|
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A helter skelter dive through Philadelphia's underbelly, 18 Oct 2001
Loyalty has a price. Whether that loyalty be deserved or undeserved.'Shoot the Piano Player' is a helterskelter dive through Philadelphia's underbelly and is hell bent on reaching the bottom with the breathless speed of Alex Garland coupled with the sad irony of Raymond Chandler. Eddie is a down at heel piano player in a down market bar in down town Philadelphia. He plays piano to forget his past, to forget about his criminal family, his marriage and his shattered career and illusions of becoming one of the worlds greatest classical pianists. He plays and he forgets all. He is Eddie, the carefree and non commital piano player alway skirting around the edges of life but never entering. That is, until his brother, on the run from gangsters, crashlands onto the scene, shattering the fragile bubble and forcing Eddie to remember what he would rather forget. Eddies brother means trouble but his arrival also signals a change and Eddie begins to re emerge into the world again. A dangerous world where people feel and have emotions. He attracts the attentions of a young streetwise waitress from the bar and against his better judgement and battling with his fears, he begins to fall in love. On the run from his family, gangsters and the possiblity of caring for someone, Eddie is faced with an ultimate choice between loyalty to his family and the possibility of his own future happiness. Shoot the Piano Player is a fast novel. The action takes place over a couple of days with events spirally faster and faster towards its terrible conclusion. I couldn't put it down and afterwards was haunted for days.
|
by David Goodis
by David Goodis
by David Goodis
by James Lee Burke
by Jim Thompson
