I love lists of books, and this includes award winners. I'm not sure how I stumbled on it, but in March or April I found myself looking over the Man Booker prize archives. I have to admit I was a little taken aback that I hadn't read any of these books. Perhaps I've been avoiding the international literary scene.
Literary pretensions or not, some of the books, whether award winners or on the short list, looked interesting. So the next time I was at the library, I picked up The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt, which was short listed last year for the award. It looked good; a modern Western with a catchy cover illustration. And a fun title. It turned out to be a good book to start with on my Man Booker journey.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the book. Maybe it was because I had no expectations other than seeing it on the short list. The book was very well done. The titular brothers, some unsavory mercenary gunslingers, were very well drawn, and quite empathetic given their profession. Well, at least the narrating brother was. They introduced a humor that may have been dark at times, but was equally delightful at others. For example, the novelty of having tooth powder after a visit to the dentist.
The setting of the gold-rush era West, along with the task the brothers go through of tracking down a man for the mysterious Commodore, let them encounter a variety of interesting characters. The sheer number of them occasionally made me feel the narrative was a bit bumpy, but it didn't disrupt the book that much. And if the resolution was perhaps a bit heavily foreshadowed, it at least flowed naturally from the story. Perhaps my biggest problem with it was I didn't want the story to end yet.
I read a review on Goodreads that said this wasn't your father's Western. But when I finished I found myself wishing I could call up my Grandpa and recommend it to him. Who says the Western is dead?
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