Slightly Out of Tune (A Piano in the Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains - Tony Hawks)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	A Piano in the Pyrenees: The Ups and Downs of an Englishman in the French Mountains - Tony Hawks
Date:	25/07/06 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some of his funniest writing

Disadvantages: Reads more like a stand up routine

I’ve long been a fan of Tony Hawks’ writing. In fact, I was a fan of the man long before that, being of the right age to appreciate his hit single “Stutter Rap” and enough of a “Red Dwarf” fan to enjoy his occasional appearances in that show. Now, as a writer, he appeals because of his laid back, chatty style and his reluctance to take anything seriously, including himself. So when I saw his latest book on sale, it was straight to the till with it, despite the slightly extortionate cover price, thanks to it being one of those larger paperback editions that some books start in instead of hardback.

I must admit that my interest had been captured by the title “A Piano in the Pyrenees”. I had visions of this being a mountain version of one of his earlier works, “Round Ireland With a Fridge” and I could already picture him pushing a piano up and down mountains between France and Spain.

Frequently, imagination is wilder than reality and so it seemed this time around. Tony Hawks has reached the age of 44 and there are certain gaping holes in his life. He is without a life partner and he is without a house abroad. He is also without a great deal of knowledge in how to play the piano and figures that the two could well go together. If he buys a house in a far off land, he’ll have the time and space he needs to finally learn how to play the piano properly.

His resolve is hardened with the discovery that one of his friends, Tim, already has a property in France. If he can do it, so can Tony. And so, after a skiing trip goes wrong, he starts house hunting in the French Pyrenees, for no other reason than because that’s where he happened to be at the time. Soon enough, possibly too soon, he is a French home owner and he has to set about moving himself and his piano over to France.

With the house in the bag, so to speak, Tony has visions of his future. He sees himself practising the piano whilst gazing out upon a gorgeous mountain view, popping up those same mountains to ski and coming back down afterwards to laze with his partner by the pool. Of course, at this point there are three things preventing this; he has no partner, the piano is still in London and the house has no pool. Undaunted by these minor setbacks, Tony starts getting things together and making plans to have the 4 items on his list; the piano, the pool, the partner and himself, all together in that house in the Pyrenees at the same time. It sounds relatively simple, although very little in Tony Hawks’ life is simple. Or if it is, not for long.

The problem with this idea is that it’s pretty mundane. It’s something that more or less any of us could and, finances and desire permitting, would do.
Unlike his earlier books, where there was generally alcohol and a silly bet involved, leading to him trying to accomplish something that would never have occurred to the rest of us, this time he is following his own wishes, rather than the silly ideas of others. This means that the basic idea behind the book is a lot less interesting than his others.

Happily, this hasn’t greatly affected Hawks’ writing style. The book still has the feel of him sitting down and just chatting about what he’s done and what he is preparing to do next. Despite the subject matter not being the most gripping, this is still a very readable book, with Tony launching from success to disaster and back again in terms of virtually every part of his grand plan.

The main problem here is that, because the subject matter is so ordinary, Hawks has felt the need to exaggerate things a little. Whilst I don’t doubt that the events he relates are true, he has put his own comic twist on them, meaning that you can’t entirely trust that what went wrong went quite as badly wrong as he’s telling you. Whereas before he related more or less everything that happened, meaning there were bits where there wasn’t a lot going on, here he seems to have skipped most of those parts, with the end result that this frequently reads like a disaster novel.

In addition, this is written more as the stand up comedian he has been, rather than taking the stance of a naturally funny man on a bit of a silly adventure. This means that parts of the book are amongst the funniest he has ever committed to paper and I especially enjoyed the story of the first attempts to get the piano to France in a van. But at the same time, some of it seems a little forced, as if he’s delivering a routine, rather than a funny thing that happened to him. His earlier books had the feel of a man sitting next to you in a pub talking about what happened and making you laugh with the silliness of the whole thing. This one feels similar, with the difference being that you’re sitting in a pub and he’s telling the stories from the stage, for previously scripted and planned laughs. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it means this book loses some of the natural feel and the easy going charm of his earlier works.

If you’ve read any of Tony Hawks' previous books, then this isn’t to be missed as, whilst it’s the weakest of his four offerings to date in my opinion, it’s still pretty good and highly amusing reading. I’d avoid paying the cover price of £10.99 however, especially as copies can be found on Amazon at £6.59 or in the Marketplace from £4.50 and on eBay from 99 pence. If you like a laugh and you’ve not yet found Hawks’ work; this wouldn’t be the best place to start; that being, as ever, “Round Ireland With a Fridge”.

As a huge fan of Tony Hawks, I don’t regret buying the book as I did enjoy it, although I do regret the price I paid for it and wishing I was less of an impulse buyer and more someone who shopped around. In fact, my main worry is that Hawks is running out of ideas and this may be the last, as I am se what kind of shenanigans he can get himself into – or, more likely, someone else can get him into – in the near future.

Summary: Tony Hawks 4th book, in which he takes on home ownership in France