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Indlæser... The Gunners: A Novel (original 2018; udgave 2018)af Rebecca Kauffman (Forfatter)
Work InformationThe Gunners af Rebecca Kauffman (2018)
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Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. A big fan of Kauffman's writing style. This book was a friend. I'll be reading her other novel. ( ) ‘”Once upon a time, there were six best friends,” he said. “They were all different, but they fit together very nicely.”’ In Buffalo, 5 friends in their early-thirties come together for the funeral of Sally, who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge. Once, the six had been The Gunners, local kids who grew up and hung out together in the same street, but now Mikey, Alice, Lynn, Jimmy and Sam have to come to terms with how one of their group shut herself off from them as a teenager, and now many years later they struggle to understand her death. This is not necessarily an original premise – think ‘The Big Chill’ or ‘thirtysomething’ or the like – but Kauffman handles the story in a delicate and confident way. There are several set-pieces as the book develops – a lake-side chalet where the friends gather after the funeral, and then later on in the book Lynn gets married – and as we learn more about the characters we see how each of them need and love each other. Everyone has secrets, and each of them struggle to find their way in life, to forge their own identity. At the books heart is Mikey, the quiet one, the kind one who ‘taught the others how to be good to one another’. Suffering from macular degeneration, Mikey is the kind of character you just want to hug and protect, and his failing eyesight becomes an almost-reverse metaphor for the book, for as he loses his ability to see the world around him in all its glory, so each of the characters learn to find their way in life. The ending is subtle, quiet, and deeply moving. We don’t find any answers for why Sally cut herself off from the group, or why she killed herself – the book avoids tying-up neatly things that actually we can’t understand. But we do get a sense of moving on, even if the future is unclear. This is a book about finding out who we are and how we define ourselves in terms of family and where we come from, in terms of our friends and partners and pets, and about dealing with the crap that life will throw at you. It is a well-written, deeply moving account of friendships and the bonds we make, and I definitely recommend it. (With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest and unbiased review.) I could write a lot about how much I liked this book but it feels too exhausting to tackle right now. I loved all the characters, even the ones I didn't particularly like I loved. I can't count how many times I've felt how Mikey has felt. Removed, distant. Not sure what people see it me. Unclear as to how I've gotten where I am. This book really was tailor made for me. Thank JOHANNA for recommending it to me!! ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
Fiction.
Literature.
LGBTQIA+ (Fiction.)
HTML:"Kauffman has done something remarkable with The Gunners . . . She's made spending time with [her characters] not just tolerable but delightful. And she's achieved this not by manufacturing likability, but by so convincingly rendering the affection between them that you accept each character's foibles as readily as they do one another's . . . There's so much generosity and spirit and humor shared by whatever characters are on the page at any given time that I was always happy to accompany them." ??The New York Times Book Review Following her wonderfully received first novel, Another Place You??ve Never Been, called ??mesmerizing,? ??powerful,? and ??gorgeous,? by critics all over the country, 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. "A moving novel . . . Each character comes to terms with their dark past, and uncertain futures??like an intimate hangout session, dashed with suspense and few extra layers of emotional beauty. You'll find yourself thinking of Freaks and Geeks, The Big Chill, and maybe all those friends you've been meaning to text." ?? No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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