Patrick deWitt

“He stuck his head in the room and said my name but I did not answer. He closed the door and moved to his room and I lay in the dark thinking about the difficulties of family, how crazy and crooked the stories of a bloodline can be.” — Patrick DeWitt, “The Sisters Brothers”

The "difficulties of family" lie at the heart of the crazy and crooked story that is “The Sisters Brothers” (2011) by Patrick DeWitt.

Professional hitmen weren't called that in the mid-19th century. Eli and show more Charlie Sisters are just hired guns, sent by a wealthy man to eliminate rivals and annoyances. They are good at their job, or at least Charlie is. He can kill easily and without remorse whether he gets paid for it or not. Eli, the novel's narrator, follows his brother because he is his brother, but his heart isn't really in it. He craves the love of a woman and the pleasure of staying in one spot for awhile.

Most of the novel tells of their travails on the road to their target, a man who has discovered a seemingly magical, yet dangerous, way to extract gold from a river. Should they kill him as ordered or go into business with him?

As with DeWitt's later novels, “Undermajordomo Minor” and “French Exit,” “The Sisters Brothers” has enough hilarity to make you think it is a comic novel, while the author actually delivers a serious story about the human struggle to cope with life.

By the end of the novel, the Sisters brothers are quite different men and their relationship has changed dramatically. Reading their story is a pleasurable adventure. show less

What a great read. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt is a unique, quirky new-style Western that relies on the author’s impressive writing as we follow along with two hired killers on the trail of their latest victim. Eli and Charlie Sisters live a life of casual violence, the back and forth conversations between these two sparkle with humor, earthiness and a brotherly connection that is hard to ignore.

As our killers wander haphazardly across Oregon and California, they meet a series show more of eccentric characters, some they help, some they ignore and a few they dispatch. Eli, the younger more introspective brother, narrates the story, while Charlie, who likes to think he is the brains of the outfit, exists for his next drunken spree. I loved these two brothers who nitpick at each other, but who always have each other’s backs.

From the trials and tribulations of Eli’s horse, Tub to Eli’s discovery of dental care, and his gentle musings on the nature of the opposite sex, I found this book to be mesmerizing, humorous and insightful. For a story that works on many levels, I highly recommend The Sisters Brothers. show less

It’s 1851 and the United States of America are in the grip of the gold rush. Charlie and Eli Sisters are two guns for hire who do the dirty work for a mysterious man called the Commodore, who we only meet near the end of the book. The book is told with Eli’s voice, describing the brothers’ journey from Oregon City to California, where the next ‘job’ is. On the way there, the brothers meet all sorts of colourful characters hoping to improve the quality of their, often miserable, show more lives in any which way they can. During the long hours in the saddle, Eli begins to examine his relationship with his brother and question what he does for a living.

Intrigued by the notion that a gritty western was shortlisted for The Man Booker Prize, I approached the book with an open mind, not quite knowing what to expect. The appeal of the book for me stems from the account of life in the western United States, when the West was still wild, peopled with opportunists (or their victims) in every shape or form, and hardly an appealing character among them. I found in Eli a surprisingly sensitive and likeable narrator, despite being a cold-blooded killer, something that shows the author’s particular sense of humour, and it is he who holds the novel together. Speaking of humour, it is of the wriest variety and pitch-black in nature, and probably not to everyone’s liking. The prose, and the dialogue in particular, appear very laconic, befitting the image of a pair of hired assassins, and yet Eli’s inner monologue betrays a depth of feeling and understanding of human and animal psychology that seems at odds with someone of his chosen profession. An unusual offering because of its chosen subject, but a piece of intelligent literature nonetheless. show less

This is a very good drinking/bar novel, a gush of slapstick pity and despair tracing the career (in both senses of the word) of a drunken barman in L.A. There are no saints, only miserable sinners, and there are only brief and intermittent instants of dignity amidst the depravity. It is, as the title suggests, very episodic, but I've read many texts less worthy of "novel" status than this. The drunkards in this book (which is everyone) are not lovable rogues, but more or less unsatisfactory show more people (although satisfyingly unique), and as such it's a believable society. There's a serviceable plot, too, which eventually takes wing with a drunken drive to Las Vegas/an unspecified desert town where everyone is even more wasted than back in the bar. A farcical love story occurs, and no one is left any the wiser as to anything, except that drinking is a very bad good idea, and Patrick deWitt is a very bad good writer. show less