Ich und Louise.

by Tristan Egolf

When Charlie Evans finishes his last and most humiliating music gig, he tosses his violin aside and takes up life in a skid row boarding house populated by drifters, a dominatrix, and an unforgettable huckster named Tinsel Greetz. As in his first work, Lord of the Barnyard, Tristan Egolf's novel Skirt and the Fiddle swiftly brings readers into a world that is near--but nothing like--the one we know. Charlie and Greetz strike up a contentious friendship and commit spontaneous pranks around Philth Town, a fallen city populated by cruel bodega owners, dark alleys, and shady bars. They start thinking bigger when they land an illegal but lucrative gig killing sewer rats. But then Charlie falls for Louise Gascoygne and his friendly chemistry with Greetz goes awry. What follows is the duo's most interesting caper of all. As an author, Egolf has been compared to John Kennedy Toole, but his work also summons references to Jonathan Lethem and George Saunders. Beneath its bravado, the novel ultimately forces Charlie to make a choice between his the adrenaline-pumping good times he begrudgingly shares with Greetz or the more profound passions he can experience by making music and love. --Jane Hodges

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Literature, Contemporary

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Egolf was born in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain. His father, Brad Evans, was a National Review journalist and his mother, Paula, a painter. His younger sister is American actress Gretchen Egolf. His parents divorced in Egolf's childhood and he took the surname of his stepfather, Gary Egolf. In his youth, the family moved from Washington to Kentucky. It was life in Philadelphia, however, that inspired Egolf, along with summer visits to his father's new home in Indiana. He graduated from Hempfield High School in Landisville, Pennsylvania, in 1990. Egolf briefly attended Temple University, in Philadelphia.
In Paris, Egolf struck up an acquaintance with the daughter of Patrick Modiano, a prominent French author and screenwriter (Lacombe Lucien). Modiano helped get his first novel published in France in 1998 by Gallimard after it had been rejected by more than 70 U.S. publishers. Lord of the Barnyard was subsequently published in the UK and the US and received moderately favorable reviews - with a few raves worldwide. His second book, Skirt and the Fiddle, was published in 2002 to even better critical response; his third, Kornwolf, was published after his death. He had also been working on a screenplay for Lord of the Barnyard, left unfinished.