Obit [Paperback]

Daniel Paisner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2000

Axel Pimletz writes obituaries for a Boston newspaper. He's been going nowhere for the past fifteen years and his failure has almost consumed his self-esteem. Axel needs action and excitement, like a front-page story. He never guesses he's about to get bothalong with murder!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Axel Pimlitz, age 37, works for the Boston Record-Transcript in this first novel by Paisner ( Heartlands: An American Odyssey ). Other reporters move on to the news desk, but Axel, who calls adult fantasy phone lines a few times each day and masturbates in a graveyard when he's feeling particularly down, has been writing obits for 15 years. The apparent suicide of Andy Vaughn, a Boston University student, followed by the murder of a high school athlete, marks the beginning of a tortuous path out of self-absorption for Axel, who is the first to learn the victims' fathers had served together in Vietnam. Axel, who occasionally escapes to a reservoir deep under Boston proper, forms an attachment to Andy's mother, Margo, while a Boston cop discovers that both victims had had sex with the same young woman just hours before their deaths. Despite his overburdened plot--which includes an outrageous red herring and telegraphed conclusion--Paisner's breezy writing style and frequently sharp characterizations make him a promising entrant in the genre.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Overlong exposition, atmospheric wallowing, and self-indulgent detailing muffle the otherwise talented prose of first-novelist Paisner. Peculiar protagonist Axel Pimlitz concocts obituaries for a Boston newspaper and spends his free time (erotically fixated) in cemeteries or in the deserted Underground. He involves himself, concurrently with the police, in investigating the unusual deaths of two young athletes who slept with the same girl shortly before death and whose fathers knew each other in Vietnam. Resolution of the case depends on a Big Secret from the past, but will the author--or the reader--ever reach it? A frustrating book.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (June 27, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595092861
• ISBN-13: 978-0595092864
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,944,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Daniel Paisner is one of the busiest collaborators in publishing. He's written over fifty books, on topics ranging from business and sports, to politics and popular culture, including eleven New York Times best-sellers.

He is co-author of best-selling books with tennis champion Serena Williams; MSNBC News personality Mika Brzezinski; real estate developer and co-star of "Celebrity Apprentice" Ivanka Trump; Ohio governor John Kasich; former New York City mayor Ed Koch; and, Academy Award-winning actors Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Anthony Quinn, among others. He is currently completing projects with former world champion longboard surfer Izzy Paskowitz and legendary high school basketball coach Bob Hurley.

Over the years, Paisner has worked with dozens of "ordinary" individuals with extraordinary stories to tell, including Krystyna Chiger, whose chronicle of her family's horrific ordeal in a Polish sewer during the German occupation, "The Girl in the Green Sweater," makes an important contribution to the literature of the Holocaust. The story is the basis for the forthcoming film, "In Darkness," from Academy Award-nominated director Agnieszka Holland.

Perhaps his most notable collaboration has been the best-selling account of a New York City firefighter's epic tour of duty at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, "Last Man Down," written with FDNY Battalion Commander Richard Picciotto. The book was #1 on the London Times best-seller list, and remained a top ten seller in the U.K. for over six months; it reached the #1 spot on the Amazon.com.uk "Hot 100" list.

Paisner has also written several books of his own, including "The Ball: Mark McGwire's 70th Home Run Ball and the Marketing of the American Dream," which was hailed by Amazon editors as one of the best sports books of the year. If you want to really make him happy, consider reading one of his novels, "Obit" and "Mourning Wood."