Brothers of the Head

by Brian W. Aldiss

Siamese twins, Barry and Tom, have a dormant but sinister third head growing out of Barry’s left shoulder. Plucked from the untamed Norfolk coastline by showbiz entrepreneurs cashing in on their demonically violent and freakish relationship, they form a rock band, The Bang Bang, and taste superstardom. Throughout their jealous battles over the woman in their life and their brutal existence, they are forever accompanied by their ominous companion, who makes increasing demands for its right to life.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, British Literature

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Pseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.

Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.

Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads

Reviews

[Emma Sea]

I've never been in favor of censorship of books for kids. I had free range of my mom's bookshelves, and she had the best collection of classic sci-fi, which, although technically too old for me, was the best reading material possible, and shaped me into the person I am today.

She also had this book.

I read this book.

I was eight.

This book traumatized me.

I am reviewing now because it still haunts me. Just seeing that cover twists me up inside. I want to run and hide under a blanket, in the back of the closet.

I think it was Ian Pollock's illustrations that did my head in. Because I read Aldiss's Hothouse at the exact same age and loved it (still own the same paperback). But this was disturbing and upsetting and scary. I was not ready for questions about the nature of being and identity and humanity (the self-mutilation and sex wasn't as affecting).

Anyway, I don't even know if I have a point here, or if I'm just rambling because I'm tired and it's Tuesday. I guess, all the stars for being unforgettable (no matter how hard I try)? But if you own this, and have kids, please store on a high shelf. *shivers*

[Jemiah Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal. Sick, touching, heartfelt, sad, frustrating, the story of conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe, their odd, grim family and upbringing, the oddity of their rise to rock stardom, and the rudimentary this head on Barry's shoulder that is the true linchpin of the story. Remarkably structured as a series of recollections of the most important people in the lives of the twins, it's like a surreal, twisted prose version of "Behind the Music" written twenty years before the format saw birth on VH-1. A fine companion to the film adaptation, and yet not quite exactly the same story, this book contains countless layers of commentary on those termed "freaks" by normal-bodied people, the treatment and influence of celebrities, the musician's motivation (and that of the ones who fall in love with them), even the nature of consciousness and identity itself... A masterpiece. Very highly recommended.

[Holyfool · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the illustrations by Ian Pollock would make you read this realistically surreal tale.
The book contains different perspectives to the story, making it more interesting and even twister.

It is a simple story but at the same time it gives you the choices to interpreter it thru so many different subtexts and feelings ( if this the right word to use here ).

When I first took a look at the book, I thought it was written for children, the layout, illustrations and shape, it could easily pass for a children tale book; and that even made me more inquisitive about it.

Everything about Brothers of The Head is beyond its time, sizing that this book is not even 40 years old.

The movie was made about couple of years ago, and the editing and photography work of it really caught the atmosphere that the books was based on: that 70's retro feeling of raw music intertwined withn damaging vignettes.

Read it!

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping this book would add more to the great movie they made from it, but it came up short. It's the story of Siamese twins that become the front men of a rock band. Between drugs, a woman, behavior problems and a third dormant head that "wakes up", there is much craziness involved with the twins. Although the book is fiction it is written, very well, like it's nonfiction. When I read the introduction I thought, wow this story is based on a real story. Then I realized it was just part of the story.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've not seen the film - the trailer was quite enough - but this is the source material. The idea is better than its development or maybe the characters aren't especially likeable. In the novel there is, of course, the third head which looks as if it was cut from the film which is a shame because he was the most interesting character for me.

This is not badly written and it certainly didn't put me off Aldiss as a writer. It simply wasn't to my taste.

[bu3asalli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly I got more out of the movie than I did out of the book.

[Mark Fuller Dillon · Rating 2 out of 5]

At the level of the sentence, from clause to clause, Brian Aldiss flickered for decades as perhaps the finest of all science fiction stylists. Yet he was also a story-teller of baffling inconsistency, in one tale brilliant, in the next, bathetic, in a third, downright embarrassing. Even worse, he could sometimes be all three in a single story.

And so he gave us "The Moment of Eclipse," which began with intensely sexual obsession:

"Beautiful women with corrupt natures -- they have always been my life's target."

But then it veered away in a moment of avoidance:

"It may appear as anti-climax if I admit that I now forgot about Christiania, the whole reason for my being in that place and on that continent. Nevertheless, I did forget her; our desires, particularly the desires of creative artists, are peripatetic: they submerge themselves sometimes unexpectedly and we never know where they may appear again. My imp of the perverse descended. For me the demolished bridge was never rebuilt."

Then it became a tale of parasitic infection, a biological haunting, until it suddenly deflated like a birthday party balloon:

"'I'm to be haunted by this dreadful succubus for fifteen years!'

"'Not a bit of it! We'll treat you with a drug called diethyl-carbamazine and you'll soon be okay again.'"

The End.

And so he gave us FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND: in its first three quarters, a fatuous Valentine's Day card to Mary Shelley, a tedious, unconvincing alternative-history treadmill that suddenly, in its final quarter, surged into life with a journey through northern landscapes progressively cold, stark, and bizarre. This final part brings out all of the descriptive power, visual evocation, and narrative tension of Brian Aldiss at his best. It ends the book superbly... but how many readers would be willing to drag themselves from page to page during the book's dull preliminary sections? How many readers would chuck this pile of pages half-way through?

And so he gave us "Brothers Of The Head," an account of Siamese twins who, somehow, unconvincingly, become rock-star geniuses, whose brilliant career is not shown to us directly, but with reports of dry detachment from business people on the outside. Yet after this career falls apart, the story turns around to stare at its twin protagonists; it suddenly becomes a visceral, ferocious, and ultimately moving tragedy of two people who hate each other with rabid passion, but who cannot break apart. They can only break down, and with unsettling brutality, they do.

Again: how many readers of the story would sit through its aridly journalistic opening and middle sections, to reach its worthwhile conclusion?

Behold -- Brian Aldiss!

And so he gave us the baffling monument of his work: one of the best writers of his generation, yet sometimes one of the worst.

[Phillip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep and dark psychological brilliance. It's mad.

This book is simply excellent, much deeper than the surface level of a first read, so much that it will leave you thinking days and weeks afterward. Just to imagine that you can’t physically separate from someone you can no longer tolerate - imagine if a rival was attached to you long after a relationship had soured. But again, dark as the premise is, there is much more to the story than that, superbly retold through those involved in the boys’ lives. We quickly know that SOMETHING has happened to them. But what?

This book deserves iconic status, alongside such psychological excellence as Susan Hill’s I’m the King of the Castle.

[Jigar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underrated short story, part horror, part documentary, on the life of exploited Siamese twins born with a "third head". Written from the perspective of doctors, family members and other associates. Strangely, I found it comical at times. I'm not sure that was intentional. The writing is excellent. I previously enjoyed a couple of Brian W. Aldiss' novels, Non-Stop and Hothouse. I now look forward to reading more of his shorter fiction.

[Itch Iseatingnandos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and trashy punk fiction

[Daniel Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surreal, grotesque, tragic, and beautiful.

[Alistair · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many ways, this is more of a 3-star story, but the water-colour illustrations deserve at least a star or two!
Plus add extra stars for the location (North Norfolk) and the heat-wave-drought of the mid-70's!
Put like that 4 stars seems very conservative. :)
This is one of those books you'll like or hate! No middle way with this.

[latner3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siamese twins with a difference a third head is growing out of their body and they form a rock band. Profoundly disturbing and ultimately incredibly sad.