Our choice for October 2011 is The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. From the author of the acclaimed Ablutions, this dazzlingly original novel is a darkly funny, offbeat western about a reluctant assassin and his murderous brother.
Oregon, 1851. Eli and Charlie Sisters, notorious professional killers, are on their way to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling and violent experiences in the Darwinian landscape of Gold Rush America. Charlie makes money and kills anyone who stands in his way; Eli doubts his vocation and falls in love. And they bicker a lot. Then they get to California, and discover that Warm is an inventor who has come up with a magical formula, which could make all of them very rich. What happens next is utterly gripping, strange and sad. Told in de Witt’s darkly comic and arresting style, The Sisters Brothers is the kind of western the Coen Brothers might write – stark, unsettling and with a keen eye for the perversity of human motivation. Like his debut novel Ablutions, it is a novel about the things you tell yourself in order to be able to continue to live the life you find yourself in, and what happens when those stories no longer work. It is an inventive and strange and beautifully controlled piece of fiction and displays an exciting expansion of Dewitt’s range.
Discussion Questions
- The author used a distinct style. How did this impact your reading of the book?
- What was the nature of the brothers relationship? Was it convincingly portrayed?
- The brothers are killers; were you sympathetic to them? Or did you see them as psychopathic?
- At times the story feels like a series of seemingly unrelated vignettes. Why did the author employ this approach?
- It is not a fantasy book but there are fantastic elements. How did the author use mysticism to heighten the action?
- What did the river represent?
- Was the outcome for each character just?
- How did the journey change the brothers? Their relationship?
- What is your interpretation of the Epilogue?
- Would you recommend this book?
Individual Ratings for The Sisters Brothers
DKB Rating 
