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
Professional hitmen weren't called that in the mid-19th century. Eli and 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment