‘Shot of Short’ #5: The Pioneer Hep-Cat
October 4, 2008 by Rob
Filed under 100 Shots of Short
Title: The Pioneer Hep-Cat by John O’Hara
Date Read: 03 October 2008
Briefly: A journalist comes to a high school and gives a public speech to the assembled students about the life of legendary jazz hep(hip)-cat Red Watson.
Afterthoughts: I quite enjoyed this. It took a little while getting into it (which perhaps isn’t good for a short story) but it had a nice ending. I liked how the entire story read as though the reader were hearing the speech live. Nice character dialogue too
Notable Quote: “…the dancing would stop and everybody would stand still, as close to the bandstand as they could get, and you’d look at their faces and they were hypnotized. They’d be moving in time to the rhythm, but not dancing, and it was almost as though he were singing for them. Not only to them, but for them.”
Rating: 
*Story read as part of my 100 Shots of Short reading challenge.
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
