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The Sisters Brothers
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Historical Fiction (2011)Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brother's appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else. But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living - and whom he does it for.
With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters - losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life - and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West, and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.
With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters - losers, cheaters, and ne'er-do-wells from all stripes of life - and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old West, and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published April 26, 2011
About the author
Patrick deWitt
19 books2,474 followersPatrick deWitt is the author of the novels French Exit (a national bestseller), The Sisters Brothers (a New York Times bestseller short-listed for the Booker Prize), and the critically acclaimed Undermajordomo Minor and Ablutions. Born in British Columbia, he now resides in Portland, Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 10,146 reviews
February 23, 2020
What a rollicking adventure. A great Western with amazing dialogue and narration. The ending falters but who cares? I was absolutely absorbed in this novel. Read it in a few hours. Loved it.
October 10, 2022
Update 2022: As I was praising this book to a GR friend I realised I have very fond memories of it which is rare. As a result, I think this book deserves 5*.
Update on the movie!
Don’t watch the movie, read the book. Unfortunately, it did not have any of the atmosphere of deWitt’s novel. The appeal of the novel is in the voice of the narrator which could not be captured on the screen.
Review:
Not your classic western novel. Great name, wonderful cover, lovely content, amazing storytelling. Shortlisted for the Booker prize 2011.
I was watching a western comedy with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson when I thought that maybe I should read a proper western novel in the near future. When I was little I used to enjoy Karl May but that was the last time I immersed myself into this genre. That evening, I started to browse the only western I owned ( if I don't count the Gunslinger) and I found myself in love with the author's voice right from the start.
The Sisters brothers are Eli and Charlie, 2 famous paid killers working for the Commodore. They are hired to find and kill a prospector in San Francisco. The novel presents their journey to California and their adventures during the time spent there.
Eli and Charlie could not be more different from each other. Charlie is bossy, impulsive, a bit of psychopath, loves to drink and does not hold too much respect for his brother. Eli, on the other hand, is sensitive, loves his brother, cares for his horses, does not enjoy killing people uselessly and his dream is to settle down with a woman.
The story is told by Eli, and oh, it is such a beautiful voice. I cannot exactly pinpoint what I loved so much about this book but I guess it is the story telling and the introspect into Eli’s feelings about his job, his brother and the relationship with his horse. It was moved by his candid feelings and could not help but sympathize with Eli, despite him being a killer.
Update on the movie!
Don’t watch the movie, read the book. Unfortunately, it did not have any of the atmosphere of deWitt’s novel. The appeal of the novel is in the voice of the narrator which could not be captured on the screen.
Review:
Not your classic western novel. Great name, wonderful cover, lovely content, amazing storytelling. Shortlisted for the Booker prize 2011.
I was watching a western comedy with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson when I thought that maybe I should read a proper western novel in the near future. When I was little I used to enjoy Karl May but that was the last time I immersed myself into this genre. That evening, I started to browse the only western I owned ( if I don't count the Gunslinger) and I found myself in love with the author's voice right from the start.
The Sisters brothers are Eli and Charlie, 2 famous paid killers working for the Commodore. They are hired to find and kill a prospector in San Francisco. The novel presents their journey to California and their adventures during the time spent there.
Eli and Charlie could not be more different from each other. Charlie is bossy, impulsive, a bit of psychopath, loves to drink and does not hold too much respect for his brother. Eli, on the other hand, is sensitive, loves his brother, cares for his horses, does not enjoy killing people uselessly and his dream is to settle down with a woman.
The story is told by Eli, and oh, it is such a beautiful voice. I cannot exactly pinpoint what I loved so much about this book but I guess it is the story telling and the introspect into Eli’s feelings about his job, his brother and the relationship with his horse. It was moved by his candid feelings and could not help but sympathize with Eli, despite him being a killer.
March 2, 2020
Saddle up and ride along with Charlie and Eli Sisters down a trail of dark comedy.
The horses are accustomed to gun fire but all your laughing out loud may spook'um a bit.
From what I've heard the production of this movie has finished and it should hit the theaters some time this year, 2018. Staring John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Rutger Hauer and Jake Gyllenhaal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaCGq...
The horses are accustomed to gun fire but all your laughing out loud may spook'um a bit.
From what I've heard the production of this movie has finished and it should hit the theaters some time this year, 2018. Staring John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, Rutger Hauer and Jake Gyllenhaal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaCGq...
September 16, 2021
The Sisters Brothersو Patrick deWitt
The Sisters Brothers (2011) is a historical novel by Canadian-born author Patrick deWitt.
In 1851, Eli and Charlie Sisters, a pair of assassins of minor repute, are hired by a wealthy businessman known only as "the Commodore" to travel from Oregon City to California in order to murder a gold rush prospector named Hermann Kermit Warm, who is described to them as a "thief". Hard-nosed, plainspoken Charlie, more impulsive and aggressive than his younger brother Eli, has a fondness for binge drinking and appears remorseless about the crimes he commits.
Spoilers warning
Eli, contemplative and often sentimental, admires and looks up to Charlie but finds himself at odds with Charlie's apparent nonchalance about the directions their lives are taking.
The brothers bicker constantly about money, the job, their horses, and each other's personalities. As they ride south, Eli and Charlie encounter many strange characters and endure a series of mishaps and adventures.
Eli is first bitten by a spider and then must have a tooth removed, for which he is given morphine to numb the pain; his horse is attacked by a grizzly bear but survives despite a serious eye injury. Charlie frequently gets drunk and is too sick to ride the following morning, slowing their progress to California, which frustrates Eli.
The pair hears rumors on the trail about a female bear with a uniquely red-colored pelt, for which a hefty reward has been offered by a man named Mayfield. Entering California, the brothers unexpectedly spot the bear and Charlie kills it, and they decide to bring it to Mayfield, who runs an inn in a town named after him.
After being paid, Charlie insists they stay a night in Mayfield's hotel; Eli sleeps with the hotel's bookkeeper. Waking the next morning, they discover the red bear pelt is missing and suspect Mayfield will accuse them of stealing it.
The brothers sneak to the stable to retrieve their horses and flee town, but a group of surly fur trappers who work for Mayfield stop them and demand they return the cash they were paid for the pelt.
Charlie and Eli simultaneously dispatch these enemies with well-placed gunshots, and Charlie feels compelled to kill an innocent stable boy to eliminate eyewitnesses.
Returning to the hotel, they find that Mayfield has fled. The brothers steal his enormous cache of gold bullion and hide it behind the hotel's stove for safekeeping while they leave to finish their business with Hermann Warm.
Eli and Charlie reach San Francisco and seek out an acquaintance named Morris, whom the Commodore had instructed to keep track of Warm until the Sisters brothers arrived. Morris has disappeared, though, and the brothers must coerce the proprietor of his hotel to hand over Morris' journal.
The journal reveals that Morris was approached by Warm, who has concocted an ingenious chemical formula that causes gold to glow brilliantly, making it highly useful for indicating the location of placer deposits in riverbeds.
Warm demonstrated his formula to Morris and offered him a partnership in it, and the two have since teamed up to travel to the "River of Light", where they hope to test large quantities of it. Eli and Charlie realize then that the Commodore has duped them: Warm is not a thief but had simply refused to share his formula with the Commodore.
Though Charlie wants to see the job done as intended, Eli hesitates to murder an innocent man, but they eventually agree to ride out to Warm's claim and finish the job, which Eli vows will be his last for the Commodore. ...
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و دوم فوریه سال 2013میلادی
عنوان: برادران سیسترز؛ نویسنده: پاتریک دویت؛ مترجم: پیمان خاکسار؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، به نگار، چاپ دوم 1391، در 279ص، اندازه5/14س.م در 5/21س.م، شابک 9789646332850؛ چاپ سوم تهران، زاوش، 1392؛ شابک 9786007283196؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، نشر چشمه، 1393؛ شابک 9786002294937؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان امریکای شمالی، داستانهای نویسندگان کانادایی، سده 21م
پیشتر، از این کتاب بنوشته بودم، دیگری را خوش نیامده، و حذف شده است، شاید هم به مقصد نرسیده باشد، در کامپیوترم بود، اما دوباره آن نوشته را نخواستم و اینجا نکاشتم، ماجرای کتاب، درباره ی زندگی دو برادر به نامهای «ایلای (راوی ماجرا)» و «چارلی» با نام خانوادگی «سیسترز» است، که به عنوان دو آدمکش، نامدار هستند؛ داستان در سال 1851میلادی، در غرب وحشی آن روزگار، در «اورگن» و «کالیفرنیا»، همزمان با دوران تب طلا، رخ میدهد؛ «ایلای» و «چارلی»، به دنبال کشتن «هرمن کرمیت وارم»، راهی «کالیفرنیا» میشوند، که در این مسیر رویدادهای بسیاری رخ میدهد، و پس از رسیدن به مقصد، ماجرا به شکلی دیگرگونه با نقشه ی نخستین آنها، ادامه پیدا میکند؛ «پروتاگونیست» این داستان، هر دو، برادرانی هستند که در کنار یکدیگر، ماجراها را پشت سر میگذارند؛ «برادران سیسترز» در برابر «آنتاگونیستی» که هر لحظه صورت دیگر میکند، و از شخصی به شخص دیگر، بدل میشود، میایستند؛ «برادران سیسترز» وسترنی سیاه، خیال برانگیز، و در عین حال کمیک است؛ «پاتریک دوویت»، هنگام نگارش این کتاب، تحت تاثیر مجموعه داستانی کهن، مربوط به سده ی نوزدهم میلادی بوده اند؛ کتابی که آنرا به طور تصادفی در یک حراجی پیدا میکند.؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 28/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 24/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
The Sisters Brothers (2011) is a historical novel by Canadian-born author Patrick deWitt.
In 1851, Eli and Charlie Sisters, a pair of assassins of minor repute, are hired by a wealthy businessman known only as "the Commodore" to travel from Oregon City to California in order to murder a gold rush prospector named Hermann Kermit Warm, who is described to them as a "thief". Hard-nosed, plainspoken Charlie, more impulsive and aggressive than his younger brother Eli, has a fondness for binge drinking and appears remorseless about the crimes he commits.
Spoilers warning
Eli, contemplative and often sentimental, admires and looks up to Charlie but finds himself at odds with Charlie's apparent nonchalance about the directions their lives are taking.
