The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

 

I felt like I was watching episodes of “Deadwood,” a 2004-2006 TV serial drama. That show pushed the limits, a decade ago, of violence and depravity on cable TV.  This also had a 19^th century setting, Dakota in 1876, 25 years after the gold rush in California.  Things weren’t all that different from the lives of the Sisters brothers.

Our Gold Rush book had themes similar to the 1959 novel “Lord of the Flies” about people left to their own devices, resorting to violence as the solution to all problems. 

The prose, however, of the Flies book was of a much higher caliber than that of deWitt’s book. 

deWitt really wallows in the pig sty with the boy’s language and moral turpitude.  In Deadwood, they used to throw the bodies, sometimes not yet dead, into the hog sty for a quick cleaning up; the brothers would have approved of this no-mess burial.

The closest we ever get to any sort of tolerable character in this novel is in the depictions of the ever-present prostitutes with hearts of gold; unfortunately even their gold is money-lust and not compassion. 

This is deWitt’s claim to fame, I imagine, that he was able to complete this story without ever introducing a single character that wasn’t despicable and without saving grace.  The author also met the challenge of keeping the sub-plot lines simple, the thoughts and actions relentlessly kept at an uneducated, childish level.  The evil, sociopathic older brother controls the dim-witted youngster through a dozen vignettes and countless murders without either of them ever thinking beyond their next murder, meal or brandy.

One could argue that clumsy Eli is the mirror image counterfoil to evil Charlie.  They both lust after whores, but Eli tips well feigning chastity; Charlie’s gluttony is with brandy, but Eli tries a temperance diet for a day; greed drives their every move, but Eli gives to charity a lot; sloth is natural to them both, but Eli learns to have diligence in brushing his teeth; wrath strikes Charlie uncontrollably, but Eli has patience with Tub; Envy is Charlie’s burning passion, but Eli gives kindness to his whores; Pride dominates Charlie’s encounters with other people, Eli often retreats into simple humility. 
Seven deadly Sins, seven heavenly virtues.  They died, in any case, of ignorance.