The Sisters Brothers
Add a Comment
Add Tags
Add More
Save to a List
PrintItem Details
- Description
- Full Record
- Author Notes
- Contents
- Excerpts
- Reviews
- Summary
- A\V Summary
Searching for more content…
When a frontier baron known as the Commodore orders Charlie and Eli Sisters, his hired gunslingers, to track down and kill a prospector named Herman Kermit Warm, the brothers journey from Oregon to San Francisco, and eventually to Warm's claim in the Sierra foothills, running into a witch, a bear, a
… More »When a frontier baron known as the Commodore orders Charlie and Eli Sisters, his hired gunslingers, to track down and kill a prospector named Herman Kermit Warm, the brothers journey from Oregon to San Francisco, and eventually to Warm's claim in the Sierra foothills, running into a witch, a bear, a dead Indian, a parlor of drunken floozies, and a gang of murderous fur trappers. Eli's deadpan narration is at times strangely funny (as when he discovers dental hygiene, thanks to a frontier dentist dispensing free samples of "tooth powder that produced a minty foam") but maintains the power to stir heartbreak, as with Eli's infatuation with a consumptive hotel bookkeeper. As more of the brothers' story is teased out, Charlie and Eli explore the human implications of many of the clichés of the old west and come off looking less and less like killers and more like traumatized young men.
« LessCommunity Activity
Please keep in mind that some of the content that we make available to you through this application comes from Amazon Web Services. All such content is provided to you "as is". This content and your use of it are subject to change and/or removal at any time.
Comment
Add a Commentquirkly western, almost funny, about two brothers eli and charlie sister who are hitmen in the us 1850s.....great writing, loved it
Kept plugging through this book waiting for it to grab me.......Don't understand the hype! Agree the best part is the cover.
Lives up to the hype, definitely worth the read.
up for Stephen Leacock award 2012
I enjoyed this book very much. Maybe some things weren't historically correct, but the sheer joy and laughter I got from reading this book brought me such pleasure. If you want an interesting read, with endearing yet complicated characters, you will enjoy this. Allow yourself to be entertained and this book will deliver.
An intriguing trail, much blood and gore; unexpected twists and humour. Regretted: this tale and our reality are too often male and greedy
I was let down by this book, after reading about the awards lists it made, etc. An imaginative voice, although the subject and plot (murder for hire) are hardly original. The use of local and general anaesthetics struck me as anachronistic. Ether and chloroform were known by 1851, but were hardly widespread and it seems highly unlikely they would have been available on the frontier for amputation. Lidocaine, the first injectable local anaesthetic, was not developed for another 50 years.
Very well written. An enjoyable book, even the harsh portrayal of the West does not sound gory. Also, a fitting, well designed cover. Highly recommended.
I was disappointed in this book. Its about two brothers who kill people for a living. They also kill people for any old reason at all, never having learned how to make their way in the world by doing anything else. The main character tells the story and evokes some sympathy but in the end, it fell flat for me. I kept reading in the hope that something would happen to make me like this book but it didn't.
Surprised that this made the Booker List. Told in the first person, it describes the "work" and travels of a pair of low-life killers and the people they meet (and kill) on their way from Oregon City to the California Gold Fields.