SISTERS BROTHERS BOOK, MOVIE, AND MORE

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt spooked me from the moment it showed up.

What kind of tricky title was that.

Would it be about brothers and sisters, sisters who wanted to be brothers?

I had to find out, and so I did. I picked it up and read it. Then what?

I read it nice and slow, took a break, finished it, then watched the movie.

Since then I’ve read reviews of each, book and movie, and one word keeps showing up: Picaresque.

 

• A picaresque narrative is usually written in first person as an autobiographical account.

• The main character is often of low character or social class. They get by with wits and rarely deign to hold a job.

• There is little or no plot. The story is told in a series of loosely connected adventures or episodes.

• There is little if any character development in the main character. Once a pícaro, always a pícaro. Their circumstances may change but these rarely result in a change of heart.

• The pícaro’s story is told with a plainness of language or realism.

• Satire is sometimes a prominent element.

• The behavior of a picaresque protagonist stops just short of criminality. Carefree or immoral rascality positions the picaresque hero as a sympathetic outsider, untouched by the false rules of society.

 

The author gets called the 21st Century Mark Twain.

 

His first novel, Ablutions, based on his experiences tending bar at a fading Hollywood watering hole, established the essential, abiding signature of his fiction: its easygoing habit of allowing itself to be hijacked by characters who are just passing through, each with his own tale to tell.

The effect is very much like hanging out at a bar and being buttonholed by a series of eccentric regulars.

It’s very American, this form of storytelling, reminiscent of Mark Twain, the writer deWitt resembles most. Initially a journalist, Twain never entirely abandoned the notion that his job was to wander around collecting and recording the yarns of people on the fringes of an adolescent nation.

 

21st Century Mark Twain

It took me a while to pick up Sisters Brothers because of the image on the cover.

The two guys looked more like inbred idiots than hired assassins, but maybe that’s no coincidence.

Maybe Billie The Kid was the inspiration?

The brothers take off on their death mission riding horses and camping along the way.

I read slowly to capture the moment I learned from reading Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Steering The Craft.

 

She brings up all the rules we have heard over and over again such as: show don’t tell; write in active voice, not the passive voice; don’t use “be” verbs; and more — and then tells you how to break them.

 

Patrick DeWitt knows how to drive a novel and how to give a sense of urgency without explaining how and why it’s urgent.

I like a writer who gives readers credit they haven’t earned, but still rewards them with a nice lesson.

Sisters Brothers does that. More than a story, it is a writing class.

And the best part? He includes pages titled ‘Intermission.’

 

One Intermission

Most plays I’ve seen with an Intermission could end right there and send the audience home and it would still work.

Do I hope it’s the end when it’s just the intermission? Sometimes.

When I came across an intermission in Sisters Brothers I put the book down and left for three weeks in England.

I didn’t take the book with me because I wanted something to look forward to when I got back.

That’s when I wrapped it up, rented the movie, and went to the book store.

Why? Because I’m going to read more DeWitt. I’m stopping by the library too.

This writer is a Portland guy now, a high school dropout with a writing dream that became a writing reality.

Instead of going the academic route and getting sidetracked by teaching like so many who could have been better, he went all in on one thing.

What’s it called when an unlettered writer so desperate for a big break that it occupies their work and it turns into their break?

It’s called a writer who I will read more of, not less.

With that in mind I bought my wife a birthday present.

She recommended Sisters Brothers after reading it and liking it.

She’ll read the Librarianist while I read French Exit.

I found both books at Powell’s and picked up the last copy of The Librarianist.

How lucky is that?

I won’t wait as long to read these as I did Sisters Brothers, but first I’ll look for the Ablutions in the library.

You might say I’ve got a few picaresque novels to look forward to.

The last time I went on a reading binge was the work of T.C. Boyle.

I follow him on twitter as he makes it through day after grueling day working on short stories and novels and telling as much about it as he dare.

If you need a kick in the pants to find a new author, you know what to do.

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