This book is terrible. Terrible. It has a great premise, and a good plot - until the last 25 pages or so, where it completely falls apart and also has an ending which makes the book terrible. TERRIBLE.Martin Terrier left his house at age 18. He kissed his girlfriend Anne goodbye. She was 16. He made her promise to wait for him. He would come back for her in 10 years. He joins the army, and after serving, he becomes a mercenary.As a ruthless, efficient killer Martin excels. He is a serious badass. After 10 years saving up money, he wants out. He goes to tell his boss."It seems that you're not going to work for someone else. You're simply going to get out. I can easily understand that. Still, you should have talked to me about it. You can't just disappear without warning.""But that's just what I'm going to do."See? Badass.Cox, his boss, tries to convince Martin to stay."The company has an important project in preparation," said Cox. "Just one, as far as you're concerned. You can get out afterward. I daresay we'll even make things easier for you. You know we can make things easier. On the other hand, we can make a lot of difficulties for you.""I'd advise against trying to fuck with me." Terrier smiled again.So badass. Martin breaks up with his current girlfriend. He makes preparations to leave. Then things start happening. His apartment is ransacked, all his belongings are destroyed. His cat goes missing, only to later be mailed to him, disemboweled. The girlfriend he broke up with is gangraped, tortured, and then killed.Martin picks up a tail.""Was it you who ransacked my apartment?""What? No. No.""Do you know who did?""Absolutely not."With his left hand, Terrier grabbed him by the collar and pushed him back into the Capri. At the same time, he got behind the wheel, took out his automatic, and rested the end of the barrel against the pale young man's throat.The young man blinked. Terrier pressed the cigarette lighter. The eyes of the motionless young man followed his gestures."I'm going to burn out an eye," said Terrier.After the interrogation, "You're going to let me go now, aren't you?""Sure."Terrier drew back a little on his seat and stopped pressing the barrel of the HK4 against the throat of the young man. The latter tearfully rubbed his neck."Oh! Thank you, thank you!""Take this message to Cox," said Terrier as he put a slug into his heart.Then, Terrier goes to find Anne, the woman he left 10 years ago. With his hard-earned money, he's ready to start a life with her.The fact that violent people are coming after him, and he's bringing the whole mess to her door doesn't seem to occur to him. Sometimes he's very stupid.Much to his shock and hurt, he finds out that Anne is married. To a total prick named Felix. Felix is weak. He is terrified of Martin because he knows... he KNOWS that Anne will leave him for Martin in a minute. Felix dresses expensively and knows about music, film, art and books. He is cultured. But he is a weak, cowardly man with little backbone. The face-off between Felix and Martin is laughable. Felix sneers at Martin's lack of education and his lack of taste, but behind his sneering face he is breaking inside. He knows Martin is a better man than he is.This never becomes clearer than when armed men break in and hold Martin, Felix, and Anne at gunpoint......This sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it is great. But let me tell you, it is completely not worth reading because you will be angry, disappointed, and frustrated by the end of the novel. I don't know why or how Manchette can screw this up so badly.Let's break some things down:KILLERMartin is such a badass. When it comes to killing, interrogation, beatings, guns, knives, destroying evidence, being a genius with set-up and follow-through - Martin shines. He is ruthless, fast, efficient, patient, methodical, and very smart. Even during one scene when Martin is drunk, he easily and skillfully puts men down. He brushes off pain and injuries as if they were scratches. He's a machine! :)LOVERHowever, Martin has a problem. He's insecure and fumbling with women. And he's a bad lay. Here's a conversation from a woman he picked up in a bar.""Tell me, did we fuck last night?" asked Terrier."Only a little. You don't remember?""Not really. Was I good?""You were loaded.""But for a guy who was loaded, was I good?""You piss me off," the girl said.This isn't the result of him not being with women. He sleeps with tons of women. But he never seems to develop any confidence or any real skills in bed. I have no idea if this is because no woman ever took the time to teach him one or two things, or if it's because he can't maintain an erection for very long (that's hinted at) or ... I don't know. I'm rather thankful Manchette avoids details here. But this is a huge problem for Martin, because he's come back. He's come back to claim his woman. And while he's very impressive in a lot of ways (handsome, dangerous, exciting, and able to handle things in a effortless, take-charge manner), is that really going to mean anything to Anne when he is unable to satisfy her sexually?ANNEThis is a complicated character. I thought that she was amazing in a lot of ways. She is great under pressure. Brave, quick-thinking, and fast-acting. She doesn't hesitate to do what's necessary. That's badass - and extra badass since unlike Martin, she has no training or experience. Just grit. I like it. She surprises Martin with her intelligence, quick actions, and ruthless nature.I also like how she takes direction from and is obedient to Martin when it comes to matters of danger. She never questions him and obeys him instantly whenever it comes to something like a hostage situation, a dangerous situation, being on the run, etc. This doesn't make her a doormat - it makes her smart.And she's definitely NOT obedient when it comes to their romantic relationship, TRUST ME. However, my point is that I HATE books where someone is obviously an expert at x, and gives great orders and advice to people who know nothing about x, and then the people whine/argue/refuse. I am so grateful that Anne does none of those things and actually listens to Martin because Martin knows what he's talking about.But, she has some problems. She is a bit too fond of the drink. And she's an adrenaline junkie, which I think is dangerous and leads to bad decision-making.WRITING STYLEThe writing style here is without emotion. Manchette just tells you what is going on, as if you are watching a film. You are never, ever inside a person's head. Not even in third person. No one's emotions or motivations are revealed to you, unless they choose to speak about them with another character. And then, of course, you have no idea if they are lying or not.You either love this or hate it. Me, I love it.MOVIEThe film is almost nothing like the book. Feel free to see the film - I liked it much more than the book. Don't really worry that if you hated the book you'll hate the film. The film is not only much different than the book, it's much better.Tl;dr - Imagine the worst possible ending to this book. Now imagine it 10x worse. Yeah. The last 30 pages or so are like watching a train wreck. It's horrible. You're cringing the entire time. The basis of the book is solid, I have no idea why Manchette chose to destroy his whole book like that. Did he think it was "artsy" or "deep" or something? I don't know. But it's shit. Avoid reading this one... it's not worth it. I can't give it one star because the concept and the first 75% were great. But last quarter of the book is serious garbage. So... two stars.
Sebentar, saya harus ngasih tepuk tangan ke saya sendiri: *slow clapping*.Hebat, baru beberapa jam ketemu bukunya, sudah langsung selesai hari itu juga. Arogansi saya memang hebat... Yep, ke-sotoy-an saya memang penggerak utama saya menyelesaikan novel ini; karena ini adalah salah satu judul yang ada di daftar panjang buku-yang-harus-dibaca-sebelum-filmnya-muncul. Dan kalau bukan karena Sean Penn yang memproduseri, menulis skenario, sekaligus membintangi film adaptasinya, buku ini tidak akan ada di daftar saya. Dan kalau bukan karena berita tentang filmnya yang jadi box office flop serta dihujani kritikan negatif, mungkin tidak bakalan buku ini saya sentuh.Dari awal buku, karakter Martin Terrier--sang tokoh utama, terasa super biasa. Hanya seperti karakter penembak ulung jenius yang lumrah ada di cerita action: berkepala dingin, penuh perhitungan, kalem, penuh karisma; dan untuk plot (yang sudah umum juga): pembunuh-lalu-tobat-karena-cinta. Tapi bukan imaji keren yang ada di kepala saya, seperti Alain Delon di Le Samouraï, So Ji-Sub di A Company Man atau minimal seperti Daniel Craig di Layer Cake. Bukan juga cerita menarik yang muncul, seperti di novel John LeCarre. Sampai pertengahan cerita pun, sang anti-hero masih terlihat bego menurut saya. Tingkah-tingkahnya semacam..unnecessarily naive. Entah karena di kepala saya yang masih ramai karena gak habis pikir gimana bisa film yang di dalamnya ada Sean Penn, Idris Elba, dan Javier Bardem, jadi box office bomb; atau memang karena plotnya yang terlalu gampang ditebak. Kenaifan si tokoh dan kelempengan plot bikin saya gregetan karena hawa trash novelnya. Baru menjelang akhir cerita saya menyadari sesuatu, itu bukan hawa trash novel lagi, tapi malah warna neo-noir dan hard boiled yang terasa. Semakin terasa ketika mendekati konklusi cerita, dari mulai keputusan para tokoh, dan juga beberapa plot twist yang eksistensialis. Meskipun masih pada level yang rendah, tidak sampai level Sartre. Karena tanggung dan telat inilah, hawa noir di novel ini masih tidak terlalu sukses mengangkat cerita si tokoh utama, Martin Terrier. Memang, akhir ceritanya cukup nihilistik untuk para pembaca; tapi beban dari kelempengan plot-plot di awal cerita terlalu berat untuk bisa diangkat flick manis ini.
Do You like book The Prone Gunman (2002)?
Martin Terrier is a hit man ready to get out of the business. Yes, we have been here before. But Manchette's brief novel is a lean, mean piece of writing with a fascinating central character who has killer instincts but in so many ways just isn't very bright. The body count is high, and after each killing you know exactly where the brain matter has ended up -- on the wall, in an ear, etc. Manchette also never skips the detail that a bullet or a piece of fireplace equipment in the lung causes the victim to spit foamy blood.Manchette, who was French, wrote his crime novels in the 1980's, and much is made in his bio of his participation in the events of 1968, his left-leaning politics, and closeness to Guy Debord. I didn't see much evidence of any of this while the action and killing moved rapidly from Paris to the west coast of France, but as the story was resolved you get an image of Terrier as the pawn in a game of power that he will not be able to defeat. (He is, after all, named after a small dog.) Two other Manchette novels have made it into English translation. They are definitely on the to read list.
—Charles Dee Mitchell
I found this book a somewhat major disappointment, I mean I don't hate it I just dislike it. I will say this, at least I know to skip the movie.The book is about a killer (hit man) who has decided to...retire. He wants to quit. See the "love of his life" was a rich girl and he was, well he was sort of the son of a brain damaged drunk. So he went off to get rich, she promised she'd wait for 10 years and it's been 10 years...I won't spoil the book for you if you want to read it for yourself. I will say that except for one twist the book is pretty predictable and it's downer with no light at the end of the proverbial tunnel (except of course for the proverbial train).I can't recommend this one, I really didn't care for it even if I don't actually hate it. Mostly it's a "meah" story that leaves you with a "blah" feeling.The spoiler below will contain the twist that made me roll my eyes so don't read it if you don't want what is a really big spoiler.(view spoiler)[ In the end when the dust settles and our protagonist has lost everything we find that the head wound he received left him like the father he hated. He's now a brain damaged, "mentally challenged" drunk. So the book makes its complete circle. (hide spoiler)]
—Mike (the Paladin)
This one flirted with me. I saw it on the clearance shelf at Half Price Books for $1 and I considered it on several visits, pulling it off the shelf and skimming it and putting it back. This erotic dance continued with my comings and goings at the store, and finally yesterday I said what the hell. I loved the cover design, the thinness and the slickness of the jacket, the text fonts, the idea that this was a hard-nosed noir in the classic tradition; the London & Paris settings and so forth. It seemed like I book I might not run across again, so I'd better not blow the chance. I picked it up today and started reading and sort of got hooked in. It starts with a beautifully described stalk and hit on a windy dark wintry day in Liverpool.Let's see.Fabulous read! Looks like I may have picked a winner here. Almost everything in this is a cliche. The hitman trying to leave the business, the organization not wanting him to, gunzels tailing him, an angry girlfriend left in the lurch, the lonely diners and gas stations along the way, the meetings with the shadowy bosses, the mysterious threatening phone calls, the casual violence, the double-crosses and the subterfuge. There's the girl from the past, too, of course. You've seen all this before and yet somehow it seems reinvented here. Sparse, vivid. Manchette's powers of description are assured. This is quite compelling.FINAL:It ends sadly, with a whimper rather than a bang. The nature of the "organization" comes as a bit of a surprise. I constantly felt as I read this that I'd seen all of this in other movies and books, as I've mentioned before, but the story is so well crafted; it's as if Manchette was saying, "Yeah, I know you've seen this before, but this is how to do it RIGHT." Not the kind of thing I usually read, but well worth the (short) time invested.
—Evan
