Cowboys, Indians, the hunt for gold,
prostitutes. All the necessary elements for a Western are present in
deWitt's book ”The Sisters Brothers”. A Western in book form, you
ask? Well, it worked for me, and I'm not even a Western fan.
Eli and Charlie, a.k.a. the Sisters
brothers, are two guns for hire. Their current mission is to find
Herman Kermit Warm, who allegedly stole money from the brothers'
employer, the Commodore. Their journey to find him is, predictably,
littered with adventures and mishaps, and life-transforming
realisations.
It was an amusing, easy read that would
make for a fun film if it were directed by, say, the Coen brothers.
What felt a bit hollow for me was that the aforementioned
life-transforming realisations seemed to come out of nowhere. There
is Eli's desire to find a woman to protect and love; but there is
also their callousness when it comes to shooting people. No remorse,
no sadness, no meaningful insights that this is wrong. There is no
natural progression in the characters, no growing-up. For that
reason, the resolution of the book felt unmotivated and anticlimactic.
Despite this flaw, I liked the book and
had a great time reading it. It is worth a read.
No comments:
Post a Comment