Being Brothers

By: Mike DeLucia

Narrated by: Mike DeLucia

Siblings...

Our first friends. Our first enemies.

Our past. Our present.

From the multi-award-winning author of Madness: The Man Who Changed Basketball comes another inspiring novel about friends, family...and baseball.

The Bronx, New York, 1972

Being Brothers is a story, within a story, within a story, sparked by the fortuitous, life-changing epiphany of Mark Marino, a content middle-aged man who discovers an untapped well of repressed, unrealized dreams.

Another character, Jack Amato, frequently revisits the neighborhood to ground himself by the sights, smells, and memories of the past, through the coming-of-age experiences of Jackie, the spacey, slightly awkward, yet lovable version of his younger self who grew up in the Bronx in the 1970s - a time of street games, young love, best friends, little league, mean teachers, and the love/hate, friend/enemy dynamics of sibling rivalry.

While Mark, Jack, and Jackie exist in separate worlds, they are all connected by the outcome of Mark’s serendipitous moment.

Being Brothers takes the listener on a journey back in time to a much simpler era and examines the experiences of family, friendship, life lessons, and the profound impact of our past.

For those who lived it, enjoy the story of your past, and for those who didn’t, sit down, get comfortable, and enjoy the ride. Get the audiobook.

©2020 Mike DeLucia (P)2021 Mike DeLucia

Boys life in the 70’s captured perfectly!

Being Brothers is more than just entertaining, it’s a realistic flashback to childhood in the world before the Internet, video games, social media, and when phones were still attached to the wall in your kitchen. DeLucia’s novel is a story within a story as middle-aged writer Mark reads his screenplay that he has to send to a high-powered agent before noon to make his filmmaking dreams come true. The beginning of the story takes us through what a writer's day is like. As a writer, I can concur with the realism of our pre-writing rituals, which can be no different than the rituals of baseball players adjusting their batting glove velcro straps, uniform, batting helmet, and bat waggles before each pitch. DeLucia captures that part of the writer’s life as he obsesses over his script that he is on the clock to deliver. He re-reads it one more time we are taken into the story of Jackimo “Jackie” Amato, a 12-year-old in the Bronx just off Tremont Street. Playing Baseball, hanging out with the neighborhood kids, bike riding, baseball cards, stickball, and turning red when the subject of girls came up were all a big part of a boy’s life in the 1970’s. DeLucia captures this world perfectly, and I found myself laughing out loud in the car at the one-liners, the antics, and the conversations that our parents didn’t hear and the sense that what happens out in the street says there and we didn’t tell our parents when something was brewing. We relied on our wits, our friends, and sometimes our feet when we had to get out of trouble. DeLucia, without spelling everything out, paints a picture of this world that is authentic. The rivalry between Jackie and his older brother Sal Jr. is well played out, and we are along for the ride as Jackie manages life in school, on the streets, and on the ball field, which for a 12-year-old was everything. It’s a delightful coming-of-age story that is packed with action but also emotion, as the strict but loving Amato parents reminded me of my own. It’s a fun, light listen, narrated by the author, Bronx accents included, that will have you smiling and thinking of those days of innocence. Being Brothers is a pure delight and the perfect immersion into a time when life was simple.

loved it

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Great story, great memories

This book brought back such great memories. Both of an innocent time in a great neighborhood and love/hate relationships if siblings. The author tells a great story in a short time. I didn’t want it to end.

Great story - screenplay style not my thing

While I loved the story, I had trouble staying involved with the style. It's written as a screenplay and those are not my cup of tea. If you can ignore the screenplay directions, the story is captivating and reminds me of a simpler time in my own life.

Thank you Audiobooks Unleashed for the opportunity to listen to this book.