Originally titled “Down There“, this is one of many great noir books by the hugely prolific David Goodis, crime noir fiction writer extraordinaire.
This is classic noir that is bleak and rough, where the Northeast winter is vividly cold and unwelcoming. It concerns the derailed life of a once hopeful piano player now stuck entertaining drunks in a dive in Philadelphia. Many of Goodis's books were out of print for a long time as they were originally serialized in cheapie pulp magazines with salacious covers.
The 1962 Truffaut film Shoot the Piano Player garnered new interest in Goodis and this book was re-released under the same title as the movie. Vintage paperback is printing several Goodis novels these days so pick one up and get noir.
But what do you think?