The brothers bicker constantly about money, the job, their horses, and each other's personalities. As they ride south, Eli and Charlie encounter many strange characters and endure a series of mishaps and adventures.
Eli is first bitten by a spider and then must have a tooth removed, for which he is given morphine to numb the pain; his horse is attacked by a grizzly bear but survives despite a serious eye injury. Charlie frequently gets drunk and is too sick to ride the following morning, slowing their progress to California, which frustrates Eli.
The pair hears rumors on the trail about a female bear with a uniquely red-colored pelt, for which a hefty reward has been offered by a man named Mayfield. Entering California, the brothers unexpectedly spot the bear and Charlie kills it, and they decide to bring it to Mayfield, who runs an inn in a town named after him.
After being paid, Charlie insists they stay a night in Mayfield's hotel; Eli sleeps with the hotel's bookkeeper. Waking the next morning, they discover the red bear pelt is missing and suspect Mayfield will accuse them of stealing it.
The brothers sneak to the stable to retrieve their horses and flee town, but a group of surly fur trappers who work for Mayfield stop them and demand they return the cash they were paid for the pelt.
Charlie and Eli simultaneously dispatch these enemies with well-placed gunshots, and Charlie feels compelled to kill an innocent stable boy to eliminate eyewitnesses.
Returning to the hotel, they find that Mayfield has fled. The brothers steal his enormous cache of gold bullion and hide it behind the hotel's stove for safekeeping while they leave to finish their business with Hermann Warm.
Eli and Charlie reach San Francisco and seek out an acquaintance named Morris, whom the Commodore had instructed to keep track of Warm until the Sisters brothers arrived. Morris has disappeared, though, and the brothers must coerce the proprietor of his hotel to hand over Morris' journal.
The journal reveals that Morris was approached by Warm, who has concocted an ingenious chemical formula that causes gold to glow brilliantly, making it highly useful for indicating the location of placer deposits in riverbeds.
Warm demonstrated his formula to Morris and offered him a partnership in it, and the two have since teamed up to travel to the "River of Light", where they hope to test large quantities of it. Eli and Charlie realize then that the Commodore has duped them: Warm is not a thief but had simply refused to share his formula with the Commodore.
Though Charlie wants to see the job done as intended, Eli hesitates to murder an innocent man, but they eventually agree to ride out to Warm's claim and finish the job, which Eli vows will be his last for the Commodore. ...
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و دوم فوریه سال 2013میلادی
عنوان: برادران سیسترز؛ نویسنده: پاتریک دویت؛ مترجم: پیمان خاکسار؛ مشخصات نشر تهران، به نگار، چاپ دوم 1391، در 279ص، اندازه5/14س.م در 5/21س.م، شابک 9789646332850؛ چاپ سوم تهران، زاوش، 1392؛ شابک 9786007283196؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، نشر چشمه، 1393؛ شابک 9786002294937؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان امریکای شمالی، داستانهای نویسندگان کانادایی، سده 21م
پیشتر، از این کتاب بنوشته بودم، دیگری را خوش نیامده، و حذف شده است، شاید هم به مقصد نرسیده باشد، در کامپیوترم بود، اما دوباره آن نوشته را نخواستم و اینجا نکاشتم، ماجرای کتاب، درباره ی زندگی دو برادر به نامهای «ایلای (راوی ماجرا)» و «چارلی» با نام خانوادگی «سیسترز» است، که به عنوان دو آدمکش، نامدار هستند؛ داستان در سال 1851میلادی، در غرب وحشی آن روزگار، در «اورگن» و «کالیفرنیا»، همزمان با دوران تب طلا، رخ میدهد؛ «ایلای» و «چارلی»، به دنبال کشتن «هرمن کرمیت وارم»، راهی «کالیفرنیا» میشوند، که در این مسیر رویدادهای بسیاری رخ میدهد، و پس از رسیدن به مقصد، ماجرا به شکلی دیگرگونه با نقشه ی نخستین آنها، ادامه پیدا میکند؛ «پروتاگونیست» این داستان، هر دو، برادرانی هستند که در کنار یکدیگر، ماجراها را پشت سر میگذارند؛ «برادران سیسترز» در برابر «آنتاگونیستی» که هر لحظه صورت دیگر میکند، و از شخصی به شخص دیگر، بدل میشود، میایستند؛ «برادران سیسترز» وسترنی سیاه، خیال برانگیز، و در عین حال کمیک است؛ «پاتریک دوویت»، هنگام نگارش این کتاب، تحت تاثیر مجموعه داستانی کهن، مربوط به سده ی نوزدهم میلادی بوده اند؛ کتابی که آنرا به طور تصادفی در یک حراجی پیدا میکند.؛
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 28/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 24/06/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
January 29, 2015
This book has the coolest cover ever. What’s great, though, is that the coolness doesn’t end there.
Charlie and Eli sisters are Gold Rush–era contract killers. They’re hired for what Eli hopes to be their last job, as he’d much prefer to hang his holster and settle down with a nice girl—or failing that, the first trollop that crosses his path. It makes no difference to him, really (dude is such a sweetheart). Charlie, on the other hand, is the less sensitive one. It’d be tougher to convince him to make sound retirement plans, what with the allure of all that cash and booze that accompanies “the job.”
Sounds like the makings of some brilliant Coen brothers film, doesn’t it? In fact, this book is brilliant. It is light and humorous without being superficial, it is touching and poignant without being sappy, and with dialogue redolent of Deadwood, I have to wonder if David Milch didn’t have a consulting role here. Although maybe that’s really the way people spoke in the latter half of the 19th century, in which case, never you mind.
But truly, this book deserves any praise it receives. It’s a pleasurable read with vividly entertaining characters, and the only thing disappointing about it is that it ends far too quickly.
P.S. Don’t pretend this book doesn’t remind you of Seth Bullock.
Charlie and Eli sisters are Gold Rush–era contract killers. They’re hired for what Eli hopes to be their last job, as he’d much prefer to hang his holster and settle down with a nice girl—or failing that, the first trollop that crosses his path. It makes no difference to him, really (dude is such a sweetheart). Charlie, on the other hand, is the less sensitive one. It’d be tougher to convince him to make sound retirement plans, what with the allure of all that cash and booze that accompanies “the job.”
Sounds like the makings of some brilliant Coen brothers film, doesn’t it? In fact, this book is brilliant. It is light and humorous without being superficial, it is touching and poignant without being sappy, and with dialogue redolent of Deadwood, I have to wonder if David Milch didn’t have a consulting role here. Although maybe that’s really the way people spoke in the latter half of the 19th century, in which case, never you mind.
But truly, this book deserves any praise it receives. It’s a pleasurable read with vividly entertaining characters, and the only thing disappointing about it is that it ends far too quickly.
P.S. Don’t pretend this book doesn’t remind you of Seth Bullock.
December 22, 2011
I wanted to love this book. It jumped off of my pile of shortlisted Booker Prize nominees and demanded to be read first. Everything about it shouted "Yes, it's literature, but IT's FUN." The premise is that of a classic picaresque novel -- Charlie and Eli Sisters, two professional assassins in 1850 are sent by their employer to hunt down and kill Herman Kermit Warm who may, or may not, have stolen something. In the course of their journey from Oregon to California, at the height of the gold rush, they meet a panoply of misfits and losers who provide a steady stream of often humorous incidents that help to explicate the brother's relationship. Add to this set-up, a narrative voice, provided by Eli, the younger of the two gunslinging brothers, that has a deadpan simplicity that is oddly appealing. And, it is worth noting, it has the best cover I've seen in a long time.
With so much going for it, why doesn't Patrick deWitt's novel deliver? Ultimately it is a failure to integrate the disparate events into a cohesive plot or arc for character development. Things happen and some of them are funny, but they don't lay the groundwork for growth in Eli's character that the form demands. It doesn't help that once the brothers find their target that the plot twist that leads to the climax of the book is singularly flat and generates no tension. It also didn't help that there are historical incongruities (particularly around the state of dentistry) that are jarring and out-of-place, even in a story that in no way purports to be realist, realistic details would help to sustain the truth that can be found in absurdity. deWitt is a talented writer, and while I don't think he shouldn't win the Booker for this outing, I do look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
With so much going for it, why doesn't Patrick deWitt's novel deliver? Ultimately it is a failure to integrate the disparate events into a cohesive plot or arc for character development. Things happen and some of them are funny, but they don't lay the groundwork for growth in Eli's character that the form demands. It doesn't help that once the brothers find their target that the plot twist that leads to the climax of the book is singularly flat and generates no tension. It also didn't help that there are historical incongruities (particularly around the state of dentistry) that are jarring and out-of-place, even in a story that in no way purports to be realist, realistic details would help to sustain the truth that can be found in absurdity. deWitt is a talented writer, and while I don't think he shouldn't win the Booker for this outing, I do look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
November 24, 2016
اووووف پسرررر این دیگه چی بود! :D
برادران سیسترز جدا از تکنیکهای ناب نویسندهش در دیالوگنویسی، شخصیتپردازی، پایانبندی و چارچوبِ کلی داستان، یه طنز سیاهِ قلقلکدهنده و د�� عین حال، یه جاهایی تلخ و گزنده داشت که بیاندازه آدمو به فکر فرو میبرد. غیر از خودِ سوژه و داستان دوتا داداشِ آدمکش- که به قدر کافی دیوونهوار هستن که دیوونههایی مث من خوششون بیاد :دی - کنشهای ب��ن دوبرادر و سوژه فرعیهای داستان چقدر ماهرانه کاشته شده بودن. از جریان عاشقشدنهای پی در پیِ ایلای تا فلشبکهای اندک اما به جا و مهندسیشدهش، برداشتهایی که از روابط و آدمها داره.. و یه جاهایی ایلای احساساتی میشه، یه جوری که انتظار نمیره یه آدمکش مثلاً برا اسبش غصه بخوره. با اینکه زاویهدید مال ایلای بود. اما تصویر چارلی هم فوقالعاده ارائه داده بود. از بددهنیها و خشونتش تا وقتایی که یهو تو خودش میرفت و فکرای عجیب غریب به سرش میزد.
و لعنتیها، چقد داداش بودن. حتی وقتی که به طرز رقتانگیزی، ایلای فکر میکنه چارلی هیچ حس برادرانهای بهش نداره و صرفاً بخاطر مأموریتهاشون باهاش همراهی میکنه و فکر خودشه.. بازم سایه " داداش بزرگه" رو میبینی که با همه غرورش خودشو سپر بلای داداش کوچیکهش میکنه و احساس مسئولیت داره.
