Scan barcode
pearloz's review against another edition
3.0
Hit or miss collection of stories--some ventured into the strange and surreal and were great and interesting (Aquarium), some ventured into the strange seemingly for strangeness's sake and were not so compelling (Biscuits).
Some selected story synopses and thoughts:
Jokes for the Gunmen--solid story about growing up in a war zone. Like the rest of the wartime stories in this collection, the guerrilla warfare/street fighting is a backdrop rather than a focal point of the narrative, this was a story about a father and his sons, and one in particular playing at adult. The pepper plant, the deaf brother, the "kidnapping" that turns out to be a chance runaway, dad's new life, the laundromat bequeathed to the living son...it felt like big L literary, and I think the story was good enough that it could've been expanded to novel length.
Matador--Meh story about an uncle who dies and is resurrected 3 times. Uncle wants to be a matador, practices on a cow and loses? Did I get that right? It was a quickly forgotten story.
Gramophone--About a dad who is a gramophone operator at a bar, bar gets bombed, dad loses his arms and gramophone. Grows despondent, depressed, basically bed-ridden, asks son to donate an arm, the request is refused. Another, more literary story.
Cinema--Even though this is set during a war or a battle, it's more about the after effects, families locked in a cinema for shelter, a roaming cow. Ventures into the surreal once the bomb goes off. Was he the only survivor? Were there no bodies? A teddy bear full of a never-ending supply of cheese singles? Dude feeds the cow footballs, a satchel, broken china, and it regains its strength...like WTH is this story?
Biscuits--Insane story. Dude makes up stories to convince mom has Alheimer's. Including a random story about a man on the road trying to touch cars and turn them into biscuits. Made me mad.
Aquarium--about a couple that may or not be conceiving. See an OBGYN, not pregnant, removes from the woman's uterus a blood clot...gives it to the couple in a test tube. They name it, keep it in a test tube, then eventually move it to an aquarium. It's a better story than it sounds, honestly.
Curtain--couple has sex in bedroom. Flimsy curtain allows dwarf across the way to see and scream out about it which brings out other names to watch from their balconies. They change curtains, dwarf gets sad. Change the curtain back. "There's someone fucking on the seventh floor. They're fucking just for me. Don't go out on your balconies, you sons of bitches." Weird, funny one, but WTH.
Some selected story synopses and thoughts:
Jokes for the Gunmen--solid story about growing up in a war zone. Like the rest of the wartime stories in this collection, the guerrilla warfare/street fighting is a backdrop rather than a focal point of the narrative, this was a story about a father and his sons, and one in particular playing at adult. The pepper plant, the deaf brother, the "kidnapping" that turns out to be a chance runaway, dad's new life, the laundromat bequeathed to the living son...it felt like big L literary, and I think the story was good enough that it could've been expanded to novel length.
Matador--Meh story about an uncle who dies and is resurrected 3 times. Uncle wants to be a matador, practices on a cow and loses? Did I get that right? It was a quickly forgotten story.
Gramophone--About a dad who is a gramophone operator at a bar, bar gets bombed, dad loses his arms and gramophone. Grows despondent, depressed, basically bed-ridden, asks son to donate an arm, the request is refused. Another, more literary story.
Cinema--Even though this is set during a war or a battle, it's more about the after effects, families locked in a cinema for shelter, a roaming cow. Ventures into the surreal once the bomb goes off. Was he the only survivor? Were there no bodies? A teddy bear full of a never-ending supply of cheese singles? Dude feeds the cow footballs, a satchel, broken china, and it regains its strength...like WTH is this story?
Biscuits--Insane story. Dude makes up stories to convince mom has Alheimer's. Including a random story about a man on the road trying to touch cars and turn them into biscuits. Made me mad.
Aquarium--about a couple that may or not be conceiving. See an OBGYN, not pregnant, removes from the woman's uterus a blood clot...gives it to the couple in a test tube. They name it, keep it in a test tube, then eventually move it to an aquarium. It's a better story than it sounds, honestly.
Curtain--couple has sex in bedroom. Flimsy curtain allows dwarf across the way to see and scream out about it which brings out other names to watch from their balconies. They change curtains, dwarf gets sad. Change the curtain back. "There's someone fucking on the seventh floor. They're fucking just for me. Don't go out on your balconies, you sons of bitches." Weird, funny one, but WTH.
elinoragud's review against another edition
5.0
Þessi bók, vá.
