The Sisters Brothers: Psychotic Cowboy Assassins....good stuff

I picked this up in the rather half assed attempt to get myself stuck into this year's Man Booker shortlist...I say half assed as this was the only one I read, yes, I am a slacker (this is no big secret).  But this said, this is the first year I have found something on the shortlist I felt that I could just read and enjoy, so by recommendation of my then manager I picked it up and didn't put it down.  The Sisters Brothers is such an unusual submission for such a prestigious prize yet such a delicious one, I am of the opinion you can't go too far wrong with a bit of cowboy action and well done to the judges for picking such an curve ball title to feature on the shortlist.



We are brilliantly drawn into the world of our rather criminal narrator, a Mr. Eli Sister, a chap with some very unusual views of the world and with an unsavoury profession.  Eli and his brother Charlie are contract killers for a gentleman referred to as the Commodore and this is but a small slice of their story as they are sent to murder a man named Hermann Kermit Warm.  If I am honest, that is all you really need to know, this is the sort of novel that is a pleasure to read in it's cool, rather strange style.

Eli is a brilliant narrator who fools us at every turn, I am still not entirely sure as to whether he is a likable character or not, still brilliant nonetheless.  We begin with him painting a vicious, and violent image in his brother and we are fooled into thinking Eli is the calm one and Charlie is the rash, gun happy killer.  This is the case for the most part so long as Eli does not lose his temper and then we see him for the notorious killer he is known to be in this dark, lawless world.  Eli's thoughts often turn to his actions and his disappointment in himself, he wants for far more than the life he leads and desperately tries to fall in love at every turn, although I am quite certain that he is not entirely sure what love is and is just enchanted by the thought of having someone to love.  These two brothers are a pair of complete psychos by definition, but in very different ways.  I think it says it all when Eli realises that in order to be free he must still kill, he cannot leave the business without first committing an act of murder by his own intentions.  It raises the question as to whether he can actually ever be free.

Lets not forget that this is a black comedy, and it it funny throughout in spite of the cutting scenes of violence that litter this masterpiece's pages.  I was particularly taken with the very sad story of Tub, Eli's long suffering horse that in all honestly is rather useless.  This poor horse is not treated kindly at the start by Eli, however Eli begins to feel for the steed and tries to turn his behaviour to that of a kinder hand.  Tub gets punched in the face by a bear, has his eye torn out and suffers a long and agonising death, how he survived right up until almost the very end of the novel I have no idea, but he is one of the very few real *victims* of the tale, the poor fella.

As can be imagined we are faced with gold, violence, greed and suffering in this tale of the Wild West, and there are some Indians tossed in for good measure.  A great read if you are looking for something a little different, it will surprise you!!  I couldn't help but think of the Coen Brother's remake of True Grit, this book certainly shares the dark humour of the film, the level of violence isn't all that different either....bloody good stuff.