The Guardian has published a review of Malcolm Gladwell's new book, The American Way of Killing, dismissing the work as "wide of the mark."

The review, which appeared on the Guardian's books desk on 21 September, describes the book as a "highly readable investigation into US gun culture" — but one that "fails to engage with the bigger questions."

The reviewer's opening anecdote sets the frame for the critique. Recalling a steak dinner with Republicans in a small town in Indiana, the reviewer describes being asked: "How do you cope in London, when Muslims elected that mayor and you have all that gun control?"

"I'd been in enough such situations to know that there was no 'winning' a conversation that starts like this," the reviewer writes, "and so did my best to playfully bat the question away."

The reply given at that dinner: "Well, the Muslims didn't elect a mayor – Londoners elected a Muslim mayor. And we don't talk much about gun control for the same reason we don't talk about polar bear control: we don't have many polar bears and we don't have many guns."

The exchange illustrates the cultural gulf the review suggests Gladwell's book never fully confronts. While the review credits the author's readability — long his trademark across books including The Tipping Point and Outliers — it concludes that the investigation stops short of the structural and political questions underpinning American gun violence.

For readers of Arts & Voices tracking the reception of major non-fiction releases, the verdict positions The American Way of Killing as a page-turner that ultimately sidesteps its subject's hardest problems. The full review is available at the Guardian.