Ég hef aldrei lesið nokkuð þessu líkt. Ég hélt þetta myndi verða léttur lestur, eða í að minnsta ég yrði fljót að klára hana þar sem hún er ekki löng. Ég myndi þvert á móti mæla með að lesa þessa bók yfir langan tíma, eina smásögu í einu og melta vel á milli. Ég er svo vön að lesa bækur sem eru svo boxaðar inn, svo formúleraðar, en þegar ég var að lesa var ég alltaf að hugsa um að það er ekkert limit á hugmyndafluginu, en svo sjaldan sem það er nýtt til hins ýtrasta eins og hér. Bara vá. Ég var sífellt að velta fyrir mér hvort um væri að ræða myndlíkingar sem ég ekki skildi, og alltaf að bíða eftir að fá svör við spurningum eða eitthvað til að láta þetta allt koma heim og saman, hafa einhverja merkingu. Það gerði það aldrei og eftir sig ég með allar spurningarnar. Mjög klár vinkona mín sagði „war does not make sense so why could we expect stories inspired by war to make sense", sem mér fannst virkilega hitta naglann á höfuðið. Mæli svakalega mikið með.
Ég hef aldrei lesið nokkuð þessu líkt. Ég hélt þetta myndi verða léttur lestur, eða í að minnsta ég yrði fljót að klára hana þar sem hún er ekki löng. Ég myndi þvert á móti mæla með að lesa þessa bók yfir langan tíma, eina smásögu í einu og melta vel á milli. Ég er svo vön að lesa bækur sem eru svo boxaðar inn, svo formúleraðar, en þegar ég var að lesa var ég alltaf að hugsa um að það er ekkert limit á hugmyndafluginu, en svo sjaldan sem það er nýtt til hins ýtrasta eins og hér. Bara vá. Ég var sífellt að velta fyrir mér hvort um væri að ræða myndlíkingar sem ég ekki skildi, og alltaf að bíða eftir að fá svör við spurningum eða eitthvað til að láta þetta allt koma heim og saman, hafa einhverja merkingu. Það gerði það aldrei og eftir sig ég með allar spurningarnar. Mjög klár vinkona mín sagði „war does not make sense so why could we expect stories inspired by war to make sense", sem mér fannst virkilega hitta naglann á höfuðið. Mæli svakalega mikið með.
tevreads's review against another edition
3.0
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2019. Jokes for the Gunmen is a peculiar novel featuring short stories set amongst the war-ravaged city of Beirut. There's a distinct flavour of absurdity in the interaction of characters in a seemingly familiar world. Maarouf subverts expectations as these world's become shocking, hilarious, and exceedingly unreal. This novel reminded me of a Saunders-lite experience, one which I enjoyed but did not fall in love with.
sarasanchez's review
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? No
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, War, Child abuse, Death of parent, Infertility, Abortion, Gun violence, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Ableism, and Animal cruelty
olivetales's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
abby_griesmar's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Trafficking, Vomit, War, Abortion, Dementia, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Violence, Addiction, Body horror, Gun violence, Infertility, and Death of parent
mairispaceship's review against another edition
4.0
In a book shop far from my home city, whilst buying a few gifts - I asked my husband to pick out a book for me to read. Something short, under 200 pages. Something easily manageable for the trip home too.
He'd said that unlike a lot of nationalities, books by Middle-Eastern authors were sorely under represented. So the two of us set out scouring the fiction shelves for titles. By pure chance, he picked up this one. Palestinian-Icelandic, and born in Beirut. Great! The front cover didn't jump out at me, but I wanted to give it a chance.
I wasn't disappointed! Maarouf's collection of short stories starts 'normal'. A kid in a war-torn area of the world concocts plans to make him (and his father) seem more intimidating so they won't be beaten up. Another story, a modern Midas, tells of mental illness through the lens of a man running up and down the motorway turning everything he touches into biscuits. Frankly it gets more and more surreal, later a couple decide to keep an aborted child in a water tank and invite all the village's children round to celebrate his fictional birthday.
The stories are weird, but wonderful. Charming, and often creepy.
I think its important that any work of art, novels included, makes you feel something, and thats why I'm giving Jokes for the Gunmen 4 stars. I'm genuinely unsure how much I enjoyed the book. Its true, I picked it up to read on the train home and I also finished it on the way home. But it wasn't just a short, throwaway read. It made a difference to my day. The world is now ever so slightly, but irreversibly different.
He'd said that unlike a lot of nationalities, books by Middle-Eastern authors were sorely under represented. So the two of us set out scouring the fiction shelves for titles. By pure chance, he picked up this one. Palestinian-Icelandic, and born in Beirut. Great! The front cover didn't jump out at me, but I wanted to give it a chance.
I wasn't disappointed! Maarouf's collection of short stories starts 'normal'. A kid in a war-torn area of the world concocts plans to make him (and his father) seem more intimidating so they won't be beaten up. Another story, a modern Midas, tells of mental illness through the lens of a man running up and down the motorway turning everything he touches into biscuits. Frankly it gets more and more surreal, later a couple decide to keep an aborted child in a water tank and invite all the village's children round to celebrate his fictional birthday.