در نهایت، چیزی که خیلی بیشتر از همه به دلم نشست، این بود که داستان یه خروج از ریلِ بزرگ و دوستداشتنی داشت که با همه تلخیش، شیرین بود و البته غیرقابل انتظار. خیلی از داستانهایی که جریانشون بهم میخوره و سوژه کلاً به یک سمت دیگه منحرف میشه، خوشم میآد. امیدوارم این اولین و آخرین اثری نباشه که از پاتریک دوویت میخونم.
+ ازون داستانایی بود که آدم با خودش میگه اگه یه روز بخوام رمان بنویسم، میخوام اینجوری باشه! :))
برادران سیسترز جدا از تکنیکهای ناب نویسندهش در دیالوگنویسی، شخصیتپردازی، پایانبندی و چارچوبِ کلی داستان، یه طنز سیاهِ قلقلکدهنده و د�� عین حال، یه جاهایی تلخ و گزنده داشت که بیاندازه آدمو به فکر فرو میبرد. غیر از خودِ سوژه و داستان دوتا داداشِ آدمکش- که به قدر کافی دیوونهوار هستن که دیوونههایی مث من خوششون بیاد :دی - کنشهای ب��ن دوبرادر و سوژه فرعیهای داستان چقدر ماهرانه کاشته شده بودن. از جریان عاشقشدنهای پی در پیِ ایلای تا فلشبکهای اندک اما به جا و مهندسیشدهش، برداشتهایی که از روابط و آدمها داره.. و یه جاهایی ایلای احساساتی میشه، یه جوری که انتظار نمیره یه آدمکش مثلاً برا اسبش غصه بخوره. با اینکه زاویهدید مال ایلای بود. اما تصویر چارلی هم فوقالعاده ارائه داده بود. از بددهنیها و خشونتش تا وقتایی که یهو تو خودش میرفت و فکرای عجیب غریب به سرش میزد.
و لعنتیها، چقد داداش بودن. حتی وقتی که به طرز رقتانگیزی، ایلای فکر میکنه چارلی هیچ حس برادرانهای بهش نداره و صرفاً بخاطر مأموریتهاشون باهاش همراهی میکنه و فکر خودشه.. بازم سایه " داداش بزرگه" رو میبینی که با همه غرورش خودشو سپر بلای داداش کوچیکهش میکنه و احساس مسئولیت داره.
در نهایت، چیزی که خیلی بیشتر از همه به دلم نشست، این بود که داستان یه خروج از ریلِ بزرگ و دوستداشتنی داشت که با همه تلخیش، شیرین بود و البته غیرقابل انتظار. خیلی از داستانهایی که جریانشون بهم میخوره و سوژه کلاً به یک سمت دیگه منحرف میشه، خوشم میآد. امیدوارم این اولین و آخرین اثری نباشه که از پاتریک دوویت میخونم.
+ ازون داستانایی بود که آدم با خودش میگه اگه یه روز بخوام رمان بنویسم، میخوام اینجوری باشه! :))
October 28, 2019
Satirical
The Sisters Brothers is an exceptional novel that is absorbing and delightfully original. While it’s a traditional Western with cowboys and gold-mining, it feels like a retelling with a modern atmosphere. The writing style is lyrical and the dialogue flows so effortlessly with its satirical interweaving of humour, brotherhood, loneliness, intrigue and murder.
The two Sisters brothers, Charlie and Eli are hitmen for the Commodore, who has contracted them to assassinate Hermann Kermit Warm. They are both remorseless killers but Eli wants to try new things and dreams of a different life, perhaps opening a store, settle down with a female - any female – such a sweet guy. His volatile and less sensitive elder brother, Charlie, doesn’t have the same outlook. While they are both psychopaths, with a lack of emotional attachment, their witty and entertaining exchanges create significant empathy.
There is nothing predictable about the storyline and we watch the two brothers wondering what encounter will happen next. While we know the main plot from the outset, it’s an interesting undulating route they navigate through the story, either planned or unplanned.
It was a joy to just lift this book, let the words flow and be captivated with a really engrossing story. The chapters are short and punchy, underpinning a good solid pace to the story. I would highly recommend reading this book.
The Sisters Brothers is an exceptional novel that is absorbing and delightfully original. While it’s a traditional Western with cowboys and gold-mining, it feels like a retelling with a modern atmosphere. The writing style is lyrical and the dialogue flows so effortlessly with its satirical interweaving of humour, brotherhood, loneliness, intrigue and murder.
The two Sisters brothers, Charlie and Eli are hitmen for the Commodore, who has contracted them to assassinate Hermann Kermit Warm. They are both remorseless killers but Eli wants to try new things and dreams of a different life, perhaps opening a store, settle down with a female - any female – such a sweet guy. His volatile and less sensitive elder brother, Charlie, doesn’t have the same outlook. While they are both psychopaths, with a lack of emotional attachment, their witty and entertaining exchanges create significant empathy.
There is nothing predictable about the storyline and we watch the two brothers wondering what encounter will happen next. While we know the main plot from the outset, it’s an interesting undulating route they navigate through the story, either planned or unplanned.
It was a joy to just lift this book, let the words flow and be captivated with a really engrossing story. The chapters are short and punchy, underpinning a good solid pace to the story. I would highly recommend reading this book.
March 16, 2018
This was a strange, quirky and oddly captivating book that I simply could not put down.
Eli and Charlie Sisters are not only brothers, but they are assassins put to the task of killing Hermann Kermit Warm. It seems that Mr. Warm, who by all accounts is a likable fellow, has stolen something from the Commodore, the fearsome and loathsome employer of the Sisters brothers.
The year is 1851 ant the two brothers make their way through Oregon and California on the hunt for Mr. Warm. Along the way they will wet Charlie's taste for Whiskey, Eli will discover the joys of toothpaste, decide to go on a diet, and question what he wants out of life. Both men will endure their own medical issues along the way. Not to mention the unmentionable cast of characters they will meet (and Kill) along the way.
This is an interesting book that at times is funny, gritty, repulsive, endearing (yes, I said endearing), and violent. In short, this book is a hoot! I probably would not have picked this book up if it weren't for my Goodreads friends reading and reviewing it. This was unique but also rewarding.
So.....step outside of your comfort zone on this one. I imagine the Author laughing like a fool while writing this. I know I would have been! It's imaginative, unique and a western without really being a western (huh?) It's peculiar and enjoyable!
Don't take my word for it, read the book!
See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com
Eli and Charlie Sisters are not only brothers, but they are assassins put to the task of killing Hermann Kermit Warm. It seems that Mr. Warm, who by all accounts is a likable fellow, has stolen something from the Commodore, the fearsome and loathsome employer of the Sisters brothers.
The year is 1851 ant the two brothers make their way through Oregon and California on the hunt for Mr. Warm. Along the way they will wet Charlie's taste for Whiskey, Eli will discover the joys of toothpaste, decide to go on a diet, and question what he wants out of life. Both men will endure their own medical issues along the way. Not to mention the unmentionable cast of characters they will meet (and Kill) along the way.
This is an interesting book that at times is funny, gritty, repulsive, endearing (yes, I said endearing), and violent. In short, this book is a hoot! I probably would not have picked this book up if it weren't for my Goodreads friends reading and reviewing it. This was unique but also rewarding.
So.....step outside of your comfort zone on this one. I imagine the Author laughing like a fool while writing this. I know I would have been! It's imaginative, unique and a western without really being a western (huh?) It's peculiar and enjoyable!
Don't take my word for it, read the book!
See more of my reviews at www.openbookpost.com
August 25, 2014
When the Commodore orders the Sisters brothers to kill Herman Kermit Warm and take his mysterious formula, they have no idea the series of misadventures they will endure in the undertaking.
I've been interested in this book forever and nabbed it on the cheap when it popped up on one of my ebook newsletter things. It may have been that my expectations were too high but this didn't live up to the hype for me.
I liked the characters of Eli and Charlie Sister, natural born killers in the old west. They were funny at times and brutal at others. I also liked the overly-formal Western dialog with few contractions, much like the Coehn brothers version of True Grit. I suspect the novel has the same style of dialog but I've yet to read it. It also reminded me of Richard Brautigan's The Hawkline Monster at times.
The book is described as being a picaresque adventure, which it is. It's also not a very interesting one for long stretches at a time. I loved the writing but I kept getting drowsy while reading it. I've never before been torn between my admiration for writing and my desire to toss a book back on the unread pile for something more interesting.
I did like it more than I thought it was bland, though. There were enough twists and reversals of fortune to keep me from drooling on my Kindle. There were a few close calls, though. Three out of five stars.
I've been interested in this book forever and nabbed it on the cheap when it popped up on one of my ebook newsletter things. It may have been that my expectations were too high but this didn't live up to the hype for me.
I liked the characters of Eli and Charlie Sister, natural born killers in the old west. They were funny at times and brutal at others. I also liked the overly-formal Western dialog with few contractions, much like the Coehn brothers version of True Grit. I suspect the novel has the same style of dialog but I've yet to read it. It also reminded me of Richard Brautigan's The Hawkline Monster at times.
The book is described as being a picaresque adventure, which it is. It's also not a very interesting one for long stretches at a time. I loved the writing but I kept getting drowsy while reading it. I've never before been torn between my admiration for writing and my desire to toss a book back on the unread pile for something more interesting.
I did like it more than I thought it was bland, though. There were enough twists and reversals of fortune to keep me from drooling on my Kindle. There were a few close calls, though. Three out of five stars.
November 25, 2016
My original review may still be missing...
but this but this book is a $1.99 Kindle special today.
It's TERRIFIC....
If this historical FUN fiction... about two brothers has been on readers TBR list -- this is a great price.
I remember saying in my "lost review". It was the best 'dude' book I had read. And ... yep... still holds. Great 'dude' book that any female will adore.
I was 'liking' a new friends review on this book --and notice my review was missing in action (Iris??)....a Standing joke for all the times she has found my lost reviews!
I loved this book --I thought it was a blast!!
but this but this book is a $1.99 Kindle special today.
It's TERRIFIC....
If this historical FUN fiction... about two brothers has been on readers TBR list -- this is a great price.
