Customer Reviews

Shoot the Piano Player (Film Ink)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Shoot the Piano Player" is quintessential American crime noir. The protagonist is Eddie, a piano player in a sleazy Philadelphia bar. He comes from a family of criminals but managed to escape that life. At one time, he was a promising classic pianist, but then he fell from grace. Now, Eddie's brother Turley literally stumbles back into his life, bringing chaos and uncertainty. At the same time, Eddie begins to tentatively woo a waitress at work. The plot is full of twists, although it's a bit of a mess at times.

The novel was originally released in 1956 as "Down There," which appropriately reflects the dilemma Eddie faces. Specifically, the book focuses heavily on fate, which seems to be dictating that Eddie return to "down there" from whence he came. The book's name was changed subsequently to reflect the classic 1960 movie it inspired - "Shoot the Piano Player," directed by French auteur Francois Truffaut. As with Truffaut's movie, the book's plot is secondary to character and ambience. Instead, Goodis reflects on small moments, such as Eddie's exhilaration at standing close to the waitress in an alley as they hide from gangsters. Indeed, the characters are well-delineated, and I found myself truly caring about them.

If you like Raymond Chadler, Jim Thomson or similar crime noir writers, then you'll probably enjoy this novel. Goodis is a skillful pulp writer. Unfortunately, most of his books have gone out of print - make sure you get this one while it's still available.

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 that flash like heat lightning.

Eddie does not need any trouble in his life. By the time trouble catches up to him at Harriet's Hut he is already a beaten man. Disengaged and detached, a single act of involvement carries him over the line and back into life. This is a dark and poor Philadelphia where the past catches up to a person and where nothing and nobody are what they seem.

Recommended for fans of Noir fiction and films. Truffaut fans should not worry about being disappointed. Even if you aren't yet a noir fan, this is an excellent book for anybody with a taste for smart and well-written literature.

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 and unwillingly, Eddie is drawn into the chase.

From that point on, we begin to learn all about this quiet and unassuming man. We soon realise that there is a lot more to him than is first realised and, having endeared him to us, we are snapped back to the present and the trouble that is visited upon him be his brother.

There's plenty to like about the story's characters too: from the tough, overweight broad who owns the bar, to her common-law husband, an ex-wrestler who works as the bar's bouncer, and the femme fatale, a brazen waitress who plays a wonderful counterpoint to the introspective Eddie.

There really is nothing left to say than to highly recommend this book as a special example of noir fiction. It's certainly well worth reading.

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 book is about. Not to mention that Goodis' writing is like reading hard-boiled poetry. The words flow together beautifully and have an air of mystery and profundity about them. The last two pages alone will stay with me forever as a fond memory. Like a previous reveiwer, _ Of Human Bondage_ is my favourite book-- and still is, but now it shares 1st place with _Shoot The Piano Player_.

Within noir, there are many flavors, some more outlandish than others: Goodis might be butterscotch bubblegum. It's not as if DOWN THERE/SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER is an unreadable mess; I liked it, and would recommend it. It's got its moments, but it's like a cross between Cornell Woolrich and grand opera. All the elements are there - doomed hero, pitiless fate, melancholy philosopher/lowlifes peopling the joyless street - but they all seem keyed up to an overly-melodramatic pitch. Where most thrillers of this stripe would angle for, if not understatement, at least a sotto voce neorealism, SHOOT pumps up the ambience and detail work, trying for (and acieving) a hyper-realism. After reading this, it's no wonder it translated so well to film. It's ALREADY set in a foreign country, so to speak. This is a pulp novel mined from the deepest recesses of the writer's psyche and even its conventional aspects seem reflected in a funhouse mirror. All that said, it's not entirely successful - Woolrich did this kind of 'no-escaping-your-destiny' narrative with a lot more skill. What David Goodis DOES have going for him here is a kind of authentic neurotic obsessiveness that might've precluded more restraint in his storytelling; this reads like the work of a man who flinched at sunlight. A novel best read after midnight, in a messy apartment, with a pot of coffee brewing.

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
Harriet's Hut. Then Eddie's brother bumps into him by chance
while running from trouble, as usual, and the piano player's
checkered and tragic past comes walloping back like a train
wreck. Incredible, emotional, one of the most honest and
believable novels of the hard-boiled genre.

For the past 15 years, I've considered Maugham's "Of Human Bondage" the best book I've ever read. Saying that had become a habit. It has slipped to number 2. I picked up Shoot the Piano Player more-or-less at random, and was blown away. Every character in the book is interesting, every event happens naturally, not in any way contrived, and the story is so well placed you can't stop reading it.

I don't want to say another word; I wouldn't want to spoil anything. Stop reading the reviews and plot synopsis... just order the damn thing.

Eddie is the name of the piano player of the book's title. For the princely sum of thirty dollars a week, Eddie provides background music in a rundown dive. He figures that if he has nothing, nothing can be taken away from him. And if he stays in the background, like so much wallpaper, no one will ever bother him.
Eddie's strategy for living works quite well. That is until an untimely visit from his hoodlum brother triggers a cascade of events that threaten his very life.
Shoot the Piano Player is a short allegorical novel that is dark and unapologetically downbeat. Deceptively simple in its construction, there's a lot of truth about life contained within its pages. If you take the time to read this book, you will learn more about what makes human beings tick than you ever would by reading any ten psychology texts put together. An enthusiastic 5 stars.

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 (, or beginning or middle). The story oozes despair and loneliness. Yet this is its strength.

David Goodis does an superb job in capturing the emotional turmoil of our piano player. His prose is very good, and the characterizations in general are well-drawn. The story itself, while original enough, is not outstanding. However upon reading the book I felt as if I brought into 1950s Philadelphia, living with our piano player and his low-life "friends" and family.

Bottom line: definitely not a dose of sunshine. But wonderful nonetheless.

I rank David Goodis at the very top of noir writers and I've read a lot of noir fiction. A Philadelphian, he wrote some books that got Hollywood interested (his "Dark Passage" was lensed with Bogart and Bacall), but he ended up back in Philly living in an apartment above the garage next to his parents' house, where he turned out some of the most emotionally stark noir books ever written. He drank in seedy bars, hung with hookers and lowlifes. He died too early, of alcoholism.

We meet Eddie playing piano in a saloon called Harriet's Hut. It's the kind of place where the waitress, Lena, carries a hat pin to stab any men who get too fresh. Eddie's a quiet, melancholy guy who just wants to be left alone. Fat chance. One night, one of his hoodlum brothers barges into Harriet's with two thugs hot on his heels. Quick action by Eddie helps his brother escape. Now, the two thugs are interested in Eddie. His quiet life is over.

Ironically, as Eddie's troubles mount, love comes into his lonely existence via Lena, the waitress, who was touched by Eddie's loyalty to his brother. As their relationship grows, we learn Eddie's past, including the time he was a celebrated concert pianist with a career of fame and fortune ahead of him, before events that left him a broken man.

Don't get me wrong. This book is no lace-hanky weepie. It's filled with danger, chases, narrow escapes and gunplay. But the way Goodies intertwines the action with a budding love story is fascinating. The ending is, incredibly, both violent and poignant.

No wonder a critic said of Goodis, "His books are suicide notes."