Violencia!: A Musical Novel
Dec 2007 · Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
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224
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About this ebook
An ex-NYPD clerk teams up with a shady Broadway producer for a disastrous musical comedy in this hilarious novel by the New York Times–bestselling author . . .
In addition to his desk job at the precinct, Paul Gurney has long been in charge of the department newsletter known as The Homicider—covering workplace news, dispensing advice, and disseminating interoffice gossip. But now, in the wake of a divorce, he’s decided to retire. What will he do next?
The answer seems to come in the form of a shady Broadway impresario who wants to create a stage musical based on his newsletter. Gurney soon finds himself plunging headlong into the world of actors, agents, singers, songwriters, hacks, hams, and con artists. As the show, Violencia, moves from rounds of financing by suspect sources to questionable casting calls to a disastrous out-of-town opening (at each stage getting progressively—and hilariously—worse and worse), Gurney enjoys the high living, romantic flings, and glamour of the entertainment industry. But he also comes to realize that show people aren’t that different from other people he already knows: the thugs, lowlifes, and cutthroats he’s encountered during his career on the homicide squad . . .
“His writing is so funny—and deceptively effortless—critics often liken it to a stand-up comedy routine.” —The New York Times
In addition to his desk job at the precinct, Paul Gurney has long been in charge of the department newsletter known as The Homicider—covering workplace news, dispensing advice, and disseminating interoffice gossip. But now, in the wake of a divorce, he’s decided to retire. What will he do next?
The answer seems to come in the form of a shady Broadway impresario who wants to create a stage musical based on his newsletter. Gurney soon finds himself plunging headlong into the world of actors, agents, singers, songwriters, hacks, hams, and con artists. As the show, Violencia, moves from rounds of financing by suspect sources to questionable casting calls to a disastrous out-of-town opening (at each stage getting progressively—and hilariously—worse and worse), Gurney enjoys the high living, romantic flings, and glamour of the entertainment industry. But he also comes to realize that show people aren’t that different from other people he already knows: the thugs, lowlifes, and cutthroats he’s encountered during his career on the homicide squad . . .
“His writing is so funny—and deceptively effortless—critics often liken it to a stand-up comedy routine.” —The New York Times
About the author
Bruce Jay Friedman (1930–2020) was a novelist, short story writer, playwright, memoirist, and screenwriter. He was the author of many books, including Stern (1962), A Mother’s Kisses (1964), The Lonely Guy’s Book of Life (1978), and Lucky Bruce: A Literary Memoir (2011). His best-known works of stage and screen include the off-Broadway hit Steambath (1970) and the screenplays for the films Stir Crazy (1980) and Splash (1984), the latter of which received an Academy Award nomination. As editor of the anthology Black Humor (1965), Friedman helped popularize the distinctive literary style of that name in the United States and is widely regarded as one of its finest practitioners. According to the New York Times, his prose is “a pure pleasure machine.”
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