The Piano Tuner

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Overview

In The Piano Tuner, Peter Meinke writes of the foreignness that awaits us when we go abroad and when we answer our own front door to admit a stranger, that confronts us in unfamiliar cities and villages and in the equally disquieting surroundings of our memories and regrets.

Often in these stories, what seems a safe, comfortable environment turns suddenly threatening. In the title story, a writer's quiet existence amid his antiques and books is dismantled, piece by piece, by a demonic, beer-bellied piano tuner. In "The Ponoes," a man recalls how, as a young boy living in Brooklyn during World War II, he became a collaborationist in the brutal pranks of ...

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More About This Book

Overview

In The Piano Tuner, Peter Meinke writes of the foreignness that awaits us when we go abroad and when we answer our own front door to admit a stranger, that confronts us in unfamiliar cities and villages and in the equally disquieting surroundings of our memories and regrets.

Often in these stories, what seems a safe, comfortable environment turns suddenly threatening. In the title story, a writer's quiet existence amid his antiques and books is dismantled, piece by piece, by a demonic, beer-bellied piano tuner. In "The Ponoes," a man recalls how, as a young boy living in Brooklyn during World War II, he became a collaborationist in the brutal pranks of two Irish bullies. In "The Twisted River," the sedate collegiality of a Polish university is disrupted when an American on a Fulbright grant attempts to blackmail two faculty members. And in "The Bracelet," a young anthropology student doing field work in Africa finds herself drawn further and further into the role of a priestess of Oshun, into a life dictated by the configuration of cowry shells cast upon the floor.

Meinke writes of a world where our control over our lives seldom exists across a border, and often extends no further than our fingertips. Attempts to bridge two cultures, two lives are sometimes successful, as when an actor finds love in the arms of a tough-talking barmaid, but more usually lead to disillusionment, as when a hard-drinking salesman's career is shattered after he is drunk under the table one night by a Polish engineer, or when an English father struggles to find common ground with his American son. Riveting, almost terrifying, the stories in The Piano Tuner tell of decent men and women caught in events that they could never have predicted, would never have chosen.

Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
This year's winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction is very consistent in the high quality of its contents: there are no weak links among the 14 stories in the collection. Divided into two sections, ``Home Thoughts'' and ``From Abroad'', the stories share a haunting sense of disorientation, the characters surprised by the unfamiliar intruding into their comfortable settled lives. In the title story, selected for Best American Short Stories 1984, a writer's carefully tended home is invaded by a fat, beer-swilling piano tuner who grows increasingly threatening. Other stories feature cross-cultural disorientation: an American student spending her ``Winter Term'' in Paris, a visiting American scholar who threatens to blackmail faculty at a Polish university in ``The Twisted River.'' This is storytelling at its best. Strongly recommended. Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews
From The Critics
Whatever his subject, Meinke is a skilled, largely imaginative writer who loves the climactic epiphanies that terminate his terrifying situations. The Piano Tuner is better than just a good collection. Story by story it minimizes reality by intensifying the possible. -- National Public Radio

Product Details

Meet the Author

Peter Meinke has published stories and poems in the Atlantic, Redbook, Yankee, The New Yorker, New Republic, and Virginia Quarterly Review. His stories have twice been included in the O'Henry Award volumes and once in Best American Short Stories. In 1975 he studied in Africa and in 1978-79 he was a Fulbright lecturer in Poland. He is director of the writing workshop at Eckerd College.

Table of Contents

The Piano Tuner 3
Alice's Brother 15
Ruby Lemons 23
The Ponoes 34
Conversation with a Pole 46
Losers Pay 58
Even Crazy Old Barmaids Need Love 71
A Decent Life 85
The Twisted River 97
Sealink 108
The Starlings of Leicester Square 117
Winter Term 122
The Water-Tree 134
The Bracelet 144
Customer Reviews
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  • Posted December 8, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    the piano tuner

    the book, the piano tuner, is agreat work of literature, while the stories are beautifully thought out, the strength of the book is in the writing. the poetic way the author uses his words to describe different situations and feelings that come together to form a short story. the book is made up of multiple short stories about very different things mostly strange out of the ordinary experiences and accurences. my favorite is th epiano tuner even though that is probably the typical answer. this story is brilliantly written, the way he describes the piano tuner and his strange friend who stands outside with him is great. it fits perfectly with how the typical american business man living in suburbia would think of a man like this one. as you read you somewhat frown on the man for thinking so poorly of this man, the tuner, that he's never met. you think how awful it is for him to be so judgmental, then the ending blows you away, it's completely unexpected. the other stories are also very well written but their plots don't really compare to the piano tuner. i would deffinetly recommend this book to anyone who has a hard time reading longer books because of the focus it takes. these are short stories and are quality ones too.

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