The Player
by Michael Tolkin
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Book Summary Information
Author: Michael TolkinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-03-24
ISBN: 0802135137
Number of pages: 193
Publisher: Grove Press
Book Reviews of The Player
Book Review: News flash -- sometimes the bad guys win and don't even feel bad about it
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the book on which the Altman movie is based, and it has quite the Patricia Highsmith feel: News flash -- sometimes the bad guys win and don't even feel bad about it.
Griffin, a movie executive, is being sent vaguely threatening postcards, apparently by a disappointed and disgruntled screenwriter. To atone -- sort of -- he picks a screenwriter at random whom he met with and goes to see him at a screening of The Bicycle Thief. He figures if he makes a big effort to placate one guy, in some karmic way he will placate the postcard writer, too. This makes weird sense in the book. Anyway, for no reason (shades of The Stranger) beyond imitation and because he can -- he ends up committing a murder.
The main character is curiously amoral, and seems not to consider the effects of his actions on others. At the same time, he is a heck of an observer, not only of others but of himself, of the little games and mood shifts, the political one upsmanship, that to some extent defines daily life. It seems that games and observations on the most superficial level are all there are for him.
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