We're reading Colson Whitehead's Sag Harbor now, and once again I'm being drawn in by the changing relationship of Benji (the narrator) and his brother Reggie. Not having finished the book yet, I can't talk about how their relationship ends up, but I have some impressions from the scenes we've discussed so far.
In the first chapter, when Ben (the narrator, telling the story of his younger self, Benji) speaks about himself and Reggie as "former twins." I completely understand where he's coming from. Having a younger--but not that much younger--sister, I'm familiar with the conflicting drives to be at once identical and individual. We still get mistaken for twins on the street, though neither of us can see how we look the same. Teachers who have had me in their classes for years mix me up with my sister after her first day in school, time and time again. I get the acceptance that Benji seems to feel at the beginning of the book, his calm narration of "this is just the way things were."Benji 'n' Reggie." "Celia and Stella."
A bit further along, when Reggie seemed to be trying hard to go his own way, I started to get worried that here was another Ruth/Lucille sibling relationship, where their paths are opposite and take them far away from one another. I always get antsy when a sibling relationship shapes up like that in a novel--as far as I'm concerned, anyone's best potential ally is their sibling.
It doesn't look like I had anything to worry about. Benji's worry about Reggie getting hurt in the "Gangsters" chapter and Reggie's obvious fear for his injured brother shows that the two are still close. The line "Reggie had found stoners. Maybe he'd be alright after all" or something like that--that really stuck with me. He's looking out for his brother, and he's happy that Reggie is hanging with a crowd that, while hardly the most reputable demographic in the high school world, is at least not waving toy guns around and screaming for blood. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out for both boys, and I hope the two of them and their relationship makes it through the novel.
I too was happy to find that, although Benji and Reggie have been growing apart during the summer because of jobs and such, that in the "Gangsters" chapter, their strong connection and compassion for each other is still there. I hope this continue to establish their own individual selves, while also have a strong connection between them. One interesting thing to think about, is if any of them will pick up their father's strong personality. Both Benji and Reggie seem very passive, but they have similar genes to their father, so I wonder if any of his controlling traits will pass on to either of them.
ReplyDeleteI also have experienced the sibling pairing: Kavi and Darshan. Darshan is two years younger than me, but we were always very close. As I moved on to different schools than he (we spent a 4 year gap in different schools, only two years ago did he join uni) we started to fall into our own different worlds and grew more apart. For Benji and Reggie, they're defining themselves as people (and Benji talks about this a lot, how he wants to define himself based on himself, 'Ben', rather than having to be one with Reggie) who do their own thing rather than relative to their sibling. The sibling bond never goes away though, no matter how far siblings seem to move apart.
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