I remember saying in my "lost review". It was the best 'dude' book I had read. And ... yep... still holds. Great 'dude' book that any female will adore.
I was 'liking' a new friends review on this book --and notice my review was missing in action (Iris??)....a Standing joke for all the times she has found my lost reviews!
I loved this book --I thought it was a blast!!
September 3, 2017
I was sitting in my car outside the Mission Viejo Public Library waiting for my friend Townes to come out with some books. I had told him I was in a western frame of mind and to pick me up something published rather recently. Like what, Townes had said. Like, The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, published in 2011, I had said. I did not go inside with Townes because there was a cute South African librarian working there and I wasn't happy about my looks at the moment.
Townes came back with four books. These books were The Sisters Brothers for me and some Russian novelists for him. Townes was critical of my choice being such a slim volume, associating page length with shallowness. But having finished two Larry McMurtry epics, I was ready for a terse, exciting western. Not exciting as in stagecoach chases and such, but exciting in terms of storytelling or perhaps writing. I was recently surprised by how much I enjoyed Cormac McCarthy.
Now if you've read two paragraphs of this book report, are wondering where any of this is going, but still reading anyway, then The Sisters Brothers might be the book for you. It is a western about two brothers who are hired killers. There is Charlie, who's been put in charge on a job to kill a miner run afoul with their powerful employer, the Commodore. Then there's Eli, who narrates the story. Like me, Eli is a romantic who doesn't know how to get to the point.
Eli tells about encountering people on the trail. Charlie drinks a lot and is apt to shoot anyone who gives him what he thinks is a good reason. He also condescends to his brother. A lot. I would say Charlie is psychotic, but that Eli is idiotic. For one, he tells and tells and tells a story that goes nowhere. Kind of like this book report. Second, Eli rides with his brother despite being treated so poorly. Third, he stands around while Charlie boozes and mistreats people. Fourth ...
This is how Patrick deWitt writes the first 97 pages. Oh, the fans might say, you shouldn't have quit because the book gets really good later on. This sounds like something Eli might say. In other words, idiotic. I have no time to give a new author 100 pages plus to grab me, not when I have Terms of Endearment on the shelf. The Sisters Brothers is the type of book that Larry McMurtry's characters would use as a doorstop. Or maybe target practice. Or maybe the pigs would eat it.
Townes came back with four books. These books were The Sisters Brothers for me and some Russian novelists for him. Townes was critical of my choice being such a slim volume, associating page length with shallowness. But having finished two Larry McMurtry epics, I was ready for a terse, exciting western. Not exciting as in stagecoach chases and such, but exciting in terms of storytelling or perhaps writing. I was recently surprised by how much I enjoyed Cormac McCarthy.
Now if you've read two paragraphs of this book report, are wondering where any of this is going, but still reading anyway, then The Sisters Brothers might be the book for you. It is a western about two brothers who are hired killers. There is Charlie, who's been put in charge on a job to kill a miner run afoul with their powerful employer, the Commodore. Then there's Eli, who narrates the story. Like me, Eli is a romantic who doesn't know how to get to the point.
Eli tells about encountering people on the trail. Charlie drinks a lot and is apt to shoot anyone who gives him what he thinks is a good reason. He also condescends to his brother. A lot. I would say Charlie is psychotic, but that Eli is idiotic. For one, he tells and tells and tells a story that goes nowhere. Kind of like this book report. Second, Eli rides with his brother despite being treated so poorly. Third, he stands around while Charlie boozes and mistreats people. Fourth ...
This is how Patrick deWitt writes the first 97 pages. Oh, the fans might say, you shouldn't have quit because the book gets really good later on. This sounds like something Eli might say. In other words, idiotic. I have no time to give a new author 100 pages plus to grab me, not when I have Terms of Endearment on the shelf. The Sisters Brothers is the type of book that Larry McMurtry's characters would use as a doorstop. Or maybe target practice. Or maybe the pigs would eat it.
August 14, 2019
This was an entertaining little western story. A collection of anecdotes chronicling the notorious Sisters Brothers as they journey West to complete a job in Gold Rush era California. It has all the elements you might expect in a western – gunfights, crazy prospectors, horses, grimy locales, outlaws, snake oil salesmen, women of the night, etc. – delivered in a sometimes dark, sometime humorous, sometimes thought-provoking fashion.
I really enjoyed the beginning of the book. The dialogue was quick and witty. The story moved a long at a decent clip. Lots of different things were happening to keep me engaged. My only complaint taking this from a 5 star down to a 4 is that it kind of bogged down about 2/3 of the way through. Not that it got bad, it was just as if I was racing my horse down a good quality trail and then it suddenly started to pour rain and the path quickly became a sticky quagmire that required some extra effort to push through. I would have liked to see it end at the same pace that it had begun.
My favorite element of the story was the character building of the Sisters Brothers. Each of them unique in their own way, but together, a force to be reckoned with. Eli: attempting to lose weight to impress the ladies and interested in new-fangled technology like tooth brushing. Charlie the more ruthless and deadlier of the two – trying to maintain his badassness while dealing with alcoholism and the misadventures of his not quite so focused brother. But, again, their reputation precedes them and, while we as the reader see the true, intricate nature of the brothers, when they walk into a bar and people find out that these are the infamous Sisters Brothers, the temperature drops, and people start diving behind the bar and out the window!
If you like westerns, give this one a try. While it has shades of other westerns I have read, it is definitely unique.
I really enjoyed the beginning of the book. The dialogue was quick and witty. The story moved a long at a decent clip. Lots of different things were happening to keep me engaged. My only complaint taking this from a 5 star down to a 4 is that it kind of bogged down about 2/3 of the way through. Not that it got bad, it was just as if I was racing my horse down a good quality trail and then it suddenly started to pour rain and the path quickly became a sticky quagmire that required some extra effort to push through. I would have liked to see it end at the same pace that it had begun.
My favorite element of the story was the character building of the Sisters Brothers. Each of them unique in their own way, but together, a force to be reckoned with. Eli: attempting to lose weight to impress the ladies and interested in new-fangled technology like tooth brushing. Charlie the more ruthless and deadlier of the two – trying to maintain his badassness while dealing with alcoholism and the misadventures of his not quite so focused brother. But, again, their reputation precedes them and, while we as the reader see the true, intricate nature of the brothers, when they walk into a bar and people find out that these are the infamous Sisters Brothers, the temperature drops, and people start diving behind the bar and out the window!
If you like westerns, give this one a try. While it has shades of other westerns I have read, it is definitely unique.
January 27, 2021
اعتراف میکنم که صرفا به خاطر اسمش رفتم سمتش! :))
بعد، مقدمه پیمان خاکسار رو که خوندم دیدم ایشون هم اول جذب اسم کتاب شده بودن و بعد ترجمهاش کردن.
تا جایی که یادمه اولین رمان وسترن و به اصطلاح کابوی هست که خوندم. از این نویسنده هم تابحال کتابی نخونده بودم.
در ابتدا انتظار داشتم که داستان کند پیش بره، مثل تمام قصههای وسترن، و فکر میکردم که قراره به سختی تمومش کنم، ولی خب جذابیتش باعث شد که صد صفحه آخر رو یک نفس بخونم!
کتاب، طنز شروع شد و خیلی تاریک و درام تموم شد! البته پایانش رو نمیشه در یک کلمه ساده بیان ک��د...
نمی دونم دامنه لغاتم کمه یا علم نقد کردن ندارم یا انقدر کتاب خوبی بود که الان نمیتونم در موردش چیزی بنویسم!
فقط همونطور که اشاره کردم، یک انتقاد کوچیک از پایان کتاب دارم اما چون عادت به لو دادن داستان کتابها در نوشتههام ندارم، نمیتونم انتقادم رو بگم!
یک نکته عجیب دیگه اینکه در حال حاضر حدودا هزار دوست کتابخون، داخل گودریدز دارم و تا حالا هیچ کدومتون نخوندین این کتاب رو!
دلیل این تعلل چیه دوستان؟؟ توصیه میکنم در همین ایام نمایشگاه مجازی کتاب بخریدش... اگر ضرر کردید با من!
یکبار دیگه ایمان آوردم که نشر چشمه اکثر کتاباش خوب هستن و همچنین پیمان خاکسار کارش خیلی درسته!
دست تیم نشر چشمه و پیمان خاکسار عزیز درد نکنه.
بعد، مقدمه پیمان خاکسار رو که خوندم دیدم ایشون هم اول جذب اسم کتاب شده بودن و بعد ترجمهاش کردن.
تا جایی که یادمه اولین رمان وسترن و به اصطلاح کابوی هست که خوندم. از این نویسنده هم تابحال کتابی نخونده بودم.
در ابتدا انتظار داشتم که داستان کند پیش بره، مثل تمام قصههای وسترن، و فکر میکردم که قراره به سختی تمومش کنم، ولی خب جذابیتش باعث شد که صد صفحه آخر رو یک نفس بخونم!
کتاب، طنز شروع شد و خیلی تاریک و درام تموم شد! البته پایانش رو نمیشه در یک کلمه ساده بیان ک��د...
نمی دونم دامنه لغاتم کمه یا علم نقد کردن ندارم یا انقدر کتاب خوبی بود که الان نمیتونم در موردش چیزی بنویسم!
فقط همونطور که اشاره کردم، یک انتقاد کوچیک از پایان کتاب دارم اما چون عادت به لو دادن داستان کتابها در نوشتههام ندارم، نمیتونم انتقادم رو بگم!
یک نکته عجیب دیگه اینکه در حال حاضر حدودا هزار دوست کتابخون، داخل گودریدز دارم و تا حالا هیچ کدومتون نخوندین این کتاب رو!
دلیل این تعلل چیه دوستان؟؟ توصیه میکنم در همین ایام نمایشگاه مجازی کتاب بخریدش... اگر ضرر کردید با من!
یکبار دیگه ایمان آوردم که نشر چشمه اکثر کتاباش خوب هستن و همچنین پیمان خاکسار کارش خیلی درسته!
دست تیم نشر چشمه و پیمان خاکسار عزیز درد نکنه.
June 22, 2018
The Sisters Brothers is the son of True Grit, a funny, heartbreaking 5 star novel from 1968. Same genre – unconsciously-hilarious wild west memoir written in curious stiff slightly formal and stilted but purely beautiful language beginning at the beginning and driving the surprising narrative always forward without stopping to apologise to all the dead people and animals encountered en route.
