In The Piano Tuner, Peter Meinke writes of the foreignness that awaits us when we go abroad and when we answer our own front door to admit a stranger, that confronts us in unfamiliar cities and villages and in the equally disquieting surroundings of our memories and regrets.Often in these stories, what seems a safe, comfortable environment turns suddenly threatening. In the title story, a writer's quiet existence amid his antiques and books is dismantled, piece by piece, by a demonic, beer-bellied piano tuner. In "The Ponoes," a man recalls how, as a young boy living in Brooklyn during World War II, he became a collaborationist in the brutal pranks of two Irish bullies. In "The Twisted River," the sedate collegiality of a Polish university is disrupted when an American on a Fulbright grant attempts to blackmail two faculty members. And in "The Bracelet," a young anthropology student doing field work in Africa finds herself drawn further and further into the role of a priestess of Oshun, into a life dictated by the configuration of cowry shells cast upon the floor.Meinke writes of a world where our control over our lives seldom exists across a border, and often extends no further than our fingertips. Attempts to bridge two cultures, two lives are sometimes successful, as when an actor finds love in the arms of a tough-talking barmaid, but more usually lead to disillusionment, as when a hard-drinking salesman's career is shattered after he is drunk under the table one night by a Polish engineer, or when an English father struggles to find common ground with his American son. Riveting, almost terrifying, the stories in The Piano Tuner tell of decent men and women caught in events that they could never have predicted, would never have chosen.

The Piano Tuner (Winner of Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction)

Literature & Fiction

Meinke, Peter

United States

Univ of Georgia Pr

In The Piano Tuner, Peter Meinke writes of the foreignness that awaits us when we go abroad and when we answer our own front door to admit a stranger, that confronts us in unfamiliar cities and villages and in the equally disquieting surroundings of our memories and regrets.
Often in these stories, what seems a safe, comfortable environment turns suddenly threatening. In the title story, a writer's quiet existence amid his antiques and books is dismantled, piece by piece, by a demonic, beer-bellied piano tuner. In "The Ponoes," a man recalls how, as a young boy living in Brooklyn during World War II, he became a collaborationist in the brutal pranks of two Irish bullies. In "The Twisted River," the sedate collegiality of a Polish university is disrupted when an American on a Fulbright grant attempts to blackmail two faculty members. And in "The Bracelet," a young anthropology student doing field work in Africa finds herself drawn further and further into the role of a priestess of Oshun, into a life dictated by the configuration of cowry shells cast upon the floor.
Meinke writes of a world where our control over our lives seldom exists across a border, and often extends no further than our fingertips. Attempts to bridge two cultures, two lives are sometimes successful, as when an actor finds love in the arms of a tough-talking barmaid, but more usually lead to disillusionment, as when a hard-drinking salesman's career is shattered after he is drunk under the table one night by a Polish engineer, or when an English father struggles to find common ground with his American son. Riveting, almost terrifying, the stories in The Piano Tuner tell of decent men and women caught in events that they could never have predicted, would never have chosen.

The Piano Tuner: Stories

University of Georgia Press

The Piano Tuner: Stories (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction Ser.)

Short Stories & Anthologies

Poems offer a humorous look at American culture, childhood memories, modern life, the natural world, and the meaning of poetry

Trying to Surprise God (Pitt Poetry Series)

History & Criticism

Univ of Pittsburgh Pr

Poems deal with nature, children, love, parents, aging, dreams, death, war, travel, marriage, divorce, and the past

Night Watch on the Chesapeake (Pitt Poetry Series)

Poetry

Peter Meinke was a master of traditional poetic forms long before the current interest in the new formalism.”  His work is, in turn, witty, comic, sane, deeply moving, and always readable. Liquid Paper collects the best of his previously published poems from the late 1960s on with a generous selection of new work.

Liquid Paper: New and Selected Poems (Pitt Poetry Series)

Scars (Pitt Poetry Series)

Although The Night Train and the Golden Bird is Peter Meinke’s first poetry collection, it is a seasoned performance—the result of careful deliberation and mature judgment—yet impetuous and exciting. It’s full of wit and humor tempered with the sadness of approaching middle-age, anguish over political and social injustice, and of the very failings of everyday people and their lives.

The Night Train and the Golden Bird (Pitt Poetry Series)

University of Pittsburgh Press

Trying to Surprise God, Peter Meinke’s second book of poetry,  is characterized by an unusual and masterful range of effects, and by Meinke’s unique wit and compassion.

Night Watch on the Chesapeake is Peter Meinke’s third collection of poetry. The poems traverse a wide landscape of topics from playing baseball, the death of a friend, divorce, and even poetry itself.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meinke, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Meinke, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Meinke, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Piano Tuner (Winner of Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction)

The Piano Tuner: Stories

The Piano Tuner: Stories (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction Ser.)

Trying to Surprise God (Pitt Poetry Series)

Night Watch on the Chesapeake (Pitt Poetry Series)

Liquid Paper: New and Selected Poems (Pitt Poetry Series)

Scars (Pitt Poetry Series)

The Night Train and the Golden Bird (Pitt Poetry Series)

Trying to Surprise God (Pitt Poetry Series)

Night Watch on the Chesapeake (Pitt Poetry Series)