The
Readers met recently to discuss The Gunners, by Rebecca Kauffman.
The author uses a dual timeline to introduce six people who met as children,
formed a club, as well as lasting friendships. They called themselves The
Gunners, after the name on the mailbox of the abandoned house which served as
their clubhouse. Sally's suicide brings them all back together as adults.
The Readers gave the book an overall score of 3.83 out of five, with three of the members rating the book a 4.5. The group liked how the author did a slow build on the characters, introducing them individually, revealing how the friendships began. The main character, Mikey Callahan, proved to be the purest of the lot, seeing the good in everyone. The book doesn't sugar-coat any of the lives of the characters. Instead the author chooses to show the readers that these are all just people, flawed as we all are, yet choosing to carry on the best they can, accept each other, and love each other. Mikey sums it up well with the following quote:
“That word love... it
was scary and outlandish to him. But what was life if not a long series of
scary and outlandish things you did and said and asked of your heart, so you
could carry the wild and unreasonable hope that someday someone would hold your
face and say, You are perfect. You can rest now. You were always perfect to me.
Not because you were even remotely close to perfect, or brave, or strong, or
even very good, but because you had been very dear friends for a very long
time.”
No comments:
Post a Comment