The Gunman (Movie Tie-In Edition)
Author | : Jean-Patrick Manchette |
Publisher | : City Lights Publishers |
Total Pages | : 180 |
Release | : 2015-02-16 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780872866652 |
ISBN-13 | : 0872866653 |
Rating | : 4/5 (52 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: The film also stars Javier Bardem, Idris Elba and Ray Winstone, and is directed by Pierre Morel (Taken). About The Gunman: Terrier is a hired killer who wants out of the game, so he can settle down and marry his childhood sweetheart. But the Organization won't let him go: they have other plans for him. In a violent tale that shatters as many illusions as bodies, Jean-Patrick Manchette subjects his characters and the reader alike to a fierce exercise in style. This tightly plotted, corrosive parody of "the success story" is widely considered to be Manchette's masterpiece, and was named a New York Times "Notable Book" in 2002. The Gunman is a classic of modern noir. Also available in its original edition titled The Prone Gunman, along with Manchette's Three to Kill, published by City Lights in 2002. "There's not a superfluous word or overdone effect . . . one of the last cool, compact and shockingly original crime novels Manchette left as his legacy to modern noir fiction." — New York Times "This is lean, mean noir fiction that cleverly sends up the tough guy genre while incarnating it perfectly." — Detroit Free Press "Manchette is a master of both economy and irony. Brutal and bracing: Terrier's tale fascinates even as it chills." — Kirkus Reviews “For Manchette and the generation of writers who followed him, the crime novel is no mere entertainment, but a means to strip bare the failures of society, ripping through veils of appearance, deceit, and manipulation to the greed and violence that are the society's true engines." — Boston Globe "Jean-Patrick Manchette's terse prose moves like the swift, almost automatic methods and mannerisms of his protagonist." — Wall Street Journal