The Car Thief and Catcher in the Rye - similaries and differences

Nearing the end of Theodore Weesner's excellent 1972 debut novel, The Car Thief - in last section, tantalizingly titled Summer Death (still don't know whose), we get some surprising developments re Alex's relationship w/ his younger brother, Howard. A writes to H and suggest a visit - they have not seen each other for several years, and Alex feels very tender toward and protective of his younger brother. Father - a kindly man troubled by serious drinking problems - tries to discourage the visit, gets very drunk when he give Alex a ride to the lakeside inn where Howard lives w/ their mother and her new husband. Alex treated very curtly by the stepfather. What's all this about? Gradually, subtly, Weesner let's us see that this "inn" is really a brothel, that their mother maybe runs the place - was probably a prostitute herself - and A comes to the conclusion, correct probably though it's never known definitively - that Howard is not his brother. He takes off and heads back home, scuffles his way through the summer, decides he will not go back to h.s. but will join the Army - Dad isn't crazy about this idea but at this point is so impaired that he can't stop him. Then, Howard comes to visit Alex in the city (Flint, Mich., probably, which is where Weesner was raised), and Alex is rude to him and dismissive - this is a strange echo or reprise of their early years when Alex would play nasty tricks on Howard when he was supposed to be meeting him after school, leading to a traumatic night when Howard was lost in the city. The Alex-Howard relationship, superficially, is one of the elements that make readers compare Alex w/ Holden Caulfield - his tender and protective feelings toward his sister, Phoebe - but the comparison doesn't hold: Alex seems to want from his brother some kind of relationship that he should have from friends and peers, he's jealous of his brother for his access to maternal love, and he acts this out through bitterness and maybe even hostility or vengeance. They don't talk about their relationship, and Alex rebuffs Howard's attempts at rapprochement and connection. He's a much "harder" character than HC - not trying to protect his sibling's innocence but to bring his brother down into the hole that he's in.