The stories are weird, but wonderful. Charming, and often creepy.
I think its important that any work of art, novels included, makes you feel something, and thats why I'm giving Jokes for the Gunmen 4 stars. I'm genuinely unsure how much I enjoyed the book. Its true, I picked it up to read on the train home and I also finished it on the way home. But it wasn't just a short, throwaway read. It made a difference to my day. The world is now ever so slightly, but irreversibly different.
motherbooker's review against another edition
4.0
Jokes for the Gunmen made it onto the International Booker longlist in 2019 and Mazen Maarouf was compared with writers like Roald Dahl. It's easy to see why as the stories in this collection get quite surreal and strange as it goes on. Things start out fairly normally with the titular story. In it, a young boy worries for his father's safety and comes up with ingenious plans to protect him. These include selling his twin brother's organs, watering a pepper plant, and getting him a glass eye. The collection's first and longest story is a fantastic tale about life in a warn zone told through the eyes of youth. It's got a naivety and dark humour to it that really works.
From this point on, things just get more odd and weird. A lot of the stories are told from the perspective of a child but they start to get more surreal. Not all of the tales in the collection fall into surrealism but there is a definite dreamlike quality to most of them. Something that is helped by the fact that the majority of the stories take place in unnamed cities. This allows you to remove them from reality completely or place them wherever you want. It gives the reader more freedom to put their own meaning to the different viewpoints. It also highlights the point that violence and the experience of living with violence are universal. It could be happening to anyone at any time.
The stories contained in this collection may be strange but they are full of great writing. They explore important topics and raise plenty of great questions. The often disturbing nature of each tale is merely a smokescreen for the message hiding beneath the surface. Jokes for the Gunmen may seem like a bizarre collection about a voyeur dwarf, a blood clot named Munir, a matador, and a man who inhabits the dreams of strangers. However, there is a great deal to unpack in every single bit of writing. For one thing, this shows how important laughter and humour is in situations like this. When life and death are decided in such a random way, the only thing you can do is try to find something funny in it.
There isn't just humour to be found within these pages. They are all stories full of emotion and trauma. You'll find yourself constantly moving from being confused, incredibly moved, and horrified. Marrouf has clearly been influenced by some great short story writers but uses his own perspective to bring something exciting to the table. As with all collections, some of the stories are more memorable than the others but there isn't a real dud among them. This is a collection of beautiful writing that has been well translated. It's something that will stay with you long after you read it.
Jokes for the Gunmen is a well-formatted collection of stories and it's very clever that it is so rarely connected to a specific conflict or region. It allows the stories to become timeless and evergreen. Showing that the consequences of living around war and violence run deep and last for a long time. It is not just the physical threat that you have to worry about but the psychological one. These are stories about people trying to survive the onslaught of violence and the effect it has on their mental state. It's definitely one to read.
From this point on, things just get more odd and weird. A lot of the stories are told from the perspective of a child but they start to get more surreal. Not all of the tales in the collection fall into surrealism but there is a definite dreamlike quality to most of them. Something that is helped by the fact that the majority of the stories take place in unnamed cities. This allows you to remove them from reality completely or place them wherever you want. It gives the reader more freedom to put their own meaning to the different viewpoints. It also highlights the point that violence and the experience of living with violence are universal. It could be happening to anyone at any time.
The stories contained in this collection may be strange but they are full of great writing. They explore important topics and raise plenty of great questions. The often disturbing nature of each tale is merely a smokescreen for the message hiding beneath the surface. Jokes for the Gunmen may seem like a bizarre collection about a voyeur dwarf, a blood clot named Munir, a matador, and a man who inhabits the dreams of strangers. However, there is a great deal to unpack in every single bit of writing. For one thing, this shows how important laughter and humour is in situations like this. When life and death are decided in such a random way, the only thing you can do is try to find something funny in it.
There isn't just humour to be found within these pages. They are all stories full of emotion and trauma. You'll find yourself constantly moving from being confused, incredibly moved, and horrified. Marrouf has clearly been influenced by some great short story writers but uses his own perspective to bring something exciting to the table. As with all collections, some of the stories are more memorable than the others but there isn't a real dud among them. This is a collection of beautiful writing that has been well translated. It's something that will stay with you long after you read it.
Jokes for the Gunmen is a well-formatted collection of stories and it's very clever that it is so rarely connected to a specific conflict or region. It allows the stories to become timeless and evergreen. Showing that the consequences of living around war and violence run deep and last for a long time. It is not just the physical threat that you have to worry about but the psychological one. These are stories about people trying to survive the onslaught of violence and the effect it has on their mental state. It's definitely one to read.