New England Book Festival Review of Oh Brother!

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This is the written review of OH BROTHER! THE LIFE & TIMES OF JEFF FAZZOLARI by the fine people at the New England Book Festival.

A little back-story here. I was driving home from Syracuse when I received the e-mail notification of the review on my phone. I pulled over to read it and my heart filled with appreciation of my brother and his life. As I finished it my I-Pod cooperated. Bruce's voice filled the car. It wasn't American Land that blasted through the speakers. That was Jeff's favorite song, but that would have been too weird. Instead, what came through was maybe even more fitting. The song that played?

Land of Hopes and Dreams.



OH BROTHER! THE LIFE & TIMES OF JEFF FAZZOLARI By Cliff Fazzolari

It’s strange that a story about death has so much to teach us about life. But that’s the lesson of Oh Brother! The Life & Times of Jeff Fazzolari, an autobiographical look at the author’s kid brother, who passed away much too young but left behind a poignant legacy of laughter and the celebration of life.

Everyone should have a Jeff Fazzolari in their life. A jokester with a love of cooking, Bruce Springsteen and his family, Oh Brother is the story of his childhood and young adulthood.

When an unexpected stroke fells him at age 38, leaving him incapacitated in the hospital for six weeks, the author intercuts scenes of that medical struggle with memories of happier times growing up: road trips and jaunts around town, head-shaving, watching Hank Aaron’s 714th home run, and pranks and stunts galore.

“How does he get away with this crap?” his brother asks a friend at one point.

“Everyone loves him,” the friend says. “How can you not?”

By interspersing those memories with the anguish of the family in the hospital, author Cliff Fazzolari paints a vivid picture of family love and unshakeable bonds.

It also contains a message to the audience on the real value of living every day with gusto and gratitude.

Although Jeff succumbs to his illness in the end, it does not extinguish all the light that he created in his short life.

As Cliff Fazzolari notes at the end of the book, “there is hope alive because of the love that surrounds our family.”

The book is an easy read and is tightly written, not an easy task considering the time jumps that occur frequently in the story line.

Author Fazzolari does an excellent job conveying the anger and anguish that occurs when an unexpected tragedy befalls a loved one, but never descends into the maudlin.

This is a clear-eyed account of a very moving moment, and the vivid descriptions are sure to stay with the reader for a long time.

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