Book Club - by Suhaili

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The Gun Seller

May 14th 2006 03:36

Hugh Laurie - Actor, Comedian, Author

Hugh Laurie is currently most well-known for playing the titular character on the American drama series 'House'. A few people I know have been surprised to learn that he is actually British... with this in mind, a lot of people would probably be unaware that he had a long career in television comedy back in the UK before 'making it big' in the U.S. Even less people are probably aware that he also wrote a book once, about ten years ago. This book is 'The Gun Seller', which is the main purpose of my blog here today.

I bought this book about six or so years ago to round out a 'three for $12' book deal. I didn't actually want this book, I just wanted these two other Doctor Who books, but I felt like I was ripping myself off if I didn't make use of the deal. And so 'The Gun Seller' has sat on my shelf slowly gathering dust ever since. I recently finished reading a whole bunch of Robin Hobb books recently and was looking for a change of pace so I thought I might as well finally read Mr. Laurie's book.

The original edition of 'The Gun Seller'. Crap cover.

And it was really good! I was expecting a thinly-veiled autobiographical comedy along the lines of Adrian Edmondson's 'The Gobbler', but it was nothing like that at all. Think of a Robert Ludlum/Len Deighton-style spy thriller told in an hilariously smart-arsed and flippant manner and you get something edging towards what Hugh Laurie has achieved here. As a spy thriller, it's stands quite well on it's own two pulpy legs, full of unexpected twists and ambiguous characters. What saves it from being a genre novel though is Laurie's dissection of the cliches of first-person storytelling and his generally humourous asides. It makes for a fun read, but not without raising a few serious points about the arms trade (it appears Laurie isn't much of a fan of America).

The new edition. More appropriate cover.

It's a shame Laurie hasn't written any other books. I don't think 'The Gun Seller' was much of a success when it first came out (Exhibit A: No follow up books were written, Exhibit B: I found it in a bargain book pile only a year or two after it came out). I hear he is working on another one now, and I hope it does a lot better so that it isn't so long between books from here on in.

'The Gun Seller' has been recently re-released with a better cover. I think part of the reason I avoided reading it for so long is because the copy I had had such a crappy cover. And don't give me that malarkey about not judging a book by a cover - a cover should represent what the book is about. The original cover for 'The Gun Seller' makes it look like some sort of goofy b-grade trash.

Book Club - by Suhaili

The Gun Seller

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