The Elegant Variation: NBCC'S BEST RECOMMENDED LIST

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November 28, 2007

NBCC'S BEST RECOMMENDED LIST

For years now, we've lamented the arbitrary silliness of most "Best of" lists. They crop up with alarming frequency around this time of the year, generally making sweeping claims of Greatness while divulging little about the selection process. The NBCC has unveiled a new feature today that we're watching with enough interest that we're going to support the endeavor by setting up a sidebar before the week is out to track it - namely, their well considered (if oddly named) Best Recommended List. NBCC President John Freeman has described it thus:

"What if a best seller's list was made up of books people read rather than books they simply bought? What if it was a list of books you just had to read rather than books that were just good reads. And what if the matrix for recommending those books wasn't cash-registers, but the opinion of award-winning poets, novelists, biographers, novelists, critics and readers? These are the utopian ideas that prompted the National Book Critics Circle to create a monthly Best Recommended List. Polling our 800 members, as well as the former finalists and winners of our book prize, we asked, What 2007 books have you read that you have truly loved?

Nearly 500 voters-from John Updike and Robert Hass to Carolyn Forche, Anne Tyler, Jane Smiley, Jonathan Raban, and Cynthia Ozick-answered the call. Here is the list of books that writers and critics are most often recommending to each other. Starting in 2008, we plan to offer our Best Recommended List every month, as a kind of barometer for taste -- where it's going, and where it's been."

Now, the following is the part we think is particularly interesting. Freeman continues:

"We're excited to post this on the web because we know lists of 5 are nowhere near complete. So in addition to posting a list of all the books which received multiple votes, each day at the NBCC blog we'll be posting votes from critics and writers who participated, to widen the scope of the conversation and to hopefully present a little bit of how much is out there."

Which we think is potentially cool as hell as it will tap into the reading habits of a fascinating group of readers and writers and is likely to offer up some overlooked jewels. As for the picks themselves, the inaugural five in the fiction category are:

1) Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead) 2) Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) 3) Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (HarperCollins) 4) Philip Roth, Exit Ghost (Houghton Mifflin) 5) Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses (Graywolf)

In non-fiction, the top five are:

1) Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying (Knopf) 2) Alan Weisman, The World Without Us (St. Martin’s) 3) Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine (Metropolitan) 4) David Michaelis, Schulz and Peanuts (HarperCollins) 5) Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes (Doubleday)

And in poetry, with a three-way tie for first place:

1) Robert Hass, Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005* 2) Zbigniew Herbert, Collected Poems: 1956-1998 (Ecco)* 3) Robert Pinsky, Gulf Music (Farrar Straus & Giroux)* 4) Rae Armantrout, Next Life (Wesleyan) 5) Mary Jo Bang, Elegy (Graywolf)

We also wanted to partake in the promised widened conversation, so we're happy to have a pair of special commentators weigh in here. First up, NBCC finalist David Leavitt - whose The Indian Clerk we've championed here - talks about what book he voted for and why:

"Of the novels I read in 2007, Ian McEwan's On Chesil Beach is the one that has stayed with me most viscerally. The story of a honeymooning couple doomed by sexual terror and inexperience to make decisions that will affect their entire lives, On Chesil Beach provides a pitch-perfect rendering of England in the early sixties while telling a cautionary tale of misjudgment and misplaced pride that fits it squarely into the English tradition initiated, centuries before, by Jane Austen. There are moments in this book that made me wince with the most uncomfortable sensations of recognition, as well as moments when McEwan seemed to be bringing me almost too close to his characters. In the end, though, what I felt most acutely was the proximity of redemption--political, historical, and personal--that is McEwan's great theme and perhaps his great quest."

We're also pleased to have the thoughts of the renowned animation historian and critic (and NBCC finalist for Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation) Charles Solomon (seen below, appropriately, in caricature), who takes a slightly different approach, talking about a category the NBCC doesn't yet have under consideration - manga. But if it were a category, here's what Solomon - a contributor to the New York Times, TV Guide, Newsweek (Japan), Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Film Comment, the Hollywood Reporter, the Manchester Guardian, and others - thinks we should be reading:

"Manga (Japanese graphic novels) is the fastest growing area of American publishing. For most adults, the manga aisle of the local bookstore may seem as unfamiliar as Cathay or Cipango, but for adolescents, teen-agers and college students, it's a welcome and familiar harbor. Most manga begin in Japan as serials published in magazines that are later reissued in book form. In the US, manga are rapidly becoming what "Nancy Drew," "Henry Huggins" and "Tintin" were for earlier generations. The combination of words and pictures speaks to younger readers in ways other books don't.

