Marc Pietrzykowski, Music Box Dancer

Marc Pietrzykowski came to the attention of the Western New York literary public as a poet, winning awards for his performances and his work. Now he’s trying his hand at fiction, and Talking Leaves is pleased to host him for an inaugural reading from his debut novel, Music Box Dancer, on Thursday, September 13, at 7 pm at our Main Street store.

This celebration is free and open to the public. As always, anyone wishing to have a book autographed is expected to purchase it at the store, as an act of support for the author, publisher and bookstore who sponsor the event.

So…..Charlie Price wants revenge. But as that would mean getting out of his chair, and since it’s really hot outside, well, vengeance will have to wait for another day. Unless it’s that damn ice cream man again. What follows is the story of a series of bad decisions involving bibliomania, wannabe mafia dons with bad fake tans, life in college towns, qat, needle-nose pliers, unhappy policemen, Al-Qaeda, glow-in-the-dark bocce, black swans, the witness protection program, frozen pizza, and the CIA (or maybe it wasn’t the CIA).

Not necessarily in that order.

Music Box Dancer is indeed a story of revenge, but of revenge gone wrong, and of the pervasive effect revenge fantasies can have on the powerless and alienated, and especially on the powerless and alienated and not very competent. Music Box Dancer follows the mostly accidental adventures of a young man—this Price fellow--disgusted with himself and with his membership in a generation weaned on irony and macho caricatures, those who came of age during the bleak years immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. Music Box Dancer twists the tropes of revenge fantasy into strange and hyperrealistic knots, weaving a story that refuses to obey the precepts of a sadly pervasive genre. Hence, it is a comedy.

Marc Pietrzykowski lives in Lockport, NY, with his wife and many pets. He teaches English at Niagara County Community College and grows hops up the side of his garage. He had poems and essays in many journals, magazines, anthologies, and so forth, and has been known to scatter wee poems on bus seats and other public spaces. He has previously published 3 books of poetry. Music Box Dancer is his first novel.