Rating: 4 1/2 stars
Charlie Sinclair is a 24-year-old temp at Evergreen Software by day and a guitarist for a metal band called Pistonhead, by night. Living in a crappy, mice infested, studio apartment, recently losing his girlfriend, to a rival band’s guitar player, dealing with rumors that Evergreen is moving production to Puerto Rico, secretly pining away for Lisa, a co-worker and watching the drug-induced downward spiral of his childhood friend and Pivothead’s lead singer, Jack “Rip” Taylor, Charlie is having a tough time and things are about to get tougher. Welcome to the worst week of Charlie Sinclair’s life.
Thursday night at the Big Ditch Club. It’s after midnight and Pistonhead is ready to go on stage; yet, as usual, Rip is missing and they can’t play the gig without their front man. Rip’s drug usage is starting to take its toll, not only on him, but on the entire band. With two CD’s out and some air play, the band is teetering on the brink of a breakthrough; if Rip would just get himself together. When the rumors about the warehouse closing are confirmed, Charlie wonders how he’s going to pay the rent. Then the phone call came and Charlie’s life would never be the same.
Pistonhead reads more like a memoir than fiction. Thomas Hauk does an excellent job of taking his own life experiences and making them current. The story was wasn’t precious or nostalgic, nor was it trying to be hard-hitting and gritty. It was simply the story of Charlie Sinclair, living his life like every other working stiff, while trying to hang onto his sanity by doing something he loved. Hauk writes in a straight forward, accessible style. From the first page it drew you in and kept you there.
I didn’t give Pistonhead 4.5 stars (my highest rating to date) because it was a literary masterpiece that blew me away; it isn’t and it didn’t. I gave it that rating because it managed to pack more information, emotion, feeling, power and just plain real life into 174 pages, than anything I’ve read in quite some time. It gave a glimpse into the life of the guy next door, revealing the same issues, problems and worries everybody else has. Although I have to say, the end was a bit precious for me.
Rejected by agents and publishers alike, I’m thankful that Hauk had the confidence and the means to publish the book himself. Although it may not win any major awards, just having it out there helps to keep the scales balanced against all the useless, mainstream drivel.
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Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Something.hot Communications; 1st edition (February 7, 2009)
ISBN-13: 978-1601457448