Triphammer

by Dan McCall

Triphammer--a cop in Ithaca, New York, plagued by penchant for booze, a son whose attention he craves, and romance with a younger woman--experiences small personal victories and revelations

Genres: Fiction

237 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Dan received his Bachelor of Arts from Stanford University, later attending Columbia University for his PhD. Upon graduation in 1966, he came to Cornell University where he taught American literature and creative writing to generations of Cornell students over the next 40 years. He is the author of several novels, including Jack the Bear (1974), Beecher (1979), Bluebird Canyon (1983), Triphammer (1990), and Messenger Bird (1993). Jack the Bear was translated into over a dozen languages, and was released as a 20th Century Fox film in 1993, starring Gary Sinise, Reese Witherspoon, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, among others. His critical and scholarly books include The Example of Richard Wright (1969), The Silence of Bartleby (1989), Citizens of Somewhere Else (1999) and the Norton Critical Edition of Melville's Short Novels (2002).

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not believe that the guy who wrote Bluebird Canyon wrote Triphammer. The Triphammer character in Canyon is often written in such a crass tone, but in Triphammer, he's actually rather loving. He meets a woman, Sydney, who completely turns his life around. She's twenty years younger than he is, she's working on her doctoral thesis and teaching at the local university (he's a cop who only graduated high school), yet they seem to connect on a deep level. So many times Triphammer speaks of Sydney in very loving ways, and while Triphammer in Canyon wasn't horrible or a complete womanizer, it was still a surprise to see a tender side to the Triphammer name.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was completely surprized by this gem. A friend loaned it to me in a mass market paperback edition that looked like a Mickey Hammer noir detective story. Put off reading it for ages, not really wanting a noir potboiler. Such a surprize! This book is a lovely character study of a man dealing with the various aspects of being a policeman and dealing with his own strengths and weaknesses. It is a love story (actually, more than one), sort of a coming of age story (if that can happen in middle age), a story of failure,success, the reality of being family - full of imperfection, missed opportunities, and redemption.

[Ross Siegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dan was my professor, and friend, in college. So naturally I read one of his books. The character is nothing like Dan— maybe a guy he could have been in another life or people with whom he spent time in upstate New York?
Not action packed, not fast moving, no heroes… and I loved it.