Hot Night in the City [Mass Market Paperback]

Trevanian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 2001

Hot Night in the City is a masterwork from Trevanian, whose unique ability to create a new stylistic "voice" for each genre he visits has produced the international best sellers: The Main, The Summer of Katya, and Shibumi, and his hundreds of thousands of ardent fans.

Hot Night in the City offers a feast for every taste: action, romance, laughter, love, wit, compassion...all seasoned by a wryly oblique view of the human condition. The reader meets a parade of unforgettable characters in compelling situations: a bewitching young madman charms his trusting victim, two strong Basque women battle over an apple tree, a crusty old carnival huckster instructs his adolescent apprentice, an embittered young soldier rescues the dignity of a faded whore, a famous writer learns an unpalatable truth about himself, and more. The feast of Hot Night in the City is both delicious and nourishing, both spicy and satisfying.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Wide-ranging in setting and tone, yet linked by their sense of irony and reverence for the past, these 13 short stories reflect in miniature the pseudonymous Trevanian's chameleonic career as a genre-defying author of popular fiction (Shibumi; Incident at Twenty-Mile). Most of the tales take place in pre- and post-WWII urban environments, most notably the title story, which features a lonely girl dressed up like June Allyson and a gentlemanly stalker who imitates Jimmy Stewart and W.C. Fields. Trevanian tells the story twice, the first version introducing the volume, the second ending it; each has a different denouement, but both are tragic. A similar period mustiness permeates "Snatch Off Your Cap, Kid!"Aan ode to the tramps and hobos of bygone days; "After Hours at Rick's," an evocation of the timeless, edgy ennui of last call at a pick-up bar; and "The Sacking of Miss Plimsoll," the story of an unusual relationship between a bestselling author and his literary secretary. Basque country serves as the backdrop for two of Trevanian's tales: a young couple come together in a light romantic farce entitled "The Engine of Fate," and a village idiot improves his lot in life by pretending that he has a fortune to bequeath in "That Fox-of-a-Be?at." The author ventures even farther afield with "Easter Story," set in ancient Rome and detailing Pontius Pilate's first meeting with Jesus, and with a retelling of the wise and witty Onondaga creation parable "How the Animals Got Their Voices." Though he employs a number of hoary devices to achieve his effects, Trevanian can be an engaging storyteller, with a knack for getting inside his characters' heads. Several tales get bogged down when his narrative style turns pedantic, but the collection as a whole is enjoyable, if vaguely anachronistic. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Trevanian keeps his fans guessing with long silences (15 years elapsed between The Summer of Katya and Incident at Twenty-Mile) and shifts in genre, from thriller to police procedural to romance to Western. Now comes a shift in format, from novel to short story. The 13 stories in this collection show Trevanian to be a storyteller as versatile as he is skillful, using a variety of voice, time, and place to leave the reader with a smile, a shake of the head, or a shudder. Narrators include an imaginative nine-year-old boy in the 1940s, the slave translator of Pontius Pilatus, and a middle-aged professor at a pickup bar. There is an ancient folk tale, one from the Round Table, and several featuring canny Basque peasants. In the title story, a plain young woman in an anonymous city at mid-century goes out alone at night and is picked up by a well-spoken drifter. Told twice with different endings, this story brackets the others and is the most chilling of all. An admirable collection.
-Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., VA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks; 1st edition (December 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312978820
• ISBN-13: 978-0312978822
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #873,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save Your Money, August 23, 2000

By 

Steven L. Asher (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot Night in the City (Hardcover)

This collection of short stories is uneven at best, and only sporadically entertaining. Everything that made Trevanian one of my favorite authors is all but absent in this book. If these stories were indeed written over a period of years, they belong back in the author's reject file, where they must have come from. If they are all new, so much the worse. I can't imagine that an author who hadn't already proven his marketability could persuade a publisher to foist this thin gruel upon the reading public.

I am willing to follow a favorite author through any number of genres, but not when he abandons the quality of writing that made his work so delightful and readable.

If you must buy this book, wait for it to appear on the sale table.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great reading, March 21, 2002

By 

Jennifer Frost (Derry, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hot Night in the City (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked this up at the airport, having recognized the Trevanian name but been away from him for awhile. Some of these stories were so enjoyable that I read them twice in a row. (esp. the sly Basque ones). The title story did give me the creeps, both times but the others more than made up for it. I'm glad to have this reminder of a good storyteller.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A dazzling display of style and talent!, June 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Hot Night in the City (Hardcover)

Trevanian is the only major novelist capable of working in many styles, voices, and genres. And now we have a collection of short fiction that further illuminates his multi-faceted talents and skills with a baker's dozen of stories that range from the blood-chilling to the delightfully witty to a richly sentimental look at an imaginative boy growing up in an American slum in the 1930's. The brace of eponymous tales that serve to open and close the collection seem at first glance to be one tale with two different endings--in itself a unique and daring idea. But upon careful reading one discovers more than a hundred subtle changes that shift the reader's focus and sympathy from the charming but emotionally damaged young man to the innocent young woman. Elsewhere, we have a witty insight in the values and tactics of carnival people in which we meet half a dozen brilliantly drawn characters. The three Basque tales that punctuate the collection (it is rumoured that Trevanian lives in the Basque country) are rich with human insight and sympathy...as well as being very funny. In one story, he shows the emotional vacuity of the pick-up bar scene; in another he gives us a new and stunning view of the character and thought of Pontius Pilate; in another he creates a splendid woman of mature years who totally (and justly) deflates a character obviously based on the writer Trevanian feels set the progress of American letters back more than half a century, Hemmingway. And there is also a delightful romantic romp on a French train at the turn of the century; and a bawdy send-up of the Arthurian legend; and a haunting primal tale drawn from the oral tradition of Iroquoian folk stories. All in all, a varied feast indeed! As usual with this writer, there will be readers and reviewers who will be confused by the range of his work, and displeased that he has not limited himself to whatever facet of `Trevanian' they favour, but we must accept that Trevanian is an elitist who does not write for the Wad.