At this point you may say that this thing has also been done recently and won a big bad Booker for itself - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. Yes, it is very similar, but Peter Carey over egged his pudding to a most nauseating level. You could not believe a word of it. It was catwalk fashion, it wasn’t what people really wear. Patrick DeWitt does not make this mistake.
Pedants and proofreaders may go a little crosseyed looking at the title, their eyes searching searching for the missing apostrophe – surely it should be The Sisters’ Brothers? But could they have made such a terrific error? No error, this is the story of two guns for hire whose surname is Sisters, and is narrated by the frankly fat one (he goes on a diet around page 50) Eli Sisters. They are already famous for shooting people and this is the story of how they came to change their ungodly lifestyle.
All the way through Eli struggles with the horrible stuff these brothers find themselves doing. He doesn’t want to shoot all these people but he finds he seems to have to. It’s upsetting. He gets so mad at these people making him have to shoot them that he wants to shoot them. What a conundrum!
Horses, especially a wonky donkey of a horse called Tub, feature very prominently. Strong believers in animal rights and all vegans should be advised that there are more than a few scenes in here that are guaranteed to make all individual hairs on their body, should they have any, stand straight up perpendicularly. Poor old Tub. And what happens to the beavers is most distressing too.
What happened to the fifth star? Well, Eli Sisters is a compelling narrator all right but him and his brother are a tough sell. They’re really not nice people! And the ending, the one after the actual ending, was strange, like one of those unresolved chords they sometimes end a song with.
So, 4.5 stars. Don’t feel bad Mr DeWitt, I don’t never hardly give out 4.5 stars.
At this point you may say that this thing has also been done recently and won a big bad Booker for itself - True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. Yes, it is very similar, but Peter Carey over egged his pudding to a most nauseating level. You could not believe a word of it. It was catwalk fashion, it wasn’t what people really wear. Patrick DeWitt does not make this mistake.
Pedants and proofreaders may go a little crosseyed looking at the title, their eyes searching searching for the missing apostrophe – surely it should be The Sisters’ Brothers? But could they have made such a terrific error? No error, this is the story of two guns for hire whose surname is Sisters, and is narrated by the frankly fat one (he goes on a diet around page 50) Eli Sisters. They are already famous for shooting people and this is the story of how they came to change their ungodly lifestyle.
All the way through Eli struggles with the horrible stuff these brothers find themselves doing. He doesn’t want to shoot all these people but he finds he seems to have to. It’s upsetting. He gets so mad at these people making him have to shoot them that he wants to shoot them. What a conundrum!
Horses, especially a wonky donkey of a horse called Tub, feature very prominently. Strong believers in animal rights and all vegans should be advised that there are more than a few scenes in here that are guaranteed to make all individual hairs on their body, should they have any, stand straight up perpendicularly. Poor old Tub. And what happens to the beavers is most distressing too.
What happened to the fifth star? Well, Eli Sisters is a compelling narrator all right but him and his brother are a tough sell. They’re really not nice people! And the ending, the one after the actual ending, was strange, like one of those unresolved chords they sometimes end a song with.
So, 4.5 stars. Don’t feel bad Mr DeWitt, I don’t never hardly give out 4.5 stars.
August 25, 2019
Great read, I love it...
November 9, 2021
I did NOT like this book at all. This author writes well - that's not why I disliked this book.
So many people thought this book was hilarious. I was appalled by the brutality to humans and animals. I don't get his sick sense of humour. Yes, I know that sometimes mocking a thing is a form of "teaching" but after a while I just tossed the book aside. This was a book club favourite and I was in the minority on this one. A few other members shared my views that this author was wasting his talents. I would have rated this a two out of 5, instead of a 3, but for the fact that the man can write and set a scene. It is just the contents of those scenes that turned me right off. (I decided to reduce my rating to a 2 after all. I really did not like this book!)
The more time passes, the more outraged my memories make me feel. Soon, my rating will be a zero, I'm sure.
So many people thought this book was hilarious. I was appalled by the brutality to humans and animals. I don't get his sick sense of humour. Yes, I know that sometimes mocking a thing is a form of "teaching" but after a while I just tossed the book aside. This was a book club favourite and I was in the minority on this one. A few other members shared my views that this author was wasting his talents. I would have rated this a two out of 5, instead of a 3, but for the fact that the man can write and set a scene. It is just the contents of those scenes that turned me right off. (I decided to reduce my rating to a 2 after all. I really did not like this book!)
The more time passes, the more outraged my memories make me feel. Soon, my rating will be a zero, I'm sure.
December 5, 2014
I am so not the target audience for this story.
I mean it’s a western.
Right?
Still the cover art kept pulling at me
It’s the 1850’s, gold rush, California
And the Sisters Brothers are two killers for hire,
on the trail; on a job.
And I thoroughly enjoyed it, from the get go.
Charlie Sisters has the lead here, but it is Eli that will take you there.
And tell you all about his horse, poor Tub, and the women he meets along the way.
How he feels; what he wants; how he sees things, love and some alarmingly, gruesome grub.
It is all about the journey.
I loved his voice; his simple, sardonic; hard, yet warm hearted slant.
Shoot Outs, Indians, Gold.
Blood and gore and greed;
Chilling, veterinarian like solutions;
No worries, they have a toothbrush.
I am still unsure how exactly; but Patrick deWitt took me on one helluva ride.
giddyup!
I mean it’s a western.
Right?
Still the cover art kept pulling at me
It’s the 1850’s, gold rush, California
And the Sisters Brothers are two killers for hire,
on the trail; on a job.
And I thoroughly enjoyed it, from the get go.
Charlie Sisters has the lead here, but it is Eli that will take you there.
And tell you all about his horse, poor Tub, and the women he meets along the way.
How he feels; what he wants; how he sees things, love and some alarmingly, gruesome grub.
It is all about the journey.
I loved his voice; his simple, sardonic; hard, yet warm hearted slant.
Shoot Outs, Indians, Gold.
Blood and gore and greed;
Chilling, veterinarian like solutions;
No worries, they have a toothbrush.
I am still unsure how exactly; but Patrick deWitt took me on one helluva ride.
giddyup!
November 23, 2013
What the....really not sure what I just read. Yippie-yi-yo-kaye?
Like the *cover it's edgy, aptly tagged as 'cowboy noir'. Avoid it if you’re looking for a traditional western, no white hats, no riding happily off into the sunset. Same thing if you look for nice characters to bond with. A couple of hired guns Eli and brother Charlie Sisters aren’t particularly likeable unless you have a soft spot for psychopaths, Eli’s border-line and brother Charlie full-blown. Hey, they had a tough childhood.
Read this if like me you’re not particularly into westerns, you just like books that are different, original. It IS bent, but it's also fun, a rip-roaring yarn with prospectors, gun fights, whores and drunks. There’s even a witch, and an inventor by the name of Hermann Warm. Such an amiable fellow almost a shame to kill him.
It's Eli’s story, narrated in this cool, dispassionate almost formal tone, I loved the dialog. A remorseful killer with a philosophical streak "here is another miserable mental image I will have to catalog and make room for" and the heart of a poet. He consorts with whores "I knew in my heart it was false, and afterward always felt remote and caved in." He'd rather be with a lady but really needs to work on his come-on lines. "Dear Miss, I wish you would wash your face and be nice to me. I have money”
I did like him, figure anyone who gets all excited about a toothbrush can’t be all bad.
Warning: There’s this whole bit with poor Tub the horse. Didn’t ruin the story but uuggh... I guess I understood where he was going with it. So squint your eyes, skim, do what you have to and remember it's fiction☺
*Cover art by Dan Stiles: Fun to see such excitement over a cover, a win-win for the author and the artist. Stiles is from Portland, Oregon, seems he's been specializing in promo for rock bands - found this link to his work if you want to check him out "http://www.danstiles.com/"
Like the *cover it's edgy, aptly tagged as 'cowboy noir'. Avoid it if you’re looking for a traditional western, no white hats, no riding happily off into the sunset. Same thing if you look for nice characters to bond with. A couple of hired guns Eli and brother Charlie Sisters aren’t particularly likeable unless you have a soft spot for psychopaths, Eli’s border-line and brother Charlie full-blown. Hey, they had a tough childhood.
Read this if like me you’re not particularly into westerns, you just like books that are different, original. It IS bent, but it's also fun, a rip-roaring yarn with prospectors, gun fights, whores and drunks. There’s even a witch, and an inventor by the name of Hermann Warm. Such an amiable fellow almost a shame to kill him.
It's Eli’s story, narrated in this cool, dispassionate almost formal tone, I loved the dialog. A remorseful killer with a philosophical streak "here is another miserable mental image I will have to catalog and make room for" and the heart of a poet. He consorts with whores "I knew in my heart it was false, and afterward always felt remote and caved in." He'd rather be with a lady but really needs to work on his come-on lines. "Dear Miss, I wish you would wash your face and be nice to me. I have money”
I did like him, figure anyone who gets all excited about a toothbrush can’t be all bad.
Warning: There’s this whole bit with poor Tub the horse. Didn’t ruin the story but uuggh... I guess I understood where he was going with it. So squint your eyes, skim, do what you have to and remember it's fiction☺
*Cover art by Dan Stiles: Fun to see such excitement over a cover, a win-win for the author and the artist. Stiles is from Portland, Oregon, seems he's been specializing in promo for rock bands - found this link to his work if you want to check him out "http://www.danstiles.com/"
September 17, 2019
I'm not generally a fan of Westerns but I do like different and quirky, and "The Sisters Brothers" is both. The story basically follows the Sisters brothers to California where they hope to kill a couple of guys and steal a formula for their boss, the Commodore. One brother, Charlie, seems to have no conscience while the other brother, Eli, has quite a bit of reservation about what they do. These men have very hard edges and do as they please. Although I know what they’re doing is wrong --I just can’t help rooting for them.
At first, nothing the brothers do or encounter is particularly unusual for the time and place: starving children in the woods, men driven insane by solitude, noisy whorehouses and dirty saloons. But Patrick deWitt keeps these brief chapters cantering along from one tense fix to another as the brothers slaughter, drink and sleep their way south.
