Reviews
" The Looking Glass Brother is an engaging story of loyalty, love and a search for reconciliation between two brothers and an indifferent and often-callous father. Packed with the intimacies of an old-monied family, the story moves between the family's wealthy preserve on Long Island Sound and the grubby drug streets of New York City in the 1970s and 80s. It is a candid and personal story that seeks to show and understand the forces that both tear apart and draw together a father and his two sons, even as all three wrestle with their personal demons."-Lou Ureneck, author of Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly Fishing and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska (National Outdoor Book Award Winner) and Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream and Five Acres in Maine, Von Ziegesar's cinematic eye and exceptional fluency in diverse perspectives make him an adventurously empathic biographer and audaciously candid memoirist in this piercing, thought-provoking portrait of a many-branched American family and a "looking glass" brother who reflects so many of life's most plangent mysteries., Brotherly love is evident here, while drugs, lavish estates, suicide, divorce, philandering, and the back drop of NYC round out a touching inside view of comfort and homelessness., In a memorable memoir reflecting identity, von Ziegesar tells of his stepbrother's wounds, both psychic and grievously physical, occasionally with fraternal irascibility and more frequently with candid understanding...The talented writer snares readers throughout., The Looking Glass Brother is an engaging story of loyalty, love and a search for reconciliation between two brothers and an indifferent and often-callous father. Packed with the intimacies of an old-monied family, the story moves between the family's wealthy preserve on Long Island Sound and the grubby drug streets of New York City in the 1990s. It is a candid and personal story that seeks to show and understand the forces that both tear apart and draw together a father and his two sons, even as all three wrestle with their personal demons., "Von Ziegesar's cinematic eye and exceptional fluency in diverse perspectives make him an adventurously empathic biographer and audaciously candid memoirist in this piercing, thought-provoking portrait of a many-branched American family and a "looking glass" brother who reflects so many of life's most plangent mysteries." -- Booklist "Brotherly love is evident here, while drugs, lavish estates, suicide, divorce, philandering, and the back drop of NYC round out a touching inside view of comfort and homelessness." -- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "In a memorable memoir reflecting identity, von Ziegesar tells of his stepbrother's wounds, both psychic and grievously physical, occasionally with fraternal irascibility and more frequently with candid understanding...The talented writer snares readers throughout." -- Kirkus Reviews "This provocative looking-glass tale of two nonconformist brothers, one thriving within a nurturing family circle, the other a perpetual outsider because of mental illness, shines with emotional veracity, sensory precision, cosmic absurdity, all kinds of pain and steadfast love." -- Kansas City Star "Elegantly constructed and written with both stringency and heart, The Looking Glass Brother fluently braids memories of an ultraprivileged childhood and the bleak realities of mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness today. Von Ziegesar has the gift for creating rounded characters, and the brother of the title comes alive as a figure of compelling, if heartbreaking, paradox, while the portrait of the clueless father is the most vivid of its kind I've read since This Boy's Life." -- Eli Gottlieb, author of The Boy Who Went Away and The Face Thief " The Looking Glass Brother is an engaging story of loyalty, love and a search for reconciliation between two brothers and an indifferent and often-callous father. Packed with the intimacies of an old-monied family, the story moves between the family's wealthy preserve on Long Island Sound and the grubby drug streets of New York City in the 1990s. It is a candid and personal story that seeks to show and understand the forces that both tear apart and draw together a father and his two sons, even as all three wrestle with their personal demons." -- Lou Ureneck, author of Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly Fishing and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska (National Outdoor Book Award Winner) and Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream and Five Acres in Maine "There's so much to admire about von Ziegesar's writing. Perhaps most resonant is his unique lyrical voice, both brave and loving as he retells a dark, very personal story." -- Stephanie LaCava, author of An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris, Elegantly constructed and written with both stringency and heart, The Looking Glass Brother fluently braids memories of an ultraprivileged childhood and the bleak realities of mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness today. Von Ziegesar has the gift for creating rounded characters, and the brother of the title comes alive as a figure of compelling, if heartbreaking, paradox, while the portrait of the clueless father is the most vivid of its kind I've read since This Boy's Life., This provocative looking-glass tale of two nonconformist brothers, one thriving within a nurturing family circle, the other a perpetual outsider because of mental illness, shines with emotional veracity, sensory precision, cosmic absurdity, all kinds of pain and steadfast love., There's so much to admire about von Ziegesar's writing. Perhaps most resonant is his unique lyrical voice, both brave and loving as he retells a dark, very personal story., "Von Ziegesar's cinematic eye and exceptional fluency in diverse perspectives make him an adventurously empathic biographer and audaciously candid memoirist in this piercing, thought-provoking portrait of a many-branched American family and a "looking glass" brother who reflects so many of life's most plangent mysteries."- Booklist "Brotherly love is evident here, while drugs, lavish estates, suicide, divorce, philandering, and the back drop of NYC round out a touching inside view of comfort and homelessness."- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "In a memorable memoir reflecting identity, von Ziegesar tells of his stepbrother's wounds, both psychic and grievously physical, occasionally with fraternal irascibility and more frequently with candid understanding…The talented writer snares readers throughout."- Kirkus Reviews "This provocative looking-glass tale of two nonconformist brothers, one thriving within a nurturing family circle, the other a perpetual outsider because of mental illness, shines with emotional veracity, sensory precision, cosmic absurdity, all kinds of pain and steadfast love."- Kansas City Star "Elegantly constructed and written with both stringency and heart, The Looking Glass Brother fluently braids memories of an ultraprivileged childhood and the bleak realities of mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness today. Von Ziegesar has the gift for creating rounded characters, and the brother of the title comes alive as a figure of compelling, if heartbreaking, paradox, while the portrait of the clueless father is the most vivid of its kind I've read since This Boy's Life."-Eli Gottlieb, author of The Boy Who Went Away and The Face Thief " The Looking Glass Brother is an engaging story of loyalty, love and a search for reconciliation between two brothers and an indifferent and often-callous father. Packed with the intimacies of an old-monied family, the story moves between the family's wealthy preserve on Long Island Sound and the grubby drug streets of New York City in the 1990s. It is a candid and personal story that seeks to show and understand the forces that both tear apart and draw together a father and his two sons, even as all three wrestle with their personal demons."-Lou Ureneck, author of Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly Fishing and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska (National Outdoor Book Award Winner) and Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream and Five Acres in Maine "There's so much to admire about von Ziegesar's writing. Perhaps most resonant is his unique lyrical voice, both brave and loving as he retells a dark, very personal story."-Stephanie LaCava, author of An Extraordinary Theory of Objects: A Memoir of an Outsider in Paris
