#CBR8 Review #16 – The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

I feel like I’ve been saying this about a lot of books lately, but I just seem to want more. I’ve had The Sisters Brothers stashed on my e-reader for a few years now but haven’t gotten around to reading it until now. The writing is simple and easy to follow, and the story is interesting in that I wanted to see see what wacky antics would happen as the story progressed, but I ultimately wasn’t all that engaged by it. It’s as though certain scenes and interactions between people would be laid out with lots of detail as though they should be focused deeply on, only to not end up coming back up again or really meaning all that much in the end. Maybe that’s one of the themes, though: things happen and sometimes they don’t amount to much or lead us anywhere close to where we thought we would be.

The Sisters Brothers is set during the California gold rush, and follows two brothers, Eli and Charlie Sisters, as they perform a job for a man named the Commodore. These brothers are essentially assassins, assigned to take out a man who the Commodore claims to be a thief. But as time goes on, you realize that this may not in fact be entirely true, and the brothers continually end up in strange situation after strange situation that they never really expected on their journey.

The story itself is told from the point of view of Eli Sisters, who is essentially the second-in-command on the job, as his brother, Charlie, is much more hot-headed and likely to go along with the plan and job in any way that will benefit him the most. I grew to like Eli along the way, though was sometimes a little confused by his actions and tendency to change moods quite suddenly: but not as suddenly or as violently as his brother, Charlie. In a way, I couldn’t understand Eli’s loyalty to Charlie or his character, and didn’t like Charlie at all. I know that there is often a strong bond and loyalty between brothers, but using that as the only explanation to how they are so tight-knit despite their antagonistic behavior towards one another just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more explanation as their relationship and how they got into this type of work, rather than seeming to just be plopped right in the middle of it and just having to accept that they are in it for the long haul with one another.

But as I mentioned earlier, I suppose the biggest sticking point for me with this book was that things would happen or seem to be leading somewhere, only to result in meaning nothing or having little consequence in the end. And that was really frustrating to me for some reason. We are made to see the brutal life and killings of the “old west” or whatever you want to call it but just as a plot point to move us on to the next. And maybe I’m just growing tired of stories like that, with so much death that just moves us on to the next stage without much thought. I don’t know. Because really this wasn’t a bad book at all! I just never felt like I was all that engaged in it or really caring all that much.

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