Fathers, Sons, & Brothers

Bret Lott's Fathers, Sons, & Brothers is much different from The Liar's Club that we previously read by Karr. Focusing more on the minds of men, Bret talks about how important a garage is as he states that "a house is not a home, at least in my mind, until the garage has been put together" (2). As I've been told by society, television, etc., the garage is where a man enjoys life with tools, cars, and whatever outdoors-y thing you could think of. Starting the memoir with the meaning of a garage shows how Mary's father in The Liar's Club and the rest of the club would take refuge in a garage; her father would drink to help calm him down when he would get into a fight with their mother. Onto Lott's memoir, I love Mrs. Lott's reaction to Bret's garage idea by shaking "her head, let out an exasperated sigh. 'Men,' she'd say" (2). This dream house that he describes for his family brings us into his memory of his very own father and family when he was younger; this I found quite creative.

After moving for his father's job from California to Arizona, we find that things were much different in Arizona with cacti and coyotes. It reminded me of when I moved from one home with a basement, then to one without one. Anyway, he states that "there is no there there in a carport, no sense of place other than one to park the car in" (4), that I found odd with his writing. Once you're used to things being a certain way, I know it's hard to transition into something new. With the lack of a basement, it was harder for our family to store seasonal decorations, etc. It's not too frivolous other than just the detailing of things that matter to him such as the picture of Brad and himself from 1980 (27). A behavior that surprised me was "we couldn't understand why they [Mr. and Mrs. Stahl] let both Wade and Cody say things like 'damn' and 'shit' and 'hell' right there in front of them" (18); that quote immediately made me think of The Liar's Club with Mary and Lecia cussing up a storm when they were at a young age. Lott thought that the "smallest sounds, the highest pitches" (22) were just something that he found a mystery at the time. When we are younger, the smallest things amuse us like gravity or bubbles and Bret jumps "ten years later I knew what that sound was: I'd read somewhere it is the noise blood makes rushing through one's head" (23) and that he shouldn't have focused on something that ridiculous compared to a shooting star; that thought amused him, even though he could've focused on other wonders of the world. Lott found that focusing on something that affected him and was a mystery at the time is what he missed about being a child.