A novel full of testosterone
Posted on April 30, 2012 In the Kiosque Médias
Bob Lee Swagger is a sniper. Dreadful. The kind of man who can decapitate a fly from a mile away and who knows instinctively that a 150-grain bullet drops about 25 centimeters at 300 meters and slows down to 60 centimeters per second. A true living legend during the Vietnam War, a bullet in his hip forced him to interrupt his hunting schedule. He now lives as a hermit on a remote plateau in western Arkansas. When he's not sleeping, he's hunting, polishing his prized weapons and reading trade magazines: Shotgun News, Accuracy Shooting, Shooting News, Guns & Ammo, American Rifle and of course Rifle.
One day, two men, looking impassive, show up at his house. They are members of a discreet but powerful organization and need Bob to intercept a terrorist who is planning to assassinate the president. The terrorist in question is the one who once shot Bob in the hip. So he agrees, even though he swore he'd never kill again: bastards are bastards.
Soon, the government and the CIA are after him. The forces are unequal: the government and the CIA don't stand a chance. Bob is not used to dwelling on ethical questions, such as "Should you talk to a terrorist?" He manages to thwart no less than four high-caliber murder attempts and brutally send all his enemies to heaven, with different weapons, each lovingly described. Or rather to hell, because Bob has traditional values.
Nothing will stop him from hunting all day long in the mountains.
Review
Reading Shooter is like reading an action movie with impeccable technical authenticity. The "Base 6, this is alpha 1, we're moving down Highway 10 at about seventy kilometers per hour. Do you copy?" are all over the place, the suspense is the same, the guys are just as manly... with one difference: the emotional descriptions of the firearms. The word "rifle" or "bullet" can only appear with its brand, model, year of design, various modifications made, its weight in grains, etc. For example, we learn that one of Bob's favorite guns is "a pre-1964 270 caliber with a Douglas barrel, restored in English walnut by Loren Eccles of Chisholm, Wyoming. Serial number, 123453, which means it dates from about 1949," and he often uses 70-grain bullets from H-4831. The author speaks "gunsmith" fluently. When you don't know anything about it, it's even funnier.
At first glance, this is a book that oozes testosterone. At second glance too. Everything indicates it: the title, the cover, the subject... But frankly, as a girl, I rarely had so much fun.
The characters in this novel, while hilarious, are much less complex. The women are not really interested in feminism or in defending baby seals, but they too have strong principles. They are always ready to help and arm the men, the real ones.
In short, it was cliché, violence, patriotic and extremely funny.
