Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder is being widely touted as a kind of Heart of Darkness for gals. To be sure, the similarity goes beyond the three-word titles divided by “of.” Who’s to say that Marlow, had he lived in our times, wouldn’t have been a research scientist for a Minnesota pharmaceutical company like Patchett’s protagonist Marina Singh? Read more…
heart of darkness
THE SISTERS BROTHERS
by Patrick DeWitt
Combine the casual, brutal violence of Cormac McCarthy with an English comedy of manners—P.G. Wodehouse works—add a dash of Heart of Darkness, and you get the gist of what Patrick DeWitt has done, to brilliant effect, with his second novel, The Sisters Brothers. I doubt very much I’ll read a funnier, more original book than this picaresque, Wild West tale of two murderous, miscreant brothers with the oxymoronic handle for a long time. Read more…