It’s all rendered irresistible by Eli Sisters, who narrates with a mixture of melancholy and thoughtfulness. There is a lighthearted exasperation in his words. Despite being not entirely quick, Eli's voice makes reading the book a treat. It's smooth and seamless, shot through with dark humor, pared and antique without being overdone.
“The Sisters Brothers" frontier is more poetic than realistic, but as easy to slip into as the old HBO series "Deadwood." But where an onscreen western shows the setting, this book has few descriptions of landscape or buildings they visit. What gets described, instead, are bodily woes: Charlie's worse hangovers include lots of vomiting; Eli has injuries that bleed and swell. There is something very human in all this blood and guts, in their grim and gross and comic physicality. This humanness, with the humanness that Eli is growing into, give the novel warmth and depth.
As the novel runs along, the story shifts in unpredictable directions, slowing the pace for a surreal finale in the woods that’s touched with alchemy. The black humor drops away entirely for what Eli calls in his earthy poetic voice, “a tangle of grotesqueness and failure.” After capturing the fireside camps and saloons in perfectly drawn vignettes, deWitt strips these two lethal brothers of more than they ever thought a man could lose --and then surprise us again with a twilight scene that’s just miraculously lovely. This is not a book full of building climax and resolution, but rather a steady path with a justified resolution.
I will say that “The Sisters Brothers” was unexpected. It’s a western on the surface, but beyond that -- it is more of an exploration of human connections and man's purpose. The complicated story of two brothers who are so different from each other, but still brothers in the end, is a story we can all relate to on some level.
At first, nothing the brothers do or encounter is particularly unusual for the time and place: starving children in the woods, men driven insane by solitude, noisy whorehouses and dirty saloons. But Patrick deWitt keeps these brief chapters cantering along from one tense fix to another as the brothers slaughter, drink and sleep their way south.
It’s all rendered irresistible by Eli Sisters, who narrates with a mixture of melancholy and thoughtfulness. There is a lighthearted exasperation in his words. Despite being not entirely quick, Eli's voice makes reading the book a treat. It's smooth and seamless, shot through with dark humor, pared and antique without being overdone.
“The Sisters Brothers" frontier is more poetic than realistic, but as easy to slip into as the old HBO series "Deadwood." But where an onscreen western shows the setting, this book has few descriptions of landscape or buildings they visit. What gets described, instead, are bodily woes: Charlie's worse hangovers include lots of vomiting; Eli has injuries that bleed and swell. There is something very human in all this blood and guts, in their grim and gross and comic physicality. This humanness, with the humanness that Eli is growing into, give the novel warmth and depth.
As the novel runs along, the story shifts in unpredictable directions, slowing the pace for a surreal finale in the woods that’s touched with alchemy. The black humor drops away entirely for what Eli calls in his earthy poetic voice, “a tangle of grotesqueness and failure.” After capturing the fireside camps and saloons in perfectly drawn vignettes, deWitt strips these two lethal brothers of more than they ever thought a man could lose --and then surprise us again with a twilight scene that’s just miraculously lovely. This is not a book full of building climax and resolution, but rather a steady path with a justified resolution.
I will say that “The Sisters Brothers” was unexpected. It’s a western on the surface, but beyond that -- it is more of an exploration of human connections and man's purpose. The complicated story of two brothers who are so different from each other, but still brothers in the end, is a story we can all relate to on some level.
June 23, 2015
میخوام به یه چیزی اعتراف کنم ، من یه عادتهایی توی کتابخونی دارم که بعضی وقتا به نظرم خیلی مسخره است ، مثلا اگه موقع خوندن یه کتاب از داستان خوشم نیاد واسه اینکه از خیر خوندنش نگذرم و نیمه کاره رهاش نکنم و روحیه ام رو واسه ادامه ببرم بالا اون وسطا یه کلک میزنم و میرم سراغ خوندن یه کتاب کم حجم دیگه که فضای ذهنی ام رو عوض کنم، بعضی وقتها هم برعکس واسه بیشتر کردن هیجان خوندن یه کتاب که خیلی تعریفش رو شنیدم قبل از خوندن، یه کتاب دیگه بعنوان دست گرمی میخونم که وقتی رفتم سراغ کتاب مورد نظر قشنگ تشنه تشنه باشم .
راستش با کتاب " برادران سیسترز" به عنوان یه دستگرمی قبل خوندن کتاب " جزء از کل " عمل کردم ولــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــی رو دست خوردم رودست ، کتاب عالـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــی بود
خود برادران سیسترز خودش به حداقل 2-3 تا دستگرمی نیاز داشت
گول خوردم ، برادران سیسترز کتابی بود که من بلعیدمش ،
داستانی بسیار ��وان از زندگی 2 برادر هفت تیر کش و اجیر شده برای قتل که در سال 1851 اتفاق افتاده ، با اینکه حداقل 160 سال از زمان وقوع داستان گذشته لازم نیست که شما خیلی به خودتون فشاز بیارید که فضای اون سالها رو در حین خوندن داستان درک کنید ، نویسنده با زیرکی تمام خودش شما رو جوری غرق داستان میکنه که وقتی کتاب رو ببندید مثل اینه که از تابی در حال حرکت پایین اومدید و هنوز دارید تاب میخورید
داستانهای هفت تیرکشهای آمریکایی هیچ وقت واسه من جذابیتی نداشته ولی این یکی با همه فرق میکرد
راستش با کتاب " برادران سیسترز" به عنوان یه دستگرمی قبل خوندن کتاب " جزء از کل " عمل کردم ولــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــی رو دست خوردم رودست ، کتاب عالـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــی بود
خود برادران سیسترز خودش به حداقل 2-3 تا دستگرمی نیاز داشت
گول خوردم ، برادران سیسترز کتابی بود که من بلعیدمش ،
داستانی بسیار ��وان از زندگی 2 برادر هفت تیر کش و اجیر شده برای قتل که در سال 1851 اتفاق افتاده ، با اینکه حداقل 160 سال از زمان وقوع داستان گذشته لازم نیست که شما خیلی به خودتون فشاز بیارید که فضای اون سالها رو در حین خوندن داستان درک کنید ، نویسنده با زیرکی تمام خودش شما رو جوری غرق داستان میکنه که وقتی کتاب رو ببندید مثل اینه که از تابی در حال حرکت پایین اومدید و هنوز دارید تاب میخورید
داستانهای هفت تیرکشهای آمریکایی هیچ وقت واسه من جذابیتی نداشته ولی این یکی با همه فرق میکرد
November 16, 2018
Oh, dear! This was a grand take on brotherly love, how things fall apart and redemption. It seems we can just keep going along and letting chance lead us or stop and go our own way. Hired guns, the brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters, have gotten stuck in a groove working for a right basterd, called the Commodore. They usually don't know why he wants them to kill someone, they just mindlessly do it. All that changes this go around when the younger brother Eli questions why.
Darkly funny and heart wrenching by turns, The Sisters Brothers is a witty, fun western which brought tears to my eyes.
Darkly funny and heart wrenching by turns, The Sisters Brothers is a witty, fun western which brought tears to my eyes.
April 30, 2013
This ho-hum review of a ho-hum book got tricked up a bit and stuffed in a corner at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud.
Oh, and if for some odd reason you have an opinion about my moving reviews off Goodreads, do feel free to keep it to yourself.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Oh, and if for some odd reason you have an opinion about my moving reviews off Goodreads, do feel free to keep it to yourself.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
June 29, 2022
Brimming with the spark of old westerns, Patrick DeWitt goes all out to stamp his mark on the wild-west, which resulted in a cracking read that was a hell of a lot of fun. Take away the brutal realistic nature of, say, a Blood Meridian, then add some Coen brothers dark humour, along with a oddball bunch of characters, and we kind of get The Sister's Brother's.
It all begins with the image a horse on fire, so animal lovers beware. But this simply passes by, by the time we reach the first of its characters. The narrator and main character is Eli Sisters, a hired killer on the American west coast in 1851, around the time of the Gold Rush in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Eli's older brother is the dominant member of the killing team, while Eli is reflecting upon the death of his previous horse and the sad-sack qualities of his new horse, Tub, Charlie is taking orders from the Commodore – they are to head down to San Francisco and put to death a mysterious stranger named Herman Kermit Warm for some undefined reason. The Sisters Brothers relates their odyssey and, like all odysseys, it is full of both strange adventures, strong liquor, shoot-outs and hidden revelations.
Don't want to go into details on the plot, as not to give too much away, but it involves gold, and let's just say Eli and Charlie are in the habit of killing people, and they are surrounded by killers. Frontier life has always been cheap, and poor conditions created a zero-sum game, but since the discovery of gold there is even more incentive to kill and thereby get rich. As Eli follows Charlie, he begins to wonder whether there is a way out of this trap. He doesn't exactly feel guilt for the murders he has perpetrated, being a stone-cold killer, but he does feel a sort of spiritual fatigue, and certain people he meets along the way show him the possibilities for a more decent life away from all the bloodshed. Both brother's are not quite the ticket, and have the mental capacity of 10 year olds. How they managed to get this far in life is beyond me. Killing I guess, is the simple answer.
Anyone looking for an authentic experience need to look elsewhere. It's pretty crazy stuff in places, and plays around with different ideas that overload the book. But for a fun read, where you can leave your brain by the campfire and just except it for what it is, there's much to like.
June 19, 2011
Masterful storytelling highlights this deceptively simple tale of the Sisters brothers, two lowly paid assassins on their way to commit murder and collect their wages. While Eli yearns for a different life and serves as the conscience of the duo, Charlie is the trigger finger. He is violent, remorseless and prone to destructive habits. I've read very few westerns. This one puts me in mind of Pete Dexter's "Deadwood." Gritty and realistic - you can smell the mud and blood.
It's sometimes hard to tell the good guys from the bad, as hats tend to be gray, not black and white.
It's sometimes hard to tell the good guys from the bad, as hats tend to be gray, not black and white.
April 11, 2024
این کتاب متفاوت را بخوانید و فیلم اقتباسی سال 2018 آن از ژاک اودیار را هم ببینید.
