Once upon a time Eddie played concert piano to reverent audiences at Carnegie Hall. Now he bangs out honky-tonk for drunks in a dive in Philadelphia. But then two people walk into Eddie's life--the first promising Eddie a future, the other dragging him back into a treacherous past. Shoot the Piano Player is a bittersweet and nerve-racking exploration of different kinds of loyalty- the kind a man owes his family, no matter how bad that family is; the...
For years I have avoided reading Shoot the Piano Player because the film by Truffaut is one of my favorites. It hardly seemed fair to the book to try and read it when I liked the film so very much. It was a mistake to have waited. Shoot the Piano Player is a subtle and hard-hitting novel that goes beyond many of the expectations of a Noir thriller. The writing is subtle and moody, with moments of aggression and connection...
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Dark and melancholic? Yes. Oozing with despair? Yes. But also a wonderfully plotted and characterised story that poignantly displays a man who has done the best he could with the lot he was given.Eddie is a bar-room piano player at Harriet's Hut where he has quietly and unobtrusively played for 3 years. One night his criminal brother staggers into the bar, desperate for Eddie's help. He is being chased by a couple of gangster-types...
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Shoot the Piano Player is certainly a depressing yet fascinating read. The story is about, not surprisingly, a piano player. This poor fellow has a most bizarre background, and an equally bizarre family. Nothing works for him, his prospects are bleak. Then in walks (or rather, crawls) his long absent brother who is escaping from some nasty criminals ... and our piano player's world is turned on its head. No happy ending...
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This was my first Goodis book, and it absolutely blew me away. If this is any indicator of what to expect from the man, I'm in love. In this noir novel, things get messed up, then get even messier, and messier still, until it's just one big mess and Eddie has got to keep hiding and runnning and fighting for survival. And the unbearable nature of it all wakes Eddie up out of the complacency of his life. That's what this...
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Set in the 40's, in the dark streets of Philadelphia, and peopled with characters like Harriet, the tough as nails proprietor of a rough and tumble bucket of blood; Wally Plyne, her ex-wrestler boyfriend and bouncer who's rather sensitive about his fist-sculpted face; Lena, the waitress with the sharp brain and sharper hatpin, and Eddie, the piano player, happy to belt out tunes and sweep the floor in the dump called...
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