Lul's Literature Review

Lul's Literature Review
Tuesday July 26, 2011
Review: Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick 

Revolver: by Marcus Sedgwick

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Format: Hardcover, 224 pages

Date of publication: April 2010

Annotation:

Revolver is 224 pages. Sedgwick manage to write a tale of hardship, hope and making life choices. This chilling story proves the power of langauge. It proves that a carefully constructed plot does not need to be dragged out. Even the most reluctant readers would like to pick it up. The book is exciting and easy to read with a philosophical twists where sometimes less is more.The book took place in the Arctic Circle.A boy sits in a cold, bare shack somewhere north of the Arctic Circle, alone but for his father's body lying on a table, frozen both by rigor mortis and the manner of his death. The boy's older sister and stepmother have gone for help. And then there is a knock on the door: outside is a giant of a man asking for the boy's father.

This is as stark a beginning as you can imagine. And it gets worse. The giant is convinced that the dead man has stolen his gold. He isn't going to leave without it – and he has a gun. The tension and fear quickly begins to escalate. Sig is forced to make choices. Although he too has a gun, he only fired ones before on his 12 years birthday.  The giant, Gunther Wolff, has had a bit more practice with his. No contest, then, and even when Sig's sister Anna returns, the odds aren't really improved.
The interposed sections, set 11 years earlier, fill in the backstory. Einar Andersson has been lured, like so many others, by tales of gold found near Anvil Creek in Alaska. Nome is the name of the settlement that turns into a mining town, and Einar becomes the assay clerk for the mining company. That's why he lives a better life, with his wife and two children, than most people in Nome.
Then a giant of a gold prospector called Gunther Wolff turns up and watches as Einar weighs and tests his samples. Wolff suspects that Einar is running some kind of scam in the assay office and he wants half the proceeds. After that, Einar has to escape, but he doesn't make it before his wife has been murdered.  11 years later, here is the giant psychopath, willing to shoot one or both of Andersson's offspring to get the gold he thinks is his. Sig has only his father's secret gun to rely on as already mentioned. He wa wondering how could defeat the giant, by using his father's weapon, which he lack experience.Sig was brought up as a pacifist, yet he admits to being fascinated by the power and beauty of a Colt revolver. He tried one out while researching this book, which also took him to some very cold places and included taking Swedish lessons. Apart from an excursion into Venice with Kiss of Death, most of his books have been set in northern climes, and he writes with the economy and spareness of a Norse saga.
Justification for nomination:
Revolver is a very well written book, which may be welcome to some readers after the huge final tomes of Harry Potter and the hundreds of pages of Patrick Ness. But it's not slight: the issue of whether violence is ever unavoidable is both topical and difficult, and this deceptively simple story raises enormous questions. The story is well paced, and the historical setting of gold/iron-rush Alaska and other Arctic towns are nicely detailed. Sig is a believable character, and his actions are exexpected. Overall, this is a great read for someone who wants something quick and page turning knowledge. It reall forces the reader to think about questions of morality, weaponry, fear, and a free will of making choices.


With best regards
Lul