Violencia!: A Musical Novel

by Bruce Jay Friedman

Bruce Jay Friedman is the reigning don of the ironic comic novel, a man of whom The New York Times has written, "His writing is so funny -- and deceptively effortless -- critics often liken it to a stand-up comedy routine." Now he triumphantly returns to the form with Violencia!, a crackling satire of show-business pomposity, flimflam, and dreck in the spirit of Mel Brooks's The Producers. Paul Gurney is a struggling civilian clerk working the desk at a major New York homicide precinct who runs a department newsletter, The Homicider, that covers the goings-on at the precinct, dispenses advice, and disseminates interoffice gossip. But Gurney is newly divorced and dissatisfied, and abruptly decides to retire from the force, not knowing exactly what he'll do next. When he meets a shady Broadway impresario who wants to create a stage musical from his newsletter, he 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 from 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. Packed with unforgettably reprehensible characters, unimaginably turgid lyrics, and unimpeachably funny dialogue, Bruce Jay Friedman's Violencia! is a sidesplitting farce about the dark underbelly of the Great White Way.

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 20, 2001

About the author

American comic author whose dark, mocking humour and social criticism was directed at the concerns and behaviour of American Jews.

After graduating from the University of Missouri in 1951 with a B.A. in journalism and serving in the U.S. Air Force for two years, Friedman worked in publishing for several years before achieving success with his first novel, Stern (1962). The title character is a luckless descendent of the biblical Job, unable to assimilate into mainstream American life. Virtually all of Friedman's works are a variation on this theme; most of his characters are Jewish by birth, but they feel alienated from both Jewish and American culture. His works are also noted for focusing on absurd characters and situations.
-Encyclopædia Britannica

Reviews

[Booknblues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Gurney, Bruce Jay Friedman's protagonist in his comic novel Violencia, torn by his recent divorce and suffering from a mid-life crisis of sorts quits his day job as clerk for the New York Homicide department and editor of a homicide newsletter. While adrift in his search for himself and a new job, Paul is recruited to write a musical play about a homicide department. Norman Welles, a composer who has read Gurney's newsletter feels he will be the perfect author of such a play. Gurney lets himself be convinced and he is off on his quest for fame and fortune along Broadway.
Gurney who is a novice, fits easily into the role of although he is rudderless and easily mislead. He quickly finds himself surrounded by strange and interesting characters, and quite at home with them. There is Norman Welles a composer who seems to think that an opening number for a homicide movie should be a light romantic number which is about Paris in the off-season. Gurney's personal hero is director Clement Hartog who comes with the extra baggage of a mother who must be in each of his plays. Essie Hartog, Clement's mother an aging star who performs all of her roles on stilts will play the detective bureau chief. Then there is the unlucky producer Undertag who has never had a successful Broadway play. It makes perfect sense that Gurney will fit right in with them.

The descriptions of the behind the scenes work on the play are intriguing. Of special interest is the passages about the songs which Welles had ineptly prepared for the musical. Odd scenes as restaurant odors offending playgoers, dancers on stilts and telegrams from the dead add to the humor of the novel.

Friedman has a talent for creating strange characters, and amusing situations while providing commentary on philosophy and life. Paul Gurney, who begins working on the play directionless and insecure seems to gain perspective and confidence working on a project which seems doomed from the start. This is not a novel of great depth nor was it meant to be. It certainly is an amusing way to spend an afternoon. I have only one question, where is the CD?