The Gunners: A Novel
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: O, The Oprah Magazine - Entertainment Weekly - Southern Living - Huffington Post - Esquire - Book Riot - Harper's Bazaar - NYLON - Real Simple
Following her wonderfully received first novel, Another Place You've Never Been, Rebecca Kauffman returns with Mikey Callahan, a thirty-year-old who is suffering from the clouded vision of macular degeneration. He struggles to establish human connections--even his emotional life is a blur.
As the novel begins, he is reconnecting with "The Gunners," his group of childhood friends, after one of their members has committed suicide. Sally had distanced herself from all of them before ending her life, and she died harboring secrets about the group and its individuals. Mikey especially needs to confront dark secrets about his own past and his father. How much of this darkness accounts for the emotional stupor Mikey is suffering from as he reaches his maturity? And can The Gunners, prompted by Sally's death, find their way to a new day? The core of this adventure, made by Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy, and Sam, becomes a search for the core of truth, friendship, and forgiveness.
A quietly startling, beautiful book, The Gunners engages us with vividly unforgettable characters, and advances Rebecca Kauffman's place as one of the most important young writers of her generation.
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Community Reviews
The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman
260 pages
What’s it about?
So my first thought was, “this is a remake of ‘The Big Chill’ for millennials”. I may not have been too far off with my first thought.... Much like “The Big Chill” this was thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end. Who isn’t drawn in by a group of childhood friends who years later are drawn back together for the funeral of one of the group? Did I mention it was a suicide?
What did it make me think about?
This novel is about friendship- pure and simple. Especially long enduring friendships. Rebecca Kauffman addresses her characters emotional lives head on- in a way that most writers don't. It made for a different kind of novel.
Should I read it?
SO- keeping in mind that I may have just been in the mood for something quick and easy- I would say yes! This novel was just fun to read. Lots of drama, lots of quirky characters, and some mystery. I must tell you that you will need to suspend your disbelief and just go with it (for example- if Mikey is truly that well-loved wouldn’t he have made some more friends over the years….). But so what! Sometimes it is fun to just read something that is engrossing and keeps you interested. I would say this is a really good summer, beach read with some thought provoking, deep points made by the author.
Quote-
“He said, ‘I think at various times in life we’re either more or less true to who we really are. But that essence, that who we are…I don’t know if that that ever changes.’”
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