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Description edit
Two notoriously vicious guns-for-hire pursue their target as gold fever sweeps the 1850s frontier. This darkly comic western follows the brothers' quirky misadventures as narrator Eli starts to doubt their gunslinging way of life. The style is a combination of magical realism, stream of... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Eli and Charlie sisters are feared murderers and gunslingers working for the Commodore, an unsavory and ruthless man with much power. Currently they are in pursuit of one, Hermann Kermit Warm who slighted the Commodore. Mr. Henry Morris, another employee is scouting and spying after Warm,... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- The Sisters Brothers: This Giller-nominated book gives a highly readable, stark, funny, gritty view of the wild west.
- Eli Sisters: Charlie's brother/partner, narrator and one of the main characters of story. A large man and talented killer who is questioning his line of work. Phobic of spiders, snakes and other crawling things.
- Charlie Sisters: Eli's brother and partner in crime. One of the main characters of the story
- Commodore: The Sisters brothers' employer, a man whose influence can be felt in every part of the country.
- Mr. Henry Morris: The commodore's scout and courier
- Nimble: Charlie's horse
- Tub: Eli's reliable but less than exemplary horse
- Dr. Reginald Watts: Dentist who fixes Eli's tooth by lancing and gives him his first toothbrush. He is a failure at everything in his life.
- The Gypsy Witch: Old woman who traps Charlie and Eli in house with a curse
- Mister Mayfield: Small town crime boss swindled by the Sisters brothers
- Herman Kermit Warm: Man that the Commodore hired the Sisters brothers to kill in San Francisco.
- Hotel Woman: A hotel owner that Eli is enamored with but refuses to give him her name.
Quotes edit
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“They are lining up to pay it. The whores are working fifteen-hour shifts and are said to make thousands of dollars per day. Pg. 173”
man on San Francisco street -
“Every man who has ever held a position has thought about quitting. Pg. 213”
Charlie Sisters
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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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.
Highlighted by 78 Kindle customers -
To me, luck was something you either earned or invented through strength of character. You had to come by it honestly; you could not trick or bluff your way into it.
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Here is another miserable mental image I will have to catalog and make room for.
Highlighted by 52 Kindle customers -
The creak of bed springs suffering under the weight of a restless man is as lonely a sound as I know.
Highlighted by 46 Kindle customers -
spent the rest of the night rewriting lost arguments from my past, altering history so that I emerged victorious.
Highlighted by 43 Kindle customers -
We can all of us be hurt, and no one is exclusively safe from worry and sadness.
Highlighted by 42 Kindle customers -
‘You are afraid of hell. But that’s all religion is, really. Fear of a place we’d rather not be, and where there’s no such a thing as suicide to steal us away.’
Highlighted by 39 Kindle customers -
What would the world be, I thought, without money hung around our necks, hung around our very souls?
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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 a thing in our world, after all.
Highlighted by 29 Kindle customers -
I thought, When a man is properly drunk it is as though he is in a room by himself—there is a physical, impenetrable separation between him and his fellows.
Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers
Setting & Locations edit
Oregon Territory, 1851.
- Oregon City, Oregon Territory: Charlie and Eli travel from here on the Commodore's job
- San Francisco: Charlie and Eli spend time here searching for Herman Kermit Warm
- Jacksonville, Oregon: Where the Sisters Brothers spends the night in a hotel. Charlie pays for sex with the woman owner of the hotel and Eli becomes enamored with her desiring a future relationship.
First Sentence edit
I was sitting outside the Commodore's mansion, waiting for my brother Charlie to come out with the news of the job.
Table of Contents edit
1. Trouble with the Horses
2. California
Intermission
3. Hermann Kermit Warm
Intermission II
Epilogue
Themes & Symbolism edit
Series & Lists edit
This book is in Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in Amazon.com Best Books of 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in 2011 Published Books. (community list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Patrick deWitt (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Ecco
Country: United States
Publication Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 9780062041265
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ecco
Country: United States
Publication Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 9780062041265
Page Count: 336
Awards edit
- Man Booker Prize (Finalist, 2011, Shortlist)
- Giller Prize (Finalist, 2011, Shortlist)
- Governor General's Literary Awards (2011: Fiction)
- Oregon Book Award (2012: Ken Kesey Award for Fiction)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PS3604.E923 S57
- Dewey: 813
Subjects edit
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