Fullmetal Alchemist,Volumes 1-15 by Hiromu Arakawa (Viz: $9.99 each, paperback): Young Alphonse and Edward Elric violated the laws of alchemy when they tried to to bring their mother back from the dead, and paid a terrible price for that transgression. Edward lost a leg and Al nearly died, but Ed sacrificed his right arm to preserve his brother's soul in a suit of armor. Ed's robotic prostheses make him The Fullmetal Alchemist. The Elric brothers wander far and wide in search of the Philosopher's Stone, which they believe can restore their damaged bodies. Five juvenile novels about the "Fullmetal Alchemist" characters have been published in the US: the most recent is "Under the Faraway Sky" by Makoto Inoue (Viz: $9.99, paperback).

Mushi-Shi, Volumes 1-4 by Yuki Urushibara (Del Rey: $12.95 each, paperback) In contrast to the dynamic adventures of the Elric Brothers, the stories in Mushi-Shi unfold at a cool, measured pace that recalls traditional folk tales. Mysterious creatures that represent "life in its purest form," Mushiare more ancient than plants and animals. Neither good nor evil, they just exist. Ginko, the chain-smoking Mushi-Shi("MushiMaster"), roams Japan, studying Mushiand their interactions with humanity. Urushibara's manga won the Kodansha Award in 2006, and is rapidly building a following in the US.

Naruto, Volumes 1-29 by Masashi Kishimoto (Viz: $7.95 each, paperback) The wildly popular Naruto series has spawned a small publishing industry: in addition to the original manga, there are calendars, novelizations, "Art of" books, game guides, and fan books. Audiences can't get enough of the misadventures of knuckle-headed ninja-in-training Naruto Uzumaki. These rollicking adventures combine feats of daring-do, exotic jutsu (magical techniques) and broad, slapstick comedy. The animated series enjoys an equal popularity."

Special thanks to our guest contributors and note to the NBCC: Consider simply calling the thing TBR - after all, "To Be Read" is a near universal designation among readers, isn't it? If you've got a great idea for a name, please feel free to weigh in.

Posted at 12:01 AM in Worthy Titles | Permalink

Comments

As a woman who is writing a novel, I'm dismayed that all the recommended fiction is by men. Not surprised, just dismayed.

Posted by: Anglofille | November 29, 2007 at 01:57 AM

While a list based on books read and loved from cover to cover trumps a list of books read and displayed on coffee tables, the ultimate value of this list will only be proven to me if it varies from all the other high-buzz lists. I want to see some books listed here that are NOT on everyone else's lists already, for that only makes the entire list charade more ingrown and exclusive than it already is. My reading habits are seldom influenced by people whose love of books arises out of conversations that begin with, "I'll write a blurb for your book if you'll write a blurb for mine."

Malcolm

Posted by: Malcolm R. Campbell | November 29, 2007 at 07:22 AM

Malcolm has a good point and any booklover reading this blog already knows about the first top five ficpix. (not that they're bad books by any means, but they've gotten tons of ink). So critics, tell us something we don't know. Also, thanks for including manga. I would certainly add Shawn Tan's The Arrival if we are casting a wider graphic novel net. Gorgeous drawings, universal immigrant story, no words.

Posted by: denise hamilton | November 29, 2007 at 07:36 AM

Denise, Good point, which is why we put up the lists on our blog of every book which got more than one vote. There are some less expected choices on these lists -- Lydia Millet's upcoming novel for example, there's an upcoming novel by Manil Suri on there, Matthew Eck's book, which is very good. In the new year I think the list will change because the books people are reading will have changed -- not to take away from the books which made the top 5, many of which are very very good. Here's a rec, though: if you read poetry, track down Michael O'Brien's "Sleeping and Waking," (Flood Editions) terrific book.

Posted by: John Freeman | November 29, 2007 at 10:21 AM

I also do suspect that future iterations will go farther afield. I think, being the first go-round, there was a bit of a clearing house effect, with everyone still sort of buzzing with the year's big books.

Posted by: TEV | November 29, 2007 at 10:28 AM

As an NBCC member, my fiction vote was for the forthcoming Pat Barker novel, LIFE CLASS, and in poetry I voted for Janet McAdam's FERAL. (Both women, as it happens.)

Posted by: Katharine Weber | November 29, 2007 at 06:43 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

MY NOVEL

HARRY, REVISED - Get all the details here.

