A couple of days ago I broke my kindle. It didn’t have its protective cover on it, and it fell from my hand on to the wooden floor with a mighty crash hard enough to jar the back loose. I picked it up and got it snapped back together, but no amount of button pushing or shaking or cursing could coax it back to life. Mark Twain was the screen saver at the fatal moment, and he has been slowly fading from view ever since.
Well, crap. What a bummer of a sad moment. I was in the middle of some weird story but I decided it wasn’t good enough to warrant risking getting permanently crossed eyes trying to continue reading it on my tiny phone screen. So that left me with no alternative but to go looking for a real book instead. It was a quick search, because I have a whole room full of real books for just such dire emergencies.
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt caught my eye. It’s bright and red and kind of gruesome looking. I don’t know why I’ve been neglecting it for such a long time, because it looks GOOD, doesn’t it? That’s some amazing book cover art. I don’t think I even bothered to read the back cover or the inside flap when I bought it and may have been influenced solely by the big gold sticker on the front which reads…..
WINNER
Governor General’s Literary Award
Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
…because it turns out it’s a book about two psycho cowboys in the Gold Rush of the Wild West in the 1850’s. It’s a Western, and I never read Westerns. These guys are hired guns and they travel around on horseback drinking whiskey and shooting people. At least that was my first impression. But the more I read, the more I loved it. From the cover flap, which I finally read in its entirety –
Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But their prey isn’t an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm’s gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a living — and whom he does it for. With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters — losers, cheaters, and ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life — and told by a complex and compelling narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s frontier that beautifully captures the humour, melancholy, and grit of the Old West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.
That’s an excellent synopsis. Maybe I was just desperate to read anything at all rather than go into panic mode over my busted kindle, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Despite all the gun-slinging and lawlessness, there are some very funny and touching moments.
It took me all of twenty minutes of mourning the loss of my faithful old kindle to go on-line and order a new and improved version. Yes, I am a spoiled brat with a broken toy, demanding a new one. But my kindle was one of the originals, and the one I’ve ordered is the new paper white model with a built-in light and a touch screen, so no more tiny keyboard for my fat fingers. It has been shipped already and will be arriving soon. I probably have time for one more 3-D paperback from the emergency library while I’m impatiently waiting.
I am such a book-aholic. I don’t think there is any cure for this. I mean, seriously, I just read a Western.
I read this book because the title seemed interesting. I read it on my Nook. While I have to admit that it kept me entertained, it won’t be going on my list of favorite books. I did like the toothpaste segments, though. For some reason, the toothpaste is what stuck with me the most. : )
LikeLike
haha – yeah, those tooth brushing parts were funny. 😀
LikeLike
I’m so nervous that my kindle will run out of power that I still carry books and magazines.
Doesn’t sound like you suffered too much and sometimes always good to dip into a genre you might not normally do!
LikeLike
In this case I’m glad I did. Never say never I suppose – something different can be a pleasant surprise.
LikeLike
Join the club sister, only I don’t read much fiction these days. Only what I can absorb in a doctor’s waiting room. History is my thing. Broken Kindle…thanks for the heads up. I am dropping far too much these days. Dianne
LikeLike
I think if I’d kept the cover on it, it might have survived. And yes I hear you about dropping stuff. They must be making things heavier and more awkward these days. 😉
LikeLike
LOL, I feel your pain. I dislike Westerns too but admit I might have done the same thing in similar circumstances, lol 😉
LikeLike
Turned out to be a happy accident ending up with this book. Well, better than the phone book anyway. lol
LikeLike
LMAO, I would have to be REALLY short on reading to dig out the phone book! haha 😉 It’s nice the book turned out better than expected though 🙂
LikeLike
That’s ok. I have a perfectly good ereader, and I am thinking of buying another one just because I, too, am a bookaholic plus I adore electronic gadgets LOL!! I think I might start a collection of ereaders just because!! 🙂
LikeLike
It’s kind of amazing all the devices we can download books to – and a collection of them sounds very tempting….
LikeLike
I would have to be desperate too to read a western, but you’re right, that cover is good.
LikeLike
Sometimes judging a book by its cover turns out well. 😀
LikeLike
Congrats on your soon-to-be-delivered baby Kindle! I’ve been kind of thinking about one of the new ones myself. Mine travels with me everywhere I go.
LikeLike
Awww…now I almost want to give it a name when it arrives. lol
LikeLike
Nothing wrong with being a book-a-holic. 🙂 Besides, it does sound pretty darn good. & I definitely agree with you about the cover art. It caught my eye the second I opened up my Reader. 😉
LikeLike
I’m sure that’s what drew me to it in the first place. Great marketing. If I ever write a book I’ll get that guy to design the cover. 🙂
LikeLike
I’d love to see inside his head. & You SHOULD write a book! You have a lovely, magnificent mind! I’m sure all of your readers here will agree with me on that. 🙂
LikeLike
Love those touch screens. Just think, books are not the worst vice around, this one feeds your mind and has no debilitating effects on the body. Okay, except for the tushie, but we will not count that! 🙂
LikeLike
I love touch screens too – especially because it discourages eating while reading because of all those nasty fingerprints. 😀
LikeLike
Ummm that hasn’t stopped me! :s
LikeLike
Pingback: Review: The Sisters Brothers – Patrick DeWitt | Between the Lines