By Patrick DeWitt, $24.99, 336 pages
Portland author Patrick DeWitt has hit on a sure-fire road to success. The Sisters Brothers consists of a series of vignettes in three large sections (no chapters) about a pair of loutish, rowdy, rude, raucous and frequently inebriated brothers: Eli and Charlie Sisters. Eli is the laid-back narrator of the adventures in which the pair find themselves in the Old West of the late 1840s. It’s a film script in book form, from which a movie will soon appear, I’m quite certain.||Bullets fly like butterflies, most of them missing the intended targets, but there are swords and knives and other means of disposing of one’s enemies, should the bullets not find their mark. Of course, there are also Indians, bears, and the weather to interfere with the brothers’ journey to the goldfields of California.
Perhaps the most amusing and appealing part of the book is Eli’s ongoing adventure with his new toothbrush and mint-flavored powder. In spite of this, I suspect that while women readers would most likely prefer the next Pride & Prejudice sequel (of which there are a great many available), most males of any age would find great enjoyment in this book.
Reviewed by Kelly Ferjutz