If Anyone Asks, Say I Died from the Heartbreaking Blues
Genre is a problematic concept. Is Philip Cioffari’s delightful tragicomedy a novel with a soundtrack, or a musical on paper? It certainly evokes West Side Story and Grease, not to mention Happy Days. And in a clear reference to American Graffiti, there’s even a mysterious reappearing teenage girl.
It starts with the melodious title: If Anyone Asks, Say I Died of the Heartbreaking Blues, which almost cries out to be sung. From there on, either pop, jazz, blues, or rock music constantly plays in the background throughout the night of June 22, 1960. It accompanies the aptly named hero, “Hunt” Hunter, as he stumbles, careens, dances, crashes and finally picks himself up at dawn the next day, having survived his graduation, prom, eighteenth birthday, and a serious test of manhood all in one mad heroic scramble. Then, miraculously striding through the wreckage on the morning after, Hunt’s mysterious beauty appears again. And she is aptly named Vera.
Although gangs rumble, bodies bleed, and ghosts walk, Cioffari’s general tone in this rollicking coming-of-age story is one of affectionate nostalgia. But there’s poetry and history too. Set in Cioffari’s native Bronx, the novel captures a lost world brought back to life by a diverse cast of quintessential New Yorkers, circa 1960. Dialogue snaps. Scenes blossom. Pictures flash before our eyes. It’s no surprise to learn that Cioffari is an award-winning filmmaker as well as a fiction writer. So really the only question that remains is … when’s the movie coming out?
