My Gun Has Bullets

After reading The Walk I knew I had to read more from this author. As before, I was caught on the first page couldn't stop. I cringed, I got horny, I got disgusted, I worried, I laughed, I wondered, and I laughed some more! His characters are some of the best I've ever read. I love the cynical stabs at the very business he's in. Who should know better? Incredible clever is the best I can say to sum it up.

The Good Stuff: This is a hilarious satire of the television industry with a little murder and mayhem thrown in. Much of the humor is 'tongue-in-cheek' while other scenes are just plain slapstick. My favorite part was Charlie getting shot by a little old lady trying to get to the Neiman Marcus sale before it was over. Let's hope the mob never gets that involved with television; although, if they decided to air more episodes of "The Sopranos", I wouldn't cry over it. I could see this book in my mind as I read it, like watching a movie. Mr. Goldberg is an extremely talented writer. The Bad Stuff: I only caught one small error in plot development. Towards the end, there is a sentence: "This was the first time Charlie Willis had ever heard Delbert Skaggs' voice." This wasn't true as he had previously bugged a phone and heard a voice which was identified by another party as Delbert Skaggs. There were a few errors in this Kindle edition. It was just the usual conversion typos, such as inserting an 'll' for an 'n'. Nothing too distracting, though. I do think it would have been better had it focused more on Charlie and developed his character in a deeper manner. It skipped around quite a bit at times, then backtracked. I'm just not as fond of that method. Overall: Truly funny book. Anyone who understands and enjoys satire, while thinking television is sometimes overrated, will enjoy this book. Rating: Rated R for language and sexual situations. Length: Novel - 7050 Locations

So there I am, sitting at a stoplight at the end of an effing world-class bad day, two years after reading My Gun Has Bullets for the first and only time, and out of the blue, I recall the stunt men who were impervious to pain, and then the visual of Jessica Fletcher petulantly gunning down a cop for pulling her over, which means that to keep her hit show on the air, the producers must offer the gutshot cop a show of his own... and I felt much, much better. Driving along, crying and cheeks cramping up, thinking, "Okay, I better get another copy and hurt myself a little more." Then these two cops pull alongside, and no way to explain that my inappropriate risible symptoms were from an old stored memory of a truly, exceptionally funny book, so damn good that I immediately gave it to someone about to leave town. That way, I wouldn't read it to tatters in a month and wear out the happiness. No, I'd even wait years to have the pleasure of reading it fresh. I'm buying two copies, one for me and one as a gift to the next poor suffering bastard I meet who needs a laugh. Anyway, seeing the cops set me off again. I looked away, and that didn't help. Couldn't stop laughing, not their faults or mine. The officer riding shotgun just glanced at me without changing expression, and they drove on, God bless 'em for the pass. It wasn't contempt-of-cop. But what could I do? If I'd rolled down the window and explained, while laughing my head off, "My Gun Has Bullets," guess what bad thing would have happened next. Surely someone has optioned this by now.

Lee Goldberg's My Gun Has Bullets is definitely one of the crazier, funnier books I've come across in a very long time. he situations are broad and unbelievable, but there is enough truth there to make you wonder. The situation, in which the Mob finances a television series and, when the show doesn't do as well as expected, begins killing off the stars of the competing shows, is not in itself laugh out loud funny, but Goldberg's deft poking manages to create humor out of a silly premise.The erstwhile star of the book, Charlie Willis, is also the novel's main flaw - he's just too good to be believed. He's a gentle, kind, aw-shucks ex-cop who gets his own TV series. When the competition staerts dropping like flies, he acts like a cop once again, hunting the killers. If you're interested at all in the makings of a TV program, you'll enjoy this book. Though tongue-in-cheek, there's enough truth to make you think. The comedy is broad, (think Woody Allen's early films), the writing is above-average and the novel is entertaining, What more did you want?

It's incredible that this book is out-of-print already. I ran across it in the library, starting reading the first few pages, and had to run for the desk. Laughing so hard (and so quietly) that the librarians were about to dial 911. Fortunately, one of them had read the book, and understood why I was weeping and gasping for breath. Took it home and had sore stomach and cheek muscles for a week. This is easily among the ten funniest books I've ever read.