The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

A dark, strange ramble through the Wild West

The Sisters Brothers

By Patrick deWitt

HarperCollins

The Sisters Brothers were guns for hire and this is the tale of their last killing assignment. The brothers' adventures were rambling and slow-moving, but bizarre enough to hold this reader's attention. The dialogue seemed formal, which I thought was at odds for the time period and setting, but I noticed that True Grit is written in the same old-fashioned, formal vernacular, so perhaps that was the tone of the Wild West. I had a soft spot for Eli and how he tried in his inept way to make things right or do the right thing; how he tried to show affection without having much experience at being the recipient of any his whole life. The story did drag some, but traveling with the brothers and meeting the characters they met on the way and the strange predicaments they got themselves into was mind-capturing. I liked the brothers' relationship interaction. One downer: I was severely disturbed by the events and injuries surrounding some of the animals in this story (I won't go into detail, but I was really repulsed), but I believe the oddness and gruesomeness was just part of the tale. The message of the story as a whole: good, eventually, triumphs. Reviewer's foot note: Searching the words "The Sisters Brothers" in Google at large, and even inside bn.com produces some alarming, verboten results! If curiosity gets the best of you (I did not know there was any demand for THAT sort of literature-perhaps I'm just naive), do try it at home, not at work.

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