The Sisters Brothers

Well the title of Patrick DeWitt's black comedy western is suggestive of the book's overall tenor. Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired guns who work for a powerful man in Oregon City known as the Commodore. Eli never really wanted to be in this line of work but has always backed up his older brother who seemed to instigate a lot of fights that ended with somebody being dead. Lately Charlie has been a tad more critical of Eli about everything and Eli is thinking he wants to go run a general store instead of killing people for not very good reasons. The bulk of this tale recounts their (mis)adventures on the trip from Oregon City to California where they are supposed to find a man the Commodore wants dead named Hermann Kermit Warm. Turns out Mr. Warm has invented a formula to make finding gold in the rivers much easier and the Commodore wants the formula before the brothers kills him. Eli just doesn't find that sporting. Along the way they encounter a weeping man, a witch, a grizzly bear, and various people who mean them harm. They get some money and Eli gives some away, usually to any woman who is kind to him. In the end, they manage to lose everything they have stolen, accumulated and saved in a series of unfortunate events, and go home to ...mother! The dialog is reminiscent of Robert Parker's Virgil Cole series (Appaloosa, Resolution, and Brimstone) or perhaps Charles Portis' True Grit, but Eli and Charlie are uniquely their own characters.