The Sisters Brothers is a book I read for my Walter Scott Prize project, but it also turns out to qualify for my Man Booker Prize project. It is a peculiar novel indeed. It is blurbed as hilarious. I did not find it so. Satirical, maybe; dark, yes; picaresque, definitely.
It is 1851, and the Sisters brothers are on their way from Oregon City to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. They are hired killers who work for a man known as the Commodore. Charlie is the Commodore’s man, but Eli is tired of the life and wants to own a store.
This is definitely a road trip novel, and on the road, Eli and Charlie encounter many odd people. Most of them they deal with brutally. Eli and Charlie are themselves almost self-parodies, as is their mode of speech.
Although there is an underlying plot, the novel is a series of episodes, where the brothers encounter one situation after another and get out of them more or less fantastically. There is a bit of dark humor in the dialogue, but unlike some other reviewers, I did not find the novel funny. I was interested in Eli’s mental journey, but after he and Charlie blew away a bunch of people, not so much.
What? Me Read? 
I read this book a few years ago and remember enjoying it a lot more than I expected to. I agree that it’s not a hilarious book, though – I did find some of the dialogue funny, but dark, satirical and picaresque are better descriptions.
I think I may not have been in the right mood for it. I think it’s odd that it made it onto two award lists, but maybe that just means it has a good publicist.
You sure read a lot. I love how updated the blog is.
Thanks!
I liked this book, but I didn’t find it hilarious either. I think I might have benefited from reading it before it was too blown up. I remember feeling bad for Eli a lot of the time.
Yes, I think I have a reaction to too much hype. I did feel bad for Eli.
I love the title, and I love Westerns, but this doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. Great review though (and I think this happened once before with my blog, but just so you know I haven’t been getting email notifications from yours for about a week for some reason. I might try re-subscribing.).
Oh, dear. I have the same problem on and off with yours and Naomi’s blogs. I never know if you haven’t been posting or if my email server just decided not to allow it.
I re-subscribed, but I’ll check in every day or two to make sure it worked.
I’ve been trying to remember to do that with yours. Most days I get it just fine, and then it quits for a few days, and then it starts again.
Huh. Weird.
I have occasionally had to resubscribe.