The Gunners

‘”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.)

The Gunners is a meditative novel that looks at friendship, life difficulties, and difference. Mikey, Sam, Lynn, Alice, Jimmy and Sally were childhood friends, united by their relative freedom as latchkey kids and the abandoned house they made their den. When they were sixteen, Sally disappeared from their lives, no longer their friend seemingly without reason. Years later, they reunite for the first time for her funeral, and it turns out there were plenty of unspoken secrets about the time when Sally left.

The premise of The Gunners doesn’t sound particularly original, but the novel itself is quirky and thoughtful. It goes down routes that might not be expected, showing the differences in friendships and the ways in which people’s lives diverge and come together. It has a real focus on friendship that isn't undercut as it can be in other novels and it really engages with the weirdness of drifting away from a group you were very close with and then coming back together. The ensemble cast is handled well, with the narrative looking into the childhood of each character alongside the present day.

A novel about friendship and hardship that keeps the focus on the friends, The Gunners was an enjoyable read, if at times as elusive with the past narrative as the characters were.

The Gunners.. what a fantastic book! This book was just what I needed... a great story and a break from serial killers! It was a beautiful story about friendship, love and family. It was funny, sad and thought provoking. I read it in 2 sittings, and would have been happy for to keep going. Wonderful characters with so many layers who touched my heart in so many ways. You need to read this book.

The Gunners are a group of school friends who hang out in an old abandoned house. On the letter box is the name Gunners. The kids are so different but at the same time have a lot in common. They are not the popular kids at school and their friendships are strong. But like all friendships they start to drift apart and only stay in touch via email. When one of them kill someone themselves they all return to their home town for the funeral. Long forgotten memories resurface and truths come out. So many assumptions have been made about things that happened when they were kids, assumptions that have helped shape their lives.

It is a wonderful story of how friends will always be there for you, no matter what. Thank you to Serpents Tail and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased

You know those books that are just a pure delight to read? The Gunners is one of them. I started it yesterday evening and finished it this morning. I’ve got loads of things that I need to do, but I just had to finish this first - I could not put it down. It doesn’t get five stars because I found a certain unfinished quality to the ending, but aside from that, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read.