A TRUMPET FOR JACKIE

by Robert Oliphant ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 30, 1983

Like A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1980), this sentimental arpeggio features Very Good Guys vs. Very Bad Guys--yet with something soothing and even likable amid the corn. Jackie Hayes, ex-trumpet great, has left behind the glory days to head his own faltering TV production company. He's now married for the third time--to svelte, ambitious Rita. But he has moments when he broods, feeling ""at the downward slope of his life,"" particularly when he listens to ex-colleague Vito Scalza coaxing lovely things from his clarinet. And Jackie's tired of ""being played on"" by his nearest and not-necessarily-dearest: Rita, up from New Orleans poverty, nags him to borrow money to expand the limping business; ex-wife Judy, on her way down from stardom but still battling for the fame she had co-starring with Jackie in an old sit-corn, wants a new property from him; nice daughter Louise, mired in an explorative love affair with sneaky poet Scott, is pressing for money for a house; and slimy, grasping types are after Jackie's company for assorted nasty reasons. Will Jackie wriggle out from all these villains? Will he listen to the voices from his past--and return to playing jazz? Yes indeed: after one-upping Rita (who karate-chops him on a darkened stairway) and the pack of others, he'll have months of practice in a hideout in Spain and do a concert. (Success? Of course--despite a last-minute attempt to have his mouth bashed in.) And Louise will have her awakening. Sort of mellow, sort of dumb--but, with some nice jazz appreciation touches, it's all Sunny Side Up and unabashedly old-fashioned.

Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Prentice-Hall

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION