Baby Got Books

The Singer’s Gun

Although I haven’t read Emily St. John Mandel’s first book, Last Night in Montreal, it received rave reviews here on BGB, and I was excited to receive her second book The Singer’s Gun- I’m glad I moved it to the top of my stack.

The story begins with the end actually. The death of two people. Ms. Mandel takes us into the past and back to the present many times before we realize what really happened with these two people.

Main character Anton Waker’s family is full of criminals. His parents steal antiques to resell in their store and see nothing wrong with it. Even from an early age Anton isn’t comfortable with this way of life and when he asks his father if the goods are stolen, his dad justifies it:

“…sometimes regular channels aren’t open to you, and then you have to improvise. Find your own way out…You have to make things happen for yourself.”

As an adult, Anton and his cousin Aria start their own business of selling social security cards and passports to illegal immigrants. After 9/11, those uneasy feelings creep back:

“How would a terrorist get into the country?” [Alton asks his mother...]

“Well he’d come in on a tourist visa, I imagine.”

“Or he’d get a friend in the country to come to me and Aria and get him a passport, and then he’d enter as an American citizen. Or if he were already here on his tourist visa, he’d buy a Social Security card directly from us and use it to get a job…..”

His father shrugged.

Anton has dreamed most of his life for an office job, so he quits the business with Aria and goes ‘legit’ by falsifying his Harvard credentials and landing a middle management position. His father asks Anton what qualifies him for his job:

“Well, the same thing that qualified me to sell Social Security cards to illegal aliens, actually. A certain veneer of confidence combined with sheer recklessness.”

When the company starts conducting background checks, Anton is in big trouble. Although he isn’t fired, he is demoted to a basement office with no responsibilities while his ex-secretary is sent by the State Department to spy on him. Soon to be married, he figures he has nothing to loose by staying in the basement and collecting the paycheck.

Just prior to the wedding, Aria uses blackmail to convince Anton to help her “one last time”. Coincidentally, this final transaction is to take place during the honeymoon on a remote Italian island. As one can imagine, this “one last time” goes terribly wrong and we’re back to the “beginning” so to speak.

Ms. Mandel throughout the novel makes us think about crime – how much if any is ok? Why is a little crime ok, but breaking the law on a daily basis isn’t? What kind of person is someone like Anton that he “thinks” he is legitimate even though he has falsified his credentials to land a good job? He is uncomfortable with helping Aria one last time, but he does it. Is it really for the money? Operating an illegal business doesn’t bother his parents or his cousin.

The Singer’s Gun is full of suspense and tension. Despite moving back and forth through time, Ms. Mandel’s style flows – I was never confused. I found myself wondering who would play each role in the movie version. The twists and turns never let me down and I even enjoyed the dialog – I found a sick humor in all the madness. I mean, who ARE these people?

I’m happy that my friend gave me The Singer’s Gun, but you shouldn’t wait for a friend, go read it on your own!

Books, Fiction, Review | Anne | July 19, 2010 8:31 am

3 Comments

By Emily St. John Mandel, July 20, 2010 @ 12:04 am

Thanks very much for the lovely review! Glad you enjoyed it.
By healy, July 21, 2010 @ 11:22 pm

good-great-Spectacular!The Singer’s Gun is not only the present but the past and the future, the living as well as the dead, the light as well as the darkness. The sense you get from this unusual travel novel, this mysterious mystery, is how wonderful the world is. That there may be myriad compromises and disappointments, but the overwhelming sense of it is that everything is beautiful and worthwhile.