My Brothers Keeper - review

My Brother Keeper – The Official Bra Boys Story by Sean Doherty

Unless you have been living under a rock you’ll be familiar with the Bra Boys.
Every surfer seems to have an opinion of them, be it good or bad.
Doherty’s recent book My Brothers Keeper takes the reader beyond the tabloid headlines, the sensational reportage and into the lives of the blokes who proudly bear the words ‘my brothers keeper’ inked upon their skin.

Primarily about the four Abberton brothers who were born to different fathers and a mother whose soul was twisted by the demons of heroin addiction; it’s a compelling and sometimes despairing, sometimes uplifting tale of their lives growing up in Maroubra and beyond.
Forget the murder cases, the charges, the clashes with police and gangs; while it’s all there, their story is far bigger and more complex.

Doherty has avoided the easy route of offering the usual sex, drugs and rock n roll so beloved of too many surf writers; instead he allows the brothers voices and their sometime different accounts and perspectives of these sometimes shocking, sometimes mundane and often difficult times.
It’s a raw and rough story and often you want to shake them by the scruff of the neck. But in the end, Doherty has written an extremely insightful account of their lives and actions and one that lets you glimpse beneath their public personas.
My Brothers Keeper represents a new level of Doherty’s writing and shows why he is one of the most interesting and intuitive surf writers around.
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/9780732285548/My_Brothers_Keeper_The_Official_Bra_Boys_Story/index.aspx