...this short novel is less about the making of a psychopath than the deep imprint guns have made on the collective consciousness. The notion that guns don't kill people, people do, is chillingly rebuked.
Like Nishikawa’s titular gun, the book is simultaneously fascinating and repellent. Nakamura paints his main character with a stark realism that rejects the romance of the misunderstood noir hero.
Nature versus nurture, free will versus fate: Such are the themes that flicker almost subliminally through this shocking narrative, which also emits echoes of Poe and Mishima. Among other things, The Gun is a cautionary tale of the peril of staring too long into the moral abyss.
