The Sisters Brothers: A NovelPatrick Dewitt
Ecco, April 2011
ISBN: 978-0062041265
With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force.
Patrick deWitt's prior work and debut, Ablutions: Notes for a Novel, warranted a heap of praise from reviewers around the country. It was good. This is better.
Eli and Charlie Sisters are two hired guns sent to California by their boss, known as the Commodore, to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. They don’t question why he has to die, they simply follow orders. The journey to find Warm is a large portion of the book and allows us the chance to see how different Eli and Charlie are from each other. Charlie is brutal and selfish, a cold hearted killer with vicious instincts, while Eli is a bit softer, or at least open to the possibility of finding happiness someday.
Eli narrates the story with thoughtful observations and through him we begin to understand the complicated relationship between the two brothers. Along the way the two encounter, among others: prospectors, prostitutes, criminals, an old witch, a dead Indian, a dentist and a weeping man leading a horse. Their exploits are spirited and often humorous, even against an ominous backdrop of blood and greed and gold.
The Sisters Brothers is at times funny, disturbing and touching. Charlie and Eli are well made creations. At the start of the novel their actions define them but as deWitt takes them on their journey to find and kill Hermann Warm deWitt leisurely draws out their personalities. The conversation and the rivalry between the siblings is sometimes funny, sometimes frightening but always realistic. Through allegiance and betrayal, theft of life and loss of limb, Eli and Charlie plunge deeper into the wilds in pursuit of their quarry. A showdown imminent, the Sisters brothers divine new opportunities that will test their commitment to mission, vocation and each other.
PATRICK DEWITT is the author of the critically acclaimed Ablutions: Notes for a Novel. Born in British Columbia, he has also lived in California, Washington, and Oregon, where he currently resides with his wife and son.
ISBN: 9780062041265; ISBN10: 0062041266; Imprint: Ecco; On Sale: 4/26/2011; Format: Hardcover; Pages: 336; $24.99
