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One of These Things Is Not Like the Other
a novel by
D. Travers Scott
Praise for One of These Things Is Not Like the Other
"When their domineering, demanding, and reclusive dad dies, four identical brothers set out to discover who they really are. One of them is gay--or is it two? And if their mother died giving birth to triplets, who is the fourth son? And when they start dying, who among them is the killer? This is a uniquely spooky horror-tinged thriller from the author of Execution, Texas: 1987 and the editor of Strategic Sex."
—Richard Labonté,
Books to Watch Out For
"Remember how great it used to be as a kid having a character like Big Bird to identify with? And hearing the song "One of These Things Is Not Like the Other" and thinking, Hmmm, I guess it's me, because none of my other friends like wearing their mother's makeup? Well, this book has nothing to do with Sesame Street. It's about suicide, homicide, fratricide and incest—a bizarre thriller/dark comedy/love story. (Then again, maybe it is kind of like Sesame Street—written by Clive Barker, directed by David Lynch and starring Crispen Glover as Elmo."
—Miguel Molinero,
Instinct
"In 1997 D. Travers Scott made a splash with his exquisitely disquieting novel Execution, Texas: 1987. Now he returns with a corrosive new novel, One of These Things Is Not Like the Other. In it, a set of quadruplet brothers is raised by their older (but also identical) father. They all share the same first and last name. Then the story gets really strange."
—Nate Lippens,
The Stranger
"Reality skews as Jake Barnes kills himself, leaving his quadruplet sons a message: one of you is an unrelated outsider. The four, spread across America, converge on a woman who may be the outsider's mother. On the way to meet her, a series of murders threaten them—and they threaten each other.
"Part horror, part magical realism, this novel is also a road story and an exploration of identity and sexuality. Kidnap, shape-shifting, murder and repressed sexuality permeate the story: one brother is openly gay, another represses his sexuality, a third is converting to Judaism, but all are responding to the figure of the father who warped their childhood and still threatens them after death.
"Jake Barnes Senior, for all the sons are named for their father, speaks throughout the story in tight, internally alliterative prose which is a delight to read, and the careering journeys of the four Jake Barnes travelling to find themselves and find out the non-brother provide a snapshot of the seamier aspects of America. The reader has to work pretty hard to keep up with the identity shifts, but the ending provides a nice enough twist to reward the effort."
—Kay Sexton,
Chroma
"Four brothers uncover a family secret so disturbing it challenges everything they knew to be true, in One of These Things Is Not Like the Other, the gripping new thriller by D. Travers Scott (Execution, Texas: 1987). Unprepared as they were for their father's death, the suicide of Jake Barnes, Sr. sends a shockwave of fear and doubt through his quadruplet sons when he drops a posthumous bombshell that only worsens tensions between identical siblings--all named Jake--who've done everything in their power to become individuals.
"Although hints are offered sparingly scenes of mild erotica are peppered throughout the plot line. The riddle at the center of One of These Things only leads to more questions. And as Scott effectively blurs the reader's ability to differentiate one brother from another the confusion further adds to the perplexing intensity; even after the dramatic conclusion.
"A fast-paced and suspenseful mystery D. Travers Scott's One of These Things Is Not Like the Other is in stores now from Suspect Thoughts Press."
—Shawn Revelle,
EXP Magazine
"Tender Is the Fright
"Author D. Travers Scott's (Execution) favorite movie is Mullholland Drive and he worships F. Scott Fitzgerald (thus his adopted pen name). And if you put together the moody, specter-ridden dreamscape of Lynch and the lyrical wit of Fitzgerald, you might get something like Scott's new novel, One of These Things Is Not Like the Other. A dark tale of suicide, homicide, fratricide and incest in which sons try to deal with their father's death, Scott calls it his 'twisted take on Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises: a satire on American Manifest Destiny and the cult of masculine individualism, disguised as a thriller.'"
