The Player [Paperback]

Michael Tolkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 1997

From Library Journal Plagued by a disappointed writer's string of anonymously ominous postcards, Griffin Mill, a powerful Hollywood movie studio executive, commits a senseless murder and then takes up with his victim's girlfriend. Tolkin, himself a screenwriter, squishes this meagre story into his lead character's brain, where it becomes a minor league Dostoevskian psychological adventure, with the interesting subtext that a production executive's success leads not only to guilt and paranoia but to existential murder. Tolkin's bemused view of Hollywood is curt and bloodless yet hardly original, but he does have a keen perception of its various battle strategies. There's a happy ending, which the Hays Office wouldn't have liked, but Hollywood in the 1980s just might. David Bartholomew, NYPL Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in the upper reaches of Hollywood moguldom, this powerful and disquieting first novel delivers the punch its strong beginning promises. Griffin Mill is a young, near-the-top executive at a major movie studio. His life is the movies, his life's goal is to run the studio, and his every move is measured for its effect on getting him there. He doesn't tell anyone when he begins receiving angry postcards from a writer who complains: "You said you'd get back to me. I'm still waiting"not because the cards threaten his life, but because they might be used against him within the studio. With a vague plan for propitiation, Griffin tries to pinpoint his threatening correspondent by making random contact with names from his calendar, all the while struggling not to lose his dominance in the management struggle. Dense with icons of the Hollywood mythstory meetings, power lunches, the right tables at the right restaurantsthis is a sharply etched mystery/thriller. But it is even more effective as a kind of modern morality tale. Griffin's self-absorption is so complete, his focus on his standing among colleagues and rivals so single-minded, that ordering from a luncheon menu takes on more significance to him than murder. In the hands of this talented writer, insecure, ruthless, aggressive Griffin Mill is an indelible character. 35,000 first printing; first serial to Manhattan, inc.; Literary Guild and Mystery Guild alternates.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Plagued by a disappointed writer's string of anonymously ominous postcards, Griffin Mill, a powerful Hollywood movie studio executive, commits a senseless murder and then takes up with his victim's girlfriend. Tolkin, himself a screenwriter, squishes this meagre story into his lead character's brain, where it becomes a minor league Dostoevskian psychological adventure, with the interesting subtext that a production executive's success leads not only to guilt and paranoia but to existential murder. Tolkin's bemused view of Hollywood is curt and bloodless yet hardly original, but he does have a keen perception of its various battle strategies. There's a happy ending, which the Hays Office wouldn't have liked, but Hollywood in the 1980s just might. David Bartholomew, NYPL
Copyright 1988 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: 193 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (March 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802135137
• ISBN-13: 978-0802135131
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #491,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Try the Movie Instead July 26, 2008

By David Alden

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Loved the movie, left flat by the book. I grasped the irony, but was bored by the sense of superiority, thought the writer's actions unbelievable, found the murder incomprehensible, and left uneasy about the relationship with June. About the only emotion to which I could relate was the paranoia about the possible arrest. The screenwriter had the sense to focus on that last emotion. I'd have liked the book better if Tolkin had done more of the same.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars the rare novel that is inferior to the cinematic equivalent October 12, 2004

By Jonathan E. Shapiro

Format:Paperback

It's a good story, but it's basically a skeleton of what would become Robert Altman's kaleidoscopic adaptation, filled with blink and you'll miss it cameos and references Tolkin's novel feels too heavy and it also lacks the humor present in the film. If you want to read some great Michael Tolkin, go to his sophomore novel, the powerful 'Against the Air', or his wonderful "L.A. Yuppie" trilogy of screenplays.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I could put it down February 22, 2011

By Bill

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This novel is tiresome, overwritten and shoddy. It makes that mediocre movie of the same name look like a work of genius.

For what it's worth, the most entertaining part of the novel is watching Griffin Mill lie. It's amusing, not laugh out-loud funny. The book becomes tiresome because the writer clearly hasn't thought out the story very well (Tolkin writes screenplays; screenwriters make bad novelists. I wonder how much Robert Altman contributed to his Oscar-nominated screenplay which is nothing like this trash).

If you want a book to make you annoyed, buy this.