch over slobs like me...

...you're right Joy, I forgot that quote, someone's taking care of Brew sometimes...and Ginny too...

Joy wrote:

SRD gets in a little joke about Lujan Street where the Larsen's live, about Brew trying to find his way there.

You're thinking of?

Sure enough, Lujan street turned out to be just about where I thought it was. The problem was I wasn't where I thought it was.

Yeah, I think it's funny too...

Joy wrote:

One of the things I remember most is in THE MAN WHO KILLED HIS BROTHER is SRD'S unmistakably sincere anger with the laissez faire attitude expressed by the Larsen's - and some other parents - toward their children. Fortunately, by the time I first read this I was old enough to see his point about parents protecting children, even from themselves. I've never been a parent, so it was a stretch to think from that point of view.

I agree. This shows again that SRD always is a writer who cares...taking standpoints in difficult issues and moral and ethical dilemmas... and now that I have a two year old daughter these issues becomes, well, more real in a sense...not to speak of the things happening in the book, it's just unthinkable...

Joy wrote:

Brew is still looking for a place to explode, and detective Acton is looking more and more like just the right place.

Hey, now you start to sound like SRD! Cool! ...and it's quite a build-up to this Detective Acton Isn't it?

kasten

[Dragonlily]

Hey, now you start to sound like SRD!

OK if I frame this?

[kastenessen]

Hey, now you start to sound like SRD!

OK if I frame this?

Go ahead!:)

BTW, I checked the net for the torino. It's a Ford Torino, a really ugly car with a lot of muscle. Manufactured between end of 60's and -73. Seems to have a lot of "fans" out there, and you've probably seen it in many early 70's movies. Even I, who don't know anything about cars recognised it!

kasten

[danlo]

Well, I didn't need much more reassurance to be convinced that Puerto Del Sol is Albuquerque but this is starting to hit a little too close to home, literally! I ran a small horse farm on Rio Grande for two years (in the North Valley) and I swear SRD's talking about Bosque Stables or two of the large riding-ranches a bit north of my, then, job. The "upscale" grocery store is catty cornered to that farm, btw! In fact the Larsen's house even sounds like my employer's mansion. The whole area is known as Dietz Farms. We have "The Heights" and the "South Valley" and all that. I'm just hoping the Middle School in the Heights isn't the one I'm currently teaching at. Stop following me around SRD! This is getting spooky!

[Dragonlily]

You want him to stop following you around?? Talk about entertaining company...