Cannonball Read IV: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
By LurkeyTurkey | Posted Under Book Reviews | Comments (5)
This is the second review by someone who hasn’t commented (or if so, infrequently) on Pajiba. Not all of our Cannonballers fit this profile, but we have a great deal of new folks joining in this year. You can too! There’s always room for one more…until midnight on January 7, 2012. Registration for Cannonball Read IV is open until then. — mswas
Well, folks, I come out of my Pajiba lurking to join you in CBR4. Commence public popping of review writing cherry!
The Sisters Brothers is a compelling, gritty, and almost poetically elegant narrative, as told by Eli Sisters, a henchman in the Oregon Territory circa 1850. The difficult part of this description is not the plot, nor the characterization, but the utterly bewildering sense that I loved the book- I simply HAD to finish it- but could not really explain why.
Eli Sisters, and his brother/leader, Charlie, are the kind of gunslingers I didn’t see much of on TV. They aren’t the heart-o’-gold types of cowboys (a la John Wayne), but more the sons-o’-bitches that surely roamed the Wild West. They are henchmen and killers “owned” by the Commodore, a Big Boss in Oregon City who calls the shots, orders the deaths of folks, and is really just kind of a gold and power-hoarding bastard. Charlie is the sociopathic lead of this duo: human life isn’t worth much, gold is worth a lot, women are items to be used, and brandy is to be consumed literally ad nauseum. Eli is more tenderhearted and introspective, though no humanitarian by any stretch.
Eli has followed his brother into this life of killing almost by default; Charlie is family, so Eli has his back. Charlie treats him poorly- they have the older/younger brother relationship that never matured passed puberty- but it is through Charlie’s interaction with Eli that we see the scenes unfold. The missteps the two go through to track down their latest prey are a combination of adventure, farce, bleak Western sensibility, humor, and mindless violence. I realize it doesn’t sound like a combination that could ever work, but somehow it does.
I’ve heard other folks describe this book as a combination of “True Grit” and every possible written work. For my money, I would say “True Grit” meets “Brothers Bloom.” It’s an easy book to fall into, love for a night, and wake up confused by the devoted passion of your liaison, but content with your non-trivial, emotionally alarming, and fun romp.
This review is part of Cannonball Read IV. Read all about it.
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Comments
Posted by: handy_man at January 5, 2012 9:54 AM
A review in one word, disa-goddamn-pointing.
I just finished reading this book, which was given to me as a Christmas present. The author is Canadian, and the book won the Governor General's Literary Award (very prestigious in this country) as well as the Rogers Writer's Trust Fiction Prize.
It was obviously well-received by critics. All I can say about that is, pickins musta been slim. I really wish Dustin would read it and review it, as I would love to hear his take on it.
A book about riding the trail with these two killers, from Oregon to San Francisco during the time of the California gold rush, should have been filled with vivid descriptions that would really place the reader in the time .... the sights, sounds, smells, the dangers, etc. But it is nearly devoid of this. An example .....
At one point, the two brothers find themselves confronted by four men with drawn guns. They are in a stable, caught cold, can't run, and obviously can't outdraw their opponents, who announce they are going to kill the two men. I would have liked some build up, some suspense, like the show-down scene in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Nope .... I am paraphrasing, but essentially it was "we drew our guns and shot them all. It was a very efficient killing and we laughed."
The entire book, all 325 pages, is like this. If an author who had a sense of drama and suspense had written this story, it would have included the same events, but told out over 700 pages, and it would have been a much more enjoyable read.
So, why did I read it?? My mother gave it to me, and she is a literature snob, so I figured it was time for me to get cultured. It had won some awards, it was a western, how bad could it be?? It is not the most offensive book I have ever read, but given its accolades and bona fides, I expected more .... much more.