TOUR DATES

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal by Rob Riemen

This slim volume by the president and founder of the Nexus Institute, a European-based humanist think-tank, stands as the most stirring redoubt against the ascendant forces of know-nothingness that we've come across in a long time. A full-throated, unapologetic defense of the virtues of Western Civ – in which "elite" is not and never should be a dirty word – this inspiring exploration of high art and high ideals is divided into three sections: The first looks at the life of Riemen's great hero Thomas Mann as a model for the examined life. The second imagines a series of conversations from turning points in European intellectual history, populated with the likes of Socrates, Nietzsche and others. The final section, "Be Brave," is nothing less than an exhortation to dig deep, especially in times of risk. The notion of nobility of the spirit might strike some modern ears as quaint but it seems more desperately necessary than ever before, and there are worse ways to read the accessible Nobility of Spirit than as a crash refresher in the Great Thinkers, free of academic jargon and cant. As a meditation on what is at stake when the pursuit of high ideals is elbowed aside by the pursuit of fleeting material gain, however, Nobility of Spirit might well be the most prescient book we've yet read on what's at stake in the current election cycle and in the developing global situation. Agree or disagree with Riemen's profound, ambitious and high-minded plea, you will be thinking about his words for a long time. It's been ages since a work of non-fiction moved us this way. Read it. Discuss it. Argue about it.
Netherland by Joseph O'Neill

With rave reviews from James Wood, Michiko Kakutani and Dwight Garner, it might not seem like we need to tell you to drop everything and go read Netherland, but we are telling you, and here's why: The way book coverage works these days, everyone talks about the same book for about two or three weeks, and then they move on and the book is more or less forgotten. Whereas a berth here in the Recommended sidebar keeps noteworthy titles in view for a good, long time, which is the sort of sustained attention this marvelous novel deserves. A Gatsby-like meditation on exclusion and otherness, it's an unforgettable New York story in which the post 9/11 lives of Hans, a Dutch banker estranged from his English wife, and Chuck Ramkissoon, a mysterious cricket entrepreneur, intertwine. The New York City of the immigrant margins is unforgettably invoked in gorgeous, precise prose, and the novel's luminous conclusion is a radiant beacon illuminating one of our essential questions, the question of belonging. Our strongest possible recommendation.
Dictation: A Quartet by Cynthia Ozick

"History," wrote Henry James in a 1910 letter to his amanuensis Theodora Bosanquet, "is strangely written." This casual aside could easily serve as the epigraph of Cynthia Ozick's superb new collection Dictation, which concerns itself with lost worlds evoked by languages -- languages which separate and obscure as readily as they bind. It can be risky to look for connective tissue between stories written years apart and published in magazines ranging from The Conradian to The New Yorker. But themes of deception, posterity, and above all, the glory of language -- at once malleable and intractable -- knit together this quartet, recasting the whole as the harmonious product of Ozick's formidable talent. Read the entire review here
Diary of a Bad Year by J. M. Coetzee

Now, on the one hand, you scarcely need us to alert you to the existence of a new J.M. Coetzee novel, or even to have us tell you it's worth reading. But we can tell you - we insist on telling you that Diary of a Bad Year is a triumph, easily Coetzee's most affecting and fully wrought work since Disgrace. Formally inventive, the book intertwines two narratives with the author's own Strong Opinions, a series of seemingly discrete philosophical and political essays. The cumulative effect of this strange trio is deeply moving and thought provoking. It's increasingly rare in this thoroughly post-post-modern age to raise the kind of questions in fiction Coetzee handles so masterfully - right down to what is it, exactly, that we expect (or need) from our novels. It's telling that, for all of his serious pronouncements on subjects ranging from censorship to pedophilia to the use of torture, it's finally a few pages from The Brothers Karamazov that brings him to tears. Moving, wise and - how's this for a surprise - funny and lightly self-mocking, Diary of a Bad Year might well be the book of the year and Coetzee is surely our essential novelist. We haven't stopped thinking about it since we set it down.
The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt

David Leavitt's magnificent new novel tells the story of the unlikely friendship between the British mathematician G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan, mathematical autodidact and prodigy who had been working as a clerk in Madras, and who would turn out to be one of the great mathematical minds of the century. Ramanujan reluctantly joined Hardy in England - a move that would ultimately prove to his detriment - and the men set to work on proving the Riemann Hypothesis, one of mathematics' great unsolved problems. The Indian Clerk, an epic and elegant work which spans continents and decades, encompasses a World War, and boasts a cast of characters that includes Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Lytton Strachey. Leavitt renders the complex mathematics in a manner that resonates emotionally as well as intellectually, and writes with crystalline elegance. The metaphor of the prime number – divisible only by one and itself – is beautifully apt for this tale of these two isolated geniuses. Leavitt's control of this dense, sprawling material is impressive – astonishing, at times – and yet despite its scope, he keeps us focused on his great themes of unknowability and identity. The Indian Clerk might be set in the past but it doesn't resemble most so-called "historical fiction." Rather, it's an ageless meditation on the quests for knowledge and for the self – and how frequently the two are intertwined – that is, finally, as timeless as the music of the primes. (View our full week of coverage here.)
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Joshua Ferris' warm and funny debut novel is an antidote to the sneering likes of The Office and Max Barry's Company. Treating his characters with both affection and respect, Ferris takes us into a Chicago ad agency at the onset of the dot-bomb. Careers are in jeopardy, nerves are frayed and petty turf wars are fought. But there are bigger stakes in the balance, and Ferris' weirdly indeterminate point of view that's mostly first person plural, underscores the shared humanity of everyone who has ever had to sit behind a desk. It's a luminous, affecting debut and you can read the first chapter right here.
Christine Falls by Benjamin Black