********************************************************************
برادران سیسترز هم «ادبیات» است و هم بسیار پرکشش. بعید میدانم کسی بیست صفحهی اول را بخواند و نخواهد داستان را تا انتها دنبال کند. مقدمه مترجم. صفحهی ۸ کتاب
رابطهی خونی چه بدبختیهای مسخرهای که برا�� آدم به بار نمیآورد. صفحه ۱۷ کتاب
صدای نالهی فنرهای تشک زیر سنگینی یک مرد بیقرار، دلگیرترین صدایی است که به عمرم شنیدهام. صفحه ۴۸ کتاب
برای من بخت آن چیزی است که با نیروی سرشت به دست یا به وجود آید. باید با درستکاری به آن دست پیدا کنی نه با دوز و نیرنگ. صفحهی ۹۹ کتاب
فکر کردم دنیا چه جور جایی میشد اگر پول طوقی نبود بر گردن و روحمان. صفحه ۱۰۵ کتاب
دو حس همزمان به من دست داد: شادی یافتن چنین ثروتی و یک جور حس تهی بودن، اینکه چرا بیشتر خوشحال نیستم؟ یا شاید ترس از اینکه خوشحالیم زورکی یا اشتباه است. فکر کردم شاید انسان قرار نیست هیچ وقت حقیقتاً شاد باشد. شاید اصلاً چنین چیزی در دنیا وجود ندارد. صفحه ۱۳۸ کتاب
تو از جهنم میترسی. ولی مذهب همینه، باور کن. ترس از جایی که ترجیح میدیم توش نباشیم و چیزی هم مثل خودکشی وجود نداره تا از اون جا خلاصمون کنه. صفحه ۲۲۱ کتاب
من هیچ وقت به مفهوم انسانیت فکر نکرده بودم و اصلاً نمیدانستم که از انسان بودنم خوشحالم یا نه، ولی این بار احساس میکردم به توانایی ذهن انسان افتخار میکنم، به موشکافی و پشتکارش. صفحه ۲۴۴ کتاب
«پاتریک دوویت درست مثل تارانتینو میداند که چطور نوع نگاه ماجراهای خونبار را خندهدار جلوه دهد و درست مثل مارک تواین میداند که خواننده تمایل دارد ایرادات شخصی راوی را عفو کند.» کلیولند پلین دیلر. پشت جلد کتاب
********************************************************************
برادران سیسترز هم «ادبیات» است و هم بسیار پرکشش. بعید میدانم کسی بیست صفحهی اول را بخواند و نخواهد داستان را تا انتها دنبال کند. مقدمه مترجم. صفحهی ۸ کتاب
رابطهی خونی چه بدبختیهای مسخرهای که برا�� آدم به بار نمیآورد. صفحه ۱۷ کتاب
صدای نالهی فنرهای تشک زیر سنگینی یک مرد بیقرار، دلگیرترین صدایی است که به عمرم شنیدهام. صفحه ۴۸ کتاب
برای من بخت آن چیزی است که با نیروی سرشت به دست یا به وجود آید. باید با درستکاری به آن دست پیدا کنی نه با دوز و نیرنگ. صفحهی ۹۹ کتاب
فکر کردم دنیا چه جور جایی میشد اگر پول طوقی نبود بر گردن و روحمان. صفحه ۱۰۵ کتاب
دو حس همزمان به من دست داد: شادی یافتن چنین ثروتی و یک جور حس تهی بودن، اینکه چرا بیشتر خوشحال نیستم؟ یا شاید ترس از اینکه خوشحالیم زورکی یا اشتباه است. فکر کردم شاید انسان قرار نیست هیچ وقت حقیقتاً شاد باشد. شاید اصلاً چنین چیزی در دنیا وجود ندارد. صفحه ۱۳۸ کتاب
تو از جهنم میترسی. ولی مذهب همینه، باور کن. ترس از جایی که ترجیح میدیم توش نباشیم و چیزی هم مثل خودکشی وجود نداره تا از اون جا خلاصمون کنه. صفحه ۲۲۱ کتاب
من هیچ وقت به مفهوم انسانیت فکر نکرده بودم و اصلاً نمیدانستم که از انسان بودنم خوشحالم یا نه، ولی این بار احساس میکردم به توانایی ذهن انسان افتخار میکنم، به موشکافی و پشتکارش. صفحه ۲۴۴ کتاب
«پاتریک دوویت درست مثل تارانتینو میداند که چطور نوع نگاه ماجراهای خونبار را خندهدار جلوه دهد و درست مثل مارک تواین میداند که خواننده تمایل دارد ایرادات شخصی راوی را عفو کند.» کلیولند پلین دیلر. پشت جلد کتاب
December 17, 2018
What a crazy ride in the old WILD west!
But, BEWARE........"What a life it is for man's animals, what a trial of pain and endurance and senselessness."
The year is 1851. The gold rush is emerging hot and heavy, and Eli and Charlie Sisters have a job to do....as hired guns.
With a long ride ahead of them from Oregon City to California, the brothers hit the trail and encounter what seems to be never-ending bizarre setbacks and strange characters....many dangerous and life-threatening.
Filled with grit, witty dark humor, violence....and an air of regret and sadness, I found the storytelling engaging with just a bit of slowdown near the end; and while I didn't at all care for the treatment of animals, (poor Tub) still thought THE SISTERS BROTHERS one fine wacky western....with hope for love and a better future.
Cool book cover!
August 16, 2017
Coen Brothers film alert!
Coen Brothers film alert!
Or Wes Anderson. Or Quintin Tarantino.
Actually I see on IMDB that the film will come out in 2018, directed by Jacques Audiard. Jake Gyllenhaal will portray Warm (great casting), Joaquin Phoenix as Charlie and John C. Reilly as Eli (GREAT casting!)
So what’s all the fuss about? Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel pays playful homage to the literary western in this delicious dark comedy.
Infamous western hitmen Charlie and Eli Sisters are on their latest assignment from the mysterious Commodore. They are to track down Hermann Kermit Warm, who has somehow wronged their employer.
But our narrator Eli is having an angst filled frontier conundrum and he’s just not sure if killing for profit is what he’s meant for. We follow the brothers on a Cormac McCarthy adventure except with a Vonnegutesque wink and a nod delivery. Along the way we meet trappers and gold miners and whores and we get to visit the very early streets of San Francisco.
Great fun and deWitt’s exceptional writing will also draw comparisons with Charles Portis’ 1968 classic for the setting and dialogue.
Coen Brothers film alert!
Or Wes Anderson. Or Quintin Tarantino.
Actually I see on IMDB that the film will come out in 2018, directed by Jacques Audiard. Jake Gyllenhaal will portray Warm (great casting), Joaquin Phoenix as Charlie and John C. Reilly as Eli (GREAT casting!)
So what’s all the fuss about? Patrick deWitt’s 2011 novel pays playful homage to the literary western in this delicious dark comedy.
Infamous western hitmen Charlie and Eli Sisters are on their latest assignment from the mysterious Commodore. They are to track down Hermann Kermit Warm, who has somehow wronged their employer.
But our narrator Eli is having an angst filled frontier conundrum and he’s just not sure if killing for profit is what he’s meant for. We follow the brothers on a Cormac McCarthy adventure except with a Vonnegutesque wink and a nod delivery. Along the way we meet trappers and gold miners and whores and we get to visit the very early streets of San Francisco.
Great fun and deWitt’s exceptional writing will also draw comparisons with Charles Portis’ 1968 classic for the setting and dialogue.
August 23, 2018
برادران سیسترز دو تا آدمکش حرفه ای، خشن و دوست داشتنی هستن که با هم کار می کنن.
رابطشون غریب اما مستحکم.
داستان کشش خوبی داره، پر از خشونت و طنز.
خیلی حس دیدن یه فیلم تارانتینو رو به خواننده می ده، یه جاهایی مرگ های بی دلیل و خنده دار، دیالوگ های بی ربط ولی جذاب.
کتاب به تازگی توسط ژاک اودیار تبدیل به فیلم شده با بازی خواکین فینیکس، جان سی رایلی و جیک جیلنهال که تا یک ماه دیگه اکران میشه و انتخاب بازیگرها واقعا عالیه. این فیلم نامزد جایزه بهترین فیلم جشنواره ی ونیز امسال هست.
رابطشون غریب اما مستحکم.
داستان کشش خوبی داره، پر از خشونت و طنز.
خیلی حس دیدن یه فیلم تارانتینو رو به خواننده می ده، یه جاهایی مرگ های بی دلیل و خنده دار، دیالوگ های بی ربط ولی جذاب.
کتاب به تازگی توسط ژاک اودیار تبدیل به فیلم شده با بازی خواکین فینیکس، جان سی رایلی و جیک جیلنهال که تا یک ماه دیگه اکران میشه و انتخاب بازیگرها واقعا عالیه. این فیلم نامزد جایزه بهترین فیلم جشنواره ی ونیز امسال هست.
April 28, 2016
A-yep. The Western is dead.
Yeah, I'm happy too, because I love stories about the bloody history of the not-so-new world. As much as I love the great Western classics, their time is up. The Western has carried a lot of negative shit in its saddle-bags, shit that needs to be buried with it. The Western began as Historical Fiction, obviously, but it's popularity soon made it a genre all it's own, one especially overloaded with clichés and predictability. It started selling myths as political propaganda, and things got twisted up and confused. The Western and The Duke became symbols of an old, outmoded way of thinking: it was the world-view of fat, old, cigar-chomping, far-right assholes, as far as the younger generation was concerned; and the Western has never really been cool since then, with a few notable exceptions. But the real West is full up with fascinating stories to tell, some compelling history for novelists to dance around as they make shit up. So the death of the Western, making way for new visions of the old West, and rejoining Historical Fiction... it's all good news to me.
[Relax, Doc. 'Tombstone' was all manner of bullet-riddled goodness.]
Clint Eastwood and David Peoples' 'Unforgiven', and the Coen brother's version of 'True Grit': at once the last of the great Westerns, and the greatest Westerns ever made. Newer entries, like Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' and 'The Hateful Eight' are thrilling attempts at simultaneous homage and deconstruction. 'The Burrowers' and 'Bone Tomahawk' are both gruesome, remarkably similar but entertaining horror films, both set deep into the unsettled frontier, where evolutionary diversions more monster than human hunt white men and Native Americans alike. Western deconstruction, satire, genre mash-up... but the old Western, which was the Myth of the American Frontier, the propaganda, is dead.
