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The Sisters Brothers

Patrick deWitt

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May 03, 2016 Travis rated it really liked it

The Sisters Brothers has the feel of a hybrid of a Cormac McCarthy and a Mark Twain novel with a dash of Cervantes tossed in: it has very dark elements mixed thoroughly with a good sense of humor. The novel unfolds as a picaresque adventure tale, with the eponymous brothers taking a journey from Oregon City to San Francisco to execute a hit for their boss, the Commodore, and finding themselves in some rather odd and usually violent situations along the way.

The novel is narrated by Eli, the young The Sisters Brothers has the feel of a hybrid of a Cormac McCarthy and a Mark Twain novel with a dash of Cervantes tossed in: it has very dark elements mixed thoroughly with a good sense of humor. The novel unfolds as a picaresque adventure tale, with the eponymous brothers taking a journey from Oregon City to San Francisco to execute a hit for their boss, the Commodore, and finding themselves in some rather odd and usually violent situations along the way.

The novel is narrated by Eli, the younger, slightly gentler of the two brothers. The elder, Charlie, is largely in charge and is the more violent and short-tempered of the two. Eli tells us his tale in a flat, straightforward fashion and with a frequently dry but unintentional humor. As the story proceeds, we see Eli grow and mature as he comes to tire of the life of violence he and his brother are leading though Charlie is perfectly content.

The novel propels itself forward by way of the brothers' quest to find and kill Hermann Warm, who, so the Commodore claims, has stolen from the Commodore. (view spoiler) The novel has a nice mirror image form, with the brothers traveling from Oregon City to San Francisco and then making a return journey along the same route where (view spoiler)

Several sections of the novel are gruesome, particularly the "operation" done by a stable-hand on Eli's horse, Tub, and this gives the story a realistic flavor. None of the violence or brutality seems out of line with what one might expect to find in California and Oregon Territory in the 1850s, and this realism coupled with both the dry humor and Warm's mysterious formula, clearly a fantastical element, makes for a slightly surreal, borderline absurdist tone. All in all, it makes for a highly entertaining read. (view spoiler) ...more

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