Coming to these shores at last, John Banville's thriller, written under the nom de plume Benjamin Black, has drawn rave reviews across the pond since it first appeared last October. Those who feared Banville might turn in an overly literary effort needn't worry. Influenced by Simenon's romans durs (hard stories), Banville unspools a dark mystery set in 1950s Dublin concerning itself with, among other things, the church's trade in orphans. At the heart of the book is the coroner Quirke, a Banvillean creation on par with Alex Cleave and Freddie Montgomery. Dublin is rendered with a damp, creaky specificity – you can almost taste the whisky.
The Paris Review Interviews, I by The Paris Review and Philip Gourevitch

Scanning our Recommended selections, one might conclude we're addicted to interviews, and one would be correct. If author interviews are like crack to us, then the Paris Review author interviews must surely be the gold standard of crack (a comparison Plimpton might not have embraced). The newly issued The Paris Review Interviews, Volume I (Picador) rolls out the heavy hitters. Who can possibly turn away from the likes of Saul Bellow, T.S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Jorge Luis Borges, Dorothy Parker, Robert Gottlieb and others? The interviews are formal and thoughtful but never dry and can replace any dozen "how-to" books on writing. What can be more comforting than hearing Bellow, answering a question on preparations and conception, admit "Well, I don't know exactly how it's done.” The best part of this collection? The "Volume I" in the title, with its promise of more volumes to come.
The Dead Fish Museum: Stories by Charles D'Ambrosio

The best short story collection we've read since ... well, certainly since we've started this blog. And we might even say "ever" if Dubliners didn't cast such a long shadow. The short story is not our preferred form but D'Ambrosio's eight brilliant stories are almost enough to convert us. Defy the conventional wisdom that short story collections don't sell and treat yourself to this marvel. (We're especially partial, naturally, to "Screenwriter".)
The Mystery Guest by Grégoire Bouillier
*Now in Paperback*

What would you do if the woman who’d left you high and dry ten years ago called out of the blue to invite you to a party without any further explanation? If you’re French, you’d probably spend a lot of time pondering the Deeper Significance Of It All, which is exactly what Grégoire Bouillier does for the 120 hilarious pages of The Mystery Guest. This slim, witty memoir follows Bouillier through the party from hell, and is a case study in Gallic self-abasement. Before it’s all done, you’ll set fire to any turtleneck hanging in your closet and think twice before buying an expensive Bordeaux as a gift. But fear not – just when it seems that all is, indeed, random and pointless and there is no Deeper Significance, salvation arrives in the unlikely form of Virginia Woolf, and the tale ends on a note of unforced optimism. Parfait.
Ticknor by Sheila Heti

When George Ticknor's Life of William Hickling Prescott was published in 1864, it received rapturous notices, and reviewers were quick to point out that the long-standing friendship between Prescott and Ticknor made the latter an ideal Boswell. Sheila Heti has pulled this obscure leaf from the literary archives and fashioned a mordantly funny anti-history; a pungent and hilarious study of bitterness and promise unfulfilled. As a fretful Ticknor navigates his way through the rain-soaked streets of Boston to Prescott's house ("But I am not a late man. I hate to be late."), he recalls his decidedly one-sided lifelong friendship with his great subject. Unlike the real-life Ticknor, this one is an embittered also-ran, full of plans and intentions never realized, always alive to the fashionable whispers behind his back. Heti seamlessly inhabits Ticknor's fussy 19th-century diction with a feat of virtuoso ventriloquism that puts one in mind of The Remains of the Day. Heti's Ticknor would be insufferable if he weren't so funny, and in the end, the black humor brings a leavening poignancy to this brief tale. But don't let the size fool you — this 109-page first novel is small but scarcely slight; it is as dense and textured as a truffle.
The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers by Vendela Vida