—Jan Richman,
SF Gate
"As wholesome as Americans pretend to be, it's clear that we like our fiction deep, twisted, and inclusive of some criminal element. Incest? Mystery? Gore? We love it all, from the redwood forests to the New York island. This is why we won't be too surprised if D. Travers Scott's novel One of These Things Is Not Like the Others blows up. The plot follows one of four identical brothers back to his small hometown to pick up the pieces after his father commits suicide. Problem is, the father is also identical, and left a claim that one of the brothers was never related to the rest of them. If that ain't American creep-out catnip, what is?"
—Michael Leaverton & Hiya Swanhuyser,
SF Weekly
"This Seattle author is an amazingly adept wordsmith. He is one of those writers who can starkly paint every detail against the inside of your eyelids so that the images linger long after you put down his book.
"His [new] novel is no exception to the dark, gritty, psychological insight into human development that he demonstrated in Execution: Texas. In this saga, quadruplet brothers...all named Jake Barnes after their father, Jake Barnes, who raised them in rural seclusion, eventually separate and search for individual identity while establishing very different lives. When the senior Jake commits suicide, they are drawn together from disparate parts of the country to unravel a mystery. It seems that one of them has a different mother and they must find out which one of them is not like the others.
"This is a compelling read and experiencing it more than once helps to extricate the deeper existential meanings, which dance primitively at the edge of Travers' gripping style. It was hard to put this book down and I doubt you will forget the experience. I am certain you will never think of family in quite the same way.
"Openly and proudly gay, Travers makes no pretense of hiding the homoerotic elements of his narrative. I might actually go so far as to bet that both Walt Whitman and Earnest Hemingway, whom I suspect to be two of his muses, would battle to be in his company.
"Explore the societal notions of brotherhood, fatherhood, and the meanings behind masculinity. You will have no regret for taking the journey."
—Christopher Lawrence,
Stonewall New Northwest
"A book with serious bite
"No one should ever accuse Seattle-based writer D. Travers Scott of playing it safe. His latest novel, One of These Things Is Not Like the Other, is one seriously fucked-up piece of storytelling. (Please note, that's said with admiration.) I defy anyone to find the familiar in his tale of quadruplet brothers--all named Jake Barnes.
"The identical brothers were raised in isolation by their father (also Jake Barnes), and operate under the family mythology that their mother died when they were born. Their individuality was muzzled until they collectively made a break from their dad and settled into vastly different lives.
"When dear ol' dad commits suicide, he leaves behind the message that one of them is an outsider born to a different woman; and the four boys began unraveling every shred of information about their lives to solve the puzzle. Scott shifts the perspective among the brothers, focusing on each of their differences as he drags them toward a collision with the truth.
"Brutal, twisted and sometimes completely frustrating, One of These Things Is Not Like the Other is a meditation on identity that requires a healthy suspension of disbelief. While its parts might be greater than the sum, it's rare to come across a writer this fearless and original."
—C.L. Frey,
The Weekly News
"This gorgeous existential mystery is a page-turner, a grand novel of possession from beyond the grave in which the nuclear family becomes an opera of identity puzzles. Surprises contend on every page. Father may know, but daddy knows best."
—Robert Glück,
author of Denny Smith
"D. Travers Scott's new novel is a tall tale like no other, insinuating itself into your psyche much the way the central figure pervades the dreams and actions of his troubled sons. A brand-new myth that crawls inside modern notions of brotherhood and fatherhood as well as the ways masculinity is traditionally conceived against the supposed American ideal of individualism; the book effectively flays alive all received wisdom on these various apprehensions, and it does so from the inside out, in ever-increasingly ugly eruptions from beneath the skin, revealing the shocking bones beneath the torn muscle and sinew of what we call a family. Scott more than delivers on the promise of Execution, Texas: 1987."
—Craig Lucas,
writer/director of the movie The Dying Gaul
"Populated by surreally incestuous brothers and sexy parapsychological polymorphs, D. Travers Scott's latest novel One of These Things Is Not Like The Other is a jagged and multifaceted backwater noir, filled with revelation and full of life."
—Stephen Winter,
producer, Tarnation, Chocolate Babies
release: May 2005
fiction/thriller
softcover, 5X8
184 pages, $16.95
0-9746388-6-2
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