A review of Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli

Every Shallow Cut by Tom Piccirilli
Chizine Publications, 2011, 162 pages, $10.95
ISBN: 978-1-926851-10-5
Book Review by Wayne C. Rogers

The newest piece of fiction by author Tom Piccirilli is the novella, or short novel, Every Shallow Cut. The small trade paperback isn’t due out on Amazon till the end of March, but I managed to snag an advanced copy of the paperback and read it in two fast sittings.

Let me say up front that this isn’t a happy novel. It’s a beautifully written dark piece of fiction that deals with a mid-list author, a man who was once overweight and has now lost everything he loves and owns, and who’s prospective future is just about as bleak as it can get. In other words, there isn’t a ray of hope on the horizon for this character. Needless to say that as a struggling writer who has lost everything he owns, not once or twice, but four times in the last two decades, and has dealt with continuing health problems, I soon identified with the nameless narrator. I understood his quest to come to grips with his spiraling, out-of-controlled life and how everything came to be so screwed up.

The story jumps right into the action with the narrator having his ass kicked in front of a pawn shop by two thugs looking to rob him of what little he has left. His bulldog, Churchill, watches helplessly from the car window. With a once promising writing career ahead of him and numerous literary awards (most of which have been pawned) to his name, the narrator taps into the mounting rage and frustration that fills him and fights back, overpowering the two creeps and giving them a taste of their own medicine. He finally makes it into the pawnshop, only to be robbed by the owner of the store with the amount of money he’s given for his father’s coin collection and mother’s prints. He uses part of the money to buy a handgun, and then hops into his car with Churchill and heads east to New York where he was born and where his resentful brother is still living.

On the drive east, the narrator thinks about the breakup of his marriage, the foreclosure on his house, and the deterioration of his writing career. This man isn’t a fun person, and he has no reason to be. He’s lost everything, except for his dog. What he hopes to find back in his hometown is a question even he doesn’t have an answer to. He’s got nowhere else to go, so home it is. Unfortunately, his brother is not that enthused to see him on his front porch, but family being family, he quickly decides to let him stay for a while. The brother, however, is slightly less tolerable about Churchill, but the narrator refuses to cave in to the rules for his dog. Before the story is over, there will be a sad visit to an old girlfriend who also isn’t that excited to see him again and a visit to an old-time writer friend who thinks he should admit himself into the hospital because the narrator is definitely suffering from a nervous breakdown. Like I said this isn’t a feel-good novel, and the ending will leave you with a sense of having dropped into a bottomless void. There’s no one to come save the narrator from himself or the harsh reality of life. The story ends as it should.

For myself, I certainly had no trouble identifying with the narrator though he's more successful with the written word than I. Over the past ten years I’ve known several excellent mid-list authors who have lost their contracts and the interest of publishers because their books weren’t hitting the bestseller’s list with every outing. These were great writers who were slowly building a strong fan base, but the publishers weren’t interested in that. They wanted results and huge sales right off the bat. The truth be told, most of them only cared about whether or not the author was bringing the big bucks. This is why I empathized with the narrator of the Every Shallow Cut. I clearly understood what he was going through and the hopelessness of his life. The novella was more real to me than all the "self-help" books on writing and making your dreams come true that I’ve read over the past few years. The thing is no matter how hard you work at something, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll succeed at it. And by success, I mean making enough money to live so you don’t eventually lose everything. I wish the truth was different, but it isn’t. Awards are nice and great reviews on your books are wonderful, but if you’re not making enough money to pay the bills, there’s nowhere to go except downhill.

I think this novel should be required reading for every person thinking about becoming a writer. Not only would the reader discover the beauty of the written word by this truly gifted author, he would also learn that making it as a writer is a one-in-a-thousand shot. The odds might even be higher. Only one-or-two percent of the writers in this country actually make it to the big time. Maybe another ten percent are able to make a living from their fiction. The rest, no matter how good they are, work a second job so a steady income is there to pay the mortgage and so they have health insurance to deal with the bills accumulated with any sickness. Most of us have to work at a shitty job we don’t like to make ends meet, and this indeed takes its toll on creativity and the necessary time for writing and rewriting. Some make it, some don't.

The literary writer, Thomas Wolfe, once said that you can never go home again. Never were truer or more profound words written. Such is the case with the narrator of Every Shallow Cut. Returning home only intensifies his sense of loss and regret at having failed at a life he so desperately desired. Dare I say that this is a book that will cut you to the bone and have you bleeding out with questionable feelings concerning the world your parents taught you about and the one the "self-help" gurus teach us to believe in. This world should be filled with insurmountable amounts of joy and happiness but often it isn’t. Sometimes there’s no fairness in life, and you can only play the hand that’s dealt to you for better or worse.

Every Shallow Cut is a masterpiece by an author who has experienced the dark night of the soul and survived to see the morning light so he can write about the things most people shy away from or refuse to see. As Rocky Balboa said, “It’s not about how hard you can hit, but rather about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” Author Tom Piccirilli is the Rocky of the written word. Read this novel, take it to heart, and then come out with both fists swinging, refusing to allow life to beat you down. Highly recommended!