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you and yes, we are recommending a Believer product. Twenty-three interviews (a third presented for the first time) pairing the likes of Zadie Smith with Ian McEwan, Jonathan Lethem with Paul Auster, Edward P. Jones and ZZ Packer, and Adam Thirwell with Tom Stoppard make this collection a must-read. Lifted out of the context of some of the magazine's worst twee excesses, the interviews stand admirably on their own as largely thoughtful dialogues on craft. A handful of interviewers seem more interested in themselves than in their subjects but in the main this collection will prove irresistible to writers of any stripe - struggling or established - and to readers seeking a window into the creative process.
The Sea by John Banville

John Banville's latest novel returns him to the Booker Prize shortlist for the first time since 1989's The Book of Evidence. In The Sea, we find Banville in transition, moving from the icy, restrained narrators of The Untouchable, Eclipse and Shroud toward warmer climes. Max Morden has returned to the vacation spot of his youth as he grieves the death of his wife. Remembering his first, fatal love, Morden works to reconcile himself to his loss. Banville's trademark linguistic virtuosity is everpresent but some of the chilly control is relinquished and Max mourns and rages in ways that mark a new direction for Banville - and there's at least one great twist which you'll never see coming. Given the politicized nature of the British literary scene, Banville's shot at the prize might be hobbled by his controversial McEwan review but we're rooting for our longtime favorite to go all the way at last. UPDATE: Our man won!
Here Is Where We Meet by John Berger

We've been fans of Booker Prize winner John Berger for ages, and we're delighted to have received an early copy of his latest work, Here is Where We Meet. In this lovely, elliptical, melancholy "fictional memoir," Berger traverses European cities from Libson to Geneva to Islington, conversing with shades from his past – He encounters his dead mother on a Lisbon tram, a beloved mentor in a Krakow market. Along the way, we're treated to marvelous and occasionally heart-rending glimpses of an extraordinary life, a lyrical elegy to the 20th century from a man who - in his eighth decade - remains committed to his political beliefs and almost childlike in his openness to people, places and experiences. There's no conventional narrative here, and those seeking plot are advised to look elsewhere. But Here is Where We Meet offers a wise, moving and poetic look at the life of an artist traversing the European century from a novelist whose talent remains undimmed in his twilight years.
Home Land by Sam Lipsyte

In his recent TEV guest review of Home Land, Jim Ruland called Sam Lipsyte the "funniest writer of his generation," and we're quite inclined to agree. We tore through Home Land in two joyful sittings and can't remember the last time we've laughed so hard. Lipsyte's constellation of oddly sympathetic losers is rendered with a sparkling, inspired prose style that's sent us off in search of all his prior work. In Lewis Miner's (a.k.a Teabag) woeful epistolary dispatches to his high school alumni newsletter ("I did not pan out."), we find an anti-hero for the age. Highly, highly recommended.

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SECOND LOOK

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Penelope Fitzgerald's second novel is the tale of Florence Green, a widow who seeks, in the late 1950s, to bring a bookstore to an isolated British town, encountering all manner of obstacles, including incompetent builders, vindictive gentry, small minded bankers, an irritable poltergeist, but, above all, a town that might not, in fact, want a bookshop. Fitzgerald's prose is spare but evocative – there's no wasted effort and her work reminds one of Hemingway's dictum that every word should fight for its right to be on the page. Florence is an engaging creation, stubbornly committed to her plan even as uncertainty regarding the wisdom of the enterprise gnaws at her. But The Bookshop concerns itself, finally, with the astonishing vindictiveness of which provincials are capable, and, as so much English fiction must, it grapples with the inevitabilities of class. It's a dense marvel at 123 pages, a book you won't want to – or be able to – rush through.
The Rider by Tim Krabbe

Tim Krabbé's superb 1978 memoir-cum-novel is the single best book we've read about cycling, a book that will come closer to bringing you inside a grueling road race than anything else out there. A kilometer-by-kilometer look at just what is required to endure some of the most grueling terrain in the world, Krabbé explains the tactics, the choices and – above all – the grinding, endless, excruciating pain that every cyclist faces and makes it heart-pounding rather than expository or tedious. No writer has better captured both the agony and the determination to ride through the agony. He's an elegant stylist (ably served by Sam Garrett's fine translation) and The Rider manages to be that rarest hybrid – an authentic, accurate book about cycling that's a pleasure to read. "Non-racers," he writes. "The emptiness of those lives shocks me."

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

November 28, 2007

NBCC'S BEST RECOMMENDED LIST

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

November 28, 2007

NBCC'S BEST RECOMMENDED LIST

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism