The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt

Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen,Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn't share his brothers

appetite for whiskey and killing, he's never known anything else.But their prey isn't an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm's gold mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does

for a living- and whom he does it for...

**Book is now open for discussion - remember spoilers will apply...

**Feel free to post your thoughts, hopefully we'll all have different interpretations of the story...don't be afraid to discuss , disagree and generally pull the book to pieces..!

I read this a while back but still remember much of it because I enjoyed it so much.  I thought that Eli was a brilliant narrator and I really felt a lot of warmth towards him and although Charlie is, on the surface, less endearing, because Eli loves him so much the reader wants to as well.

I really enjoyed the descriptions of the wild west and whilst there is a lot of raw, nastiness going on, Eli tells it all with a sense of humour.  I remember laughing out loud when Charlie tries toothpowder and says something like "it makes your whole head feel fresh" (sorry, I can't remember the exact words).

Brilliant characters - even the horses make their mark.

A really good read!

I finished this last night -

I know I shouldn't really like either of the Sister Brothers and yet I couldn't help warming to Eli. The relationship he had with Tub was quite tender in places, and although Eli really loved Charlie, they were never going to see eye to eye about anything.

The spirit of the wild west and the desolation of the gold fields was perfectly done - you could sense the greed and the squalor. The overwheming desperation was perfectly captured in Warm and Morris's attempt to extract the gold.

I'm not sure what the stuff was that they were using to find gold, but it certainly proved to be a disaster for all concerned.

Overall I enjoyed it rather more than I expected - there was an element of dark humour, and some horrific cruelty but it was interspersed with some laugh out loud funny moments.

It reminded me of spoof westerns- it would make a great movie....

jobar:

It reminded me of spoof westerns- it would make a great movie....

I agree, in fact I think I said in my review on here that the scenes in San Francisco reminded me of No Name City in "Paint Your Wagon".

windysisters:

jobar:

It reminded me of spoof westerns- it would make a great movie....

I agree, in fact I think I said in my review on here that the scenes in San Francisco reminded me of No Name City in "Paint Your Wagon".

I agree !

In fact I was reminded of the 70's hit Western series Alias Smith and Jones, although they weren't as inherently evil as the Sister Brothers !

Loved the book - and the boys!

 Loved the cover.  Loved the writer's style.  Loved lovelytreez's original review.  Loved everyone's comments.

Oh dear!  Perhaps I was not in the mood for this one, because a great feeling of being let down flowed over me as I got to the end.  Yes, there there some lovely snatches of black humour, yes, I wanted to like Eli, yes, it will make a great film.  But all in all, I was disappointed with it, and I just can't put my finger on why.

janetandjohn:

Loved the cover

Me too, a super piece of art work that has bearing on the book not like some that I come across.

A bad choice for a holiday read as it merited reading in far bigger chunks than I was able to do so therefore I lost much of the momentum. The sights, sounds and smells of the gold rush days came over strongly  throughout  this cleverly written book that tells of what greed does to men and where having their wits about them counted for so much.

Definitely not a book for the squeamish as the violence is horrific but I'm sure  that was how it was at that time. Did I enjoy it - not really, did I like it - sort of, would I read it again - yes, as then I might feel very differently about it.

p.s I felt so sorry for Eli's horse!