In books, Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey are very dated. Cormac McCarthy, James Carlos Blake, Ron Hansen, Larry McMurtry, and Charles Frazier are the reigning lords of the hard-eyed American historical novel, but not one them has written a proper 'western'. 'Blood Meridian' can't be called a 'western', any more than 'Wildwood Boys' or 'Desperadoes'. Larry McMurtry comes closest to embracing the tropes of the 'western' genre, but only for the sake of subverting reader expectations. The frontier was not settled by singing cowboys. Native Americans weren't simple savages, but they weren't the noble nature-loving quasi-Buddhists that became the Hollywood cliché in the late-sixties and seventies. The 'New World' was a brutal, vicious battleground, where every random encounter between strangers would very likely end violently.
Patrick DeWitt has joined this impressive company with `The Sisters Brothers', a novel that combines the flawlessly crafted prose of fellow Canadian Michael Ondaatje or Charles Frazier, with a darkly comical tale that suggests Charles Portis and James Carlos Blake - particularly his brutal masterpiece `In the Rogue Blood'. Like the latter, DeWitt's book is a story about brothers who are born killers made for a bloody world; like the former, it has a darkly comedic intelligence.
As a Canadian myself, I felt bad about NOT feeling bad about the lack of native literary fiber in my pulp-heavy diet. Ondaatje, yes. Atwood, sure. But beyond `Oryx and Crake', I can't remember the last time I read another Canadian novel. Tony Burgess and `Pontypool Changes Everything', I guess, preceded by the loosely connected stories in `The Hellmouths of Bewdley'... 10, 15 years ago. Which means that I'm confessing to being a bad Canadian. Even before Jian Ghomeshi was unmasked as Jack the Ripper, I still fled in terror when `Canada Reads' infected the CBC airwaves with its suitably terrifying frontman (anyone who could create music as undeniably evil as the sonic terrorism of Moxy Fruvous had to house rows of retractable shark teeth behind that smile)...
I feel like Dewitt has finally crafted Canlit that doesn't feel like a homework assignment. `The Sisters Brothers' is a cocaine counterpoint to the literary laxatives of `Two Solitudes' and `The Stone Angel'. If the point of using Hugh-fucking-McLennan and Margaret-fucking-Lawrence was to scare kids away from Canlit forever - brilliant. They could also have value as practical demonstrations of Relativity: narrative black holes clearly distorting space-time; when you manage to break free of the oppressive gravitational pull, hours have passed... and you're still on the same page.
It's probably true that those wacky kids would hate any book they're forced to read. But the chances of creating an entire generation of anti-Canlit jihadists will be significantly reduced if we take a sledge-hammer to `The Stone Angel' and go with `The Sisters Brothers' instead. Unless teenagers completely suck. I'm willing to consider that possibility.
Eli and Charlie Sisters are cold-blooded killers employed by a man known as `The Commodore'. Eli is the narrator of the tale, and he often defers to his brother. Eli has a soft streak that Charlie doesn't seem to possess, showing a sympathy and occasional empathy that is totally inappropriate for a hired gun. Charlie is a very different person - lean and quick and calculating, with a violent temper that often affects his trigger finger... his primary source of income.
Okay. Sure. Something like that.
The story opens in Oregon City, as the Sisters brothers set out on orders to murder a prospector named Hermann Kermit Warm, whom the Commodore has denounced simply as a thief. Their journey to San Francisco is an eventful one, and Charlie begins to express anger with The Commodore, and dissatisfaction with their arrangement. Upon arriving in the city, they track down a friend of Warm's, who reveals some very interesting details concerning the German prospector's partnership and subsequent falling-out with The Commodore. It involves a method of finding and extracting gold from riverbeds, based on a chemical of Warm's devising. He absconded with his work and secrets when he realized that his partner would certainly kill him once the formula was done. Eli and Charlie now must decide between loyalty to their employer, and a chance to get rich by betraying him.
In between, `The Sisters Brothers' is rich to overflowing with fascinating characters and stories. The dynamic between Eli and Charlie provides one of the more memorable fictional relationships I've come across in recent years. This is one of my new favorites, and it feels super patriotic to say that Patrick DeWitt is one of my favorite authors. He's helping to save fiction in Canada, with a story that cleverly avoids being Canadian in any way. We don't need books about elderly women living in Moosefuck Alberta, we just need great stories told with style and passion. If someone says that Canadian Literature doesn't need saving - smite them with a righteous vengeance... or politely take exception... or meekly slink off in the opposite direction. It's all good.
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A Mysterious Review That Might Be Related to the Book in Question, But Written By A Friend Instead
Yeah, I'm happy too, because I love stories about the bloody history of the not-so-new world. As much as I love the great Western classics, their time is up. The Western has carried a lot of negative shit in its saddle-bags, shit that needs to be buried with it. The Western began as Historical Fiction, obviously, but it's popularity soon made it a genre all it's own, one especially overloaded with clichés and predictability. It started selling myths as political propaganda, and things got twisted up and confused. The Western and The Duke became symbols of an old, outmoded way of thinking: it was the world-view of fat, old, cigar-chomping, far-right assholes, as far as the younger generation was concerned; and the Western has never really been cool since then, with a few notable exceptions. But the real West is full up with fascinating stories to tell, some compelling history for novelists to dance around as they make shit up. So the death of the Western, making way for new visions of the old West, and rejoining Historical Fiction... it's all good news to me.
[Relax, Doc. 'Tombstone' was all manner of bullet-riddled goodness.]
Clint Eastwood and David Peoples' 'Unforgiven', and the Coen brother's version of 'True Grit': at once the last of the great Westerns, and the greatest Westerns ever made. Newer entries, like Tarantino's 'Django Unchained' and 'The Hateful Eight' are thrilling attempts at simultaneous homage and deconstruction. 'The Burrowers' and 'Bone Tomahawk' are both gruesome, remarkably similar but entertaining horror films, both set deep into the unsettled frontier, where evolutionary diversions more monster than human hunt white men and Native Americans alike. Western deconstruction, satire, genre mash-up... but the old Western, which was the Myth of the American Frontier, the propaganda, is dead.
In books, Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey are very dated. Cormac McCarthy, James Carlos Blake, Ron Hansen, Larry McMurtry, and Charles Frazier are the reigning lords of the hard-eyed American historical novel, but not one them has written a proper 'western'. 'Blood Meridian' can't be called a 'western', any more than 'Wildwood Boys' or 'Desperadoes'. Larry McMurtry comes closest to embracing the tropes of the 'western' genre, but only for the sake of subverting reader expectations. The frontier was not settled by singing cowboys. Native Americans weren't simple savages, but they weren't the noble nature-loving quasi-Buddhists that became the Hollywood cliché in the late-sixties and seventies. The 'New World' was a brutal, vicious battleground, where every random encounter between strangers would very likely end violently.
Patrick DeWitt has joined this impressive company with `The Sisters Brothers', a novel that combines the flawlessly crafted prose of fellow Canadian Michael Ondaatje or Charles Frazier, with a darkly comical tale that suggests Charles Portis and James Carlos Blake - particularly his brutal masterpiece `In the Rogue Blood'. Like the latter, DeWitt's book is a story about brothers who are born killers made for a bloody world; like the former, it has a darkly comedic intelligence.
As a Canadian myself, I felt bad about NOT feeling bad about the lack of native literary fiber in my pulp-heavy diet. Ondaatje, yes. Atwood, sure. But beyond `Oryx and Crake', I can't remember the last time I read another Canadian novel. Tony Burgess and `Pontypool Changes Everything', I guess, preceded by the loosely connected stories in `The Hellmouths of Bewdley'... 10, 15 years ago. Which means that I'm confessing to being a bad Canadian. Even before Jian Ghomeshi was unmasked as Jack the Ripper, I still fled in terror when `Canada Reads' infected the CBC airwaves with its suitably terrifying frontman (anyone who could create music as undeniably evil as the sonic terrorism of Moxy Fruvous had to house rows of retractable shark teeth behind that smile)...
I feel like Dewitt has finally crafted Canlit that doesn't feel like a homework assignment. `The Sisters Brothers' is a cocaine counterpoint to the literary laxatives of `Two Solitudes' and `The Stone Angel'. If the point of using Hugh-fucking-McLennan and Margaret-fucking-Lawrence was to scare kids away from Canlit forever - brilliant. They could also have value as practical demonstrations of Relativity: narrative black holes clearly distorting space-time; when you manage to break free of the oppressive gravitational pull, hours have passed... and you're still on the same page.
It's probably true that those wacky kids would hate any book they're forced to read. But the chances of creating an entire generation of anti-Canlit jihadists will be significantly reduced if we take a sledge-hammer to `The Stone Angel' and go with `The Sisters Brothers' instead. Unless teenagers completely suck. I'm willing to consider that possibility.
Eli and Charlie Sisters are cold-blooded killers employed by a man known as `The Commodore'. Eli is the narrator of the tale, and he often defers to his brother. Eli has a soft streak that Charlie doesn't seem to possess, showing a sympathy and occasional empathy that is totally inappropriate for a hired gun. Charlie is a very different person - lean and quick and calculating, with a violent temper that often affects his trigger finger... his primary source of income.
Okay. Sure. Something like that.
The story opens in Oregon City, as the Sisters brothers set out on orders to murder a prospector named Hermann Kermit Warm, whom the Commodore has denounced simply as a thief. Their journey to San Francisco is an eventful one, and Charlie begins to express anger with The Commodore, and dissatisfaction with their arrangement. Upon arriving in the city, they track down a friend of Warm's, who reveals some very interesting details concerning the German prospector's partnership and subsequent falling-out with The Commodore. It involves a method of finding and extracting gold from riverbeds, based on a chemical of Warm's devising. He absconded with his work and secrets when he realized that his partner would certainly kill him once the formula was done. Eli and Charlie now must decide between loyalty to their employer, and a chance to get rich by betraying him.
In between, `The Sisters Brothers' is rich to overflowing with fascinating characters and stories. The dynamic between Eli and Charlie provides one of the more memorable fictional relationships I've come across in recent years. This is one of my new favorites, and it feels super patriotic to say that Patrick DeWitt is one of my favorite authors. He's helping to save fiction in Canada, with a story that cleverly avoids being Canadian in any way. We don't need books about elderly women living in Moosefuck Alberta, we just need great stories told with style and passion. If someone says that Canadian Literature doesn't need saving - smite them with a righteous vengeance... or politely take exception... or meekly slink off in the opposite direction. It's all good.
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A Mysterious Review That Might Be Related to the Book in Question, But Written By A Friend Instead
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