March was Mike's turn to choose our book club book. He had done a little research online, and came about a book called, "The Sisters Brothers" by Patrick DeWitt. After reading the back of the book and thinking that this was going to be a Western, I was not as enthused as I could have been (when will I ever learn?!). Would you like to guess who was proved wrong, yet again? You guessed it. Me.
I really, really enjoyed this book.
Charlie and Eli Sisters are two brothers working as "hired guns" on the West Coast. This book follows them on what will be their last job. Eli is the narrator of the book, and is the quieter, lovable, level-headed counterpart to his brother, Charlie, who is the wild west equivalent to a frat boy. Charlie enjoys whiskey, gambling, women, and shooting people. Eli tends to follow along behind his brother and clean up his messes and apologize for his behavior. The two of them together get into some crazy and wild adventures and I loved reading every one of them.
The task given to them by the Commodore takes them down to San Francisco in search of a man who has a very special secret. While they are on their journey they learn many things: the importance of oral hygiene, women cannot be trusted, 'easy come, easy go', and Eli realizes that he wants to stop their work for a quieter, laid-back, mellow life.
You know a writer is doing his job, and doing it well, when you are rooting for the drunken, womanizing, thieving murderers. DeWitt did an amazing job when writing the dialogue between characters. I couldn't help but be reminded of the Coen brothers True Grit whenever the Sisters brothers would interact with each other, or any other character that came along in the book. The writing was amazing. I never had to try hard to imagine what he was describing, as every detail came to me just as clear as day.
The ending was a little disappointing, but only because I was expecting a fairy-tale ending where everyone gets what they want, all ends are tied up, and everyone ends up happily ever after. Again... when will I learn? The ending was more realistic, and, I guess in a very small way everyone but a few did get what they wanted. They just didn't know that what they got was what they wanted in the first place.
All in all, I would definitely read it again. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book with colorful imagery, interesting dialogue, and plenty of surprises.
No comments:
Post a Comment