A review by izarravarela
The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt
5.0
Outstanding historical fiction here, folks. The plot—"A pair of mercenaries embark on a hit job"—would not have appealed to me, so I'm so glad to have found this book though a friend.
It takes a strong writer to overcome a reader's bias about people; our protagonist is an overweight, rough-and-tumble hitman who's never been with a woman who he wasn't paying to be there ... but you feel so much empathy for him, and eventually for his sociopathic brother, that you forget about little details like, you know, the fact that they kill people for money.
Here are my three favorite quotes:
"I resolved to lose twenty-five pounds of fat and to write her a letter of love and praises, that I might improve her time on the earth with the devotion of another human being."
"The rough estimate of these riches was set at fifteen thousand dollars; my take of this more than tripled my savings, and as we left the musty basement, heading up the stairs and into the light, I felt two things at once: A gladness at this turn of fortune, but also an emptiness that I did not feel more glad; or rather, a fear that my gladness was forced or false. I thought, Perhaps a man is never meant to be truly happy. Perhaps there is no such thing in our world, after all."
"Here lies Morris, a good man and friend. He enjoyed the finer points of civilized life but never shied from a hearty adventure or hard work. He died a free man, which is more than most people can say, if we are going to be honest about it. Most people are chained to their own fear and stupidity and haven’t the sense to level a cold eye at just what is wrong with their lives. Most people will continue on, dissatisfied by never attempting to understand why, or how they might change things for the better, and they die with nothing in their hearts but dirt and old, thin blood—weak blood, diluted—and their memories aren’t worth a goddamned thing…”
It takes a strong writer to overcome a reader's bias about people; our protagonist is an overweight, rough-and-tumble hitman who's never been with a woman who he wasn't paying to be there ... but you feel so much empathy for him, and eventually for his sociopathic brother, that you forget about little details like, you know, the fact that they kill people for money.
Here are my three favorite quotes:
"I resolved to lose twenty-five pounds of fat and to write her a letter of love and praises, that I might improve her time on the earth with the devotion of another human being."
"The rough estimate of these riches was set at fifteen thousand dollars; my take of this more than tripled my savings, and as we left the musty basement, heading up the stairs and into the light, I felt two things at once: A gladness at this turn of fortune, but also an emptiness that I did not feel more glad; or rather, a fear that my gladness was forced or false. I thought, Perhaps a man is never meant to be truly happy. Perhaps there is no such thing in our world, after all."
"Here lies Morris, a good man and friend. He enjoyed the finer points of civilized life but never shied from a hearty adventure or hard work. He died a free man, which is more than most people can say, if we are going to be honest about it. Most people are chained to their own fear and stupidity and haven’t the sense to level a cold eye at just what is wrong with their lives. Most people will continue on, dissatisfied by never attempting to understand why, or how they might change things for the better, and they die with nothing in their hearts but dirt and old, thin blood—weak blood, diluted—and their memories aren’t worth a goddamned thing…”