“The Sisters Brothers” by Patrick DeWitt
I put The Sisters Brothers on my request list at the library even before it was picked as one of the contenders for The Morning News Tournament of Books 2012. (I think it was recommended at Good Reads by trusted reading friends Kate and Patricia.) So I was doubly glad when it finally came into the library. (Especially as the library has now cut off my crazy requesting at the knees by limiting the number of requests to 30, down from 100. Stupid budget cuts.)
Two brothers, Eli and Charley, are on a mission in the mid-1800s Pacific Northwest. This is a western, though one blurber called it cowboy noir. Aren’t all westerns kind of cowboy noir? In any case, it has shooting, crime, horses, weird people, and only a few women. Not too different in those respects from Lonesome Dove. But where that was an epic, this is a ripping yarn, pulling me through from beginning to end at a breakneck pace. One brother, Eli, is the narrator, and for all the bad things he does, is a tremendously endearing character. This was a ripping, tragi-comic yarn. I look forward to seeing how it plays in the Tournament of Books. It’s going up against critical darling Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, judged by geek icon Wil Wheaton. (Yes, _that_ Wil Wheaton, aka Wesley Crusher and now on Big Bang Theory.) It’ll be an interesting match.
Two things: I hate the new TPB cover. I really liked the HC one. Also, by searching at Amazon for Sisters Brothers, I got the book I was looking for, and then a lot of unpleasant other books. Yikes. Don’t let the kids try this at home.
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:10 pm
And me! I loved it too! Given that I didn’t love State of Wonder, this is definitely the one I’m rooting for in that match.
February 3rd, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Yay! That’s pretty much exactly what I thought about it.
If it were up to me, it’d be Sisters Brothers for the win, even if I am a big Ann Patchett fan.