I have a tendency to grumble about the Booker Prize. It always seems so subjective – they have different judges who have their own preferences every year so how can it be a consistent validation of a good book. Plus sometimes you can't help questioning whether politics & tokenism play too much a part in the selection. My book-club friend Sally points out that there have been some excellent Booker winners in the past, but I counter with last year's Finkler Question and we have to agree it's pretty hit and miss.
I've just got back from a week's holiday in Suffolk where – thanks to the beloved grandparents – I got a surprising amount of reading done. I decided I'd try to read the Booker shortlist before they announce the winner this year, and so began with Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers.
Described as a 'darkly funny, offbeat western about a reluctant assassin and his murderous brother', I was captivated straight away by the language of this novel which transported me to a different time and place. These cowboys speak with an almost courtly elegance that is greatly at odds with the dubious living they scratch in the desperately poor and troubled society of the American West. I loved the way that it was so sparsely written, and yet so much was conveyed. DeWitt's wild west is one where anyone who isn't looking out for themselves tends to fall by the wayside. His anti-hero, Eli, is willingly complicit in a number of malevolent deeds, but at the same time you can't help liking him as he struggles with his conscience and the innate kindness of his heart. This novel is indeed dark, but with a lot of black humour (the lot of poor Tub, Eli's long-suffering horse, is a particular case in point) and if I found the ending slightly unsatisfying (there isn't really a conclusion as such), I still enjoyed reading every word.
PS I love the cover. If you're interested in design, the Booker prize nominees cover designs are reviewed over on Creative Review's blog. This one is apparently an illustration by Dan Stiles and cover design by Suet Yee Chong.
