The Sisters Brothers- Patrick deWitt

The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt – 2011

Posted by guillermo maynez User on 18/9/2013, 13:52:44

Thanks Lale for this wonderful recommendation that I surely would have otherwise missed. I enjoyed this tale a lot. Eli is a very attractive character and it was a great idea by de Witt to create this good-natured, compassionate, love-thirsty man to work as a killer. How many guys are there out there that would love to lead a quiet life, with a good woman by their side, making just enough money to live without anxiety and poverty, but who end up instead working for the mafia, or a horrible gang, or as murderers, just because there is no other available career for them? God knows, but I was glad this great guy could get out of it. The book is mostly hilarious, but as with great humor, there are deeper things behind the story.

Also, this book is proof of the power of literature: just when you thought the Western was a jaded form, no longer capable of exciting readers and riddled with cliches and commonplaces, along comes a writer who can just reignite the genre’s possibilities, presenting characters within a totally lawless context (the US, no less!), where personal ethics, whatever their source, are the only possible guide for a behavior above that of pure survival and physical pleasure. The contrast between Eli and his brother, however funny, presents the two driving forces behind survival strategies: pure cunning and brute force, useful for the here and now; and deeper intelligence, compassion, and empathy, useful for the longer term (provided, of course, one is able to defend oneself when in danger, as Eli is clearly able to do).

Moreover, the setting is wonderful, the rest of the characters, idiosincratic as they may be, are also original and funny, and overall it was a very enjoyable book.

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