great buy
a great read I love every thing about amazon and the items they offer
thanks
A Decent Read - Interesting Offender Profile
THE PIANO TEACHER profiles the eccentric offender and two-time murderer, Charles Yukl. Raised by an unloving, punitive father, and a controlling mother, Yukl matured with deeply rooted feelings of inferiority, especially where his masculinity and sexuality were concerned. He managed to marry a strange woman, Enken, whom he met while attending college, but he later admitted during a psychiatric interview that during their 14 years of marriage, he and his wife had sex a total of approximately 10 times. Yukl was also quite fond of exposing himself to the unsuspecting students who came to his apartment for piano and voice lessons.
After murdering a young woman in 1966 and completing a rather short prison term, Yukl was paroled, having been described as a "model prisoner." Just 14 months after his release from prison, and still married to Enken, Yukl murdered again... unable to control his sadistic fantasies and murderous impulses.
The history of the offender is detailed and, in parts, riveting. Without spoiling any part of the story, I will state that Yukl implemented an elaborate group scam to bring young women to his apartment, settling upon a select few as potential victims. Two of these young women are lucky to be alive, having been out for the evening when Yukl made his final, fatal telephone contact with an unsuspecting woman who thought Yukl was a legitimate professional.
So, you may wonder, why only 3 stars? The author, a respected criminal trial attorney, is less than interesting when discussing himself. I found these portions of the book somewhat tedious and Tanenbaum's style of writing was, at times, arrogant. For example, on page 225, he writes: "I was attempting to design a mosaic: each piece in and of itself would not point inexorably to Yukl's guilt, but taken as a whole, my mosaic would relentlessly lead to the conclusion that Yukl was the killer." While I am not generally opposed to an author providing his or her impressions and observations of the murderer or describing his or her position as a key player, Tanenbaum managed to portray himself as a Know-It-All. (Perhaps he does know it all. However, he is less than humble and I am not fond of grandiose egos.)
In addition, the pace of the book slowed considerably following Yukl's second arrest for murder and ended rather anticlimactically with a plea to First Degree Murder. As a professional psychotherapist, I do not believe Yukl meets the criteria for Sociopathic Personality Disorder. However, he is or was a very sick individual lacking basic impulse control and rational judgment. Although Yukl often pleaded for psychiatric treatment, as if this could somehow have prevented another tragedy, Yukl fails to address the fact that he met with a psychotherapist WEEKLY for close to one year while on parole. Although part of him seemed to desire knowledge of himself and his impulses, he lied to his therapist on many, many occasions and did not once mention the cunning con he developed to lure young women to his home. As a rule, psychotherapy is not generally successful when patients skirt the truth.
In closing, Robert K. Tanenbaum has written many books. Having only read THE PIANO TEACHER, I cannot comment upon his total worth or talent as a writer. I speak only for myself when I say I probably will not read any other Tanenbaum books.
Okay...i guss
It is said a true story. We will never know what was in the killer's mind. And the author never attempt to guess either. Basically the author simply told us what happened. The book lacks of depth, in my opinion.
The Piano Teacher: The True Storay of a Psychotic Killer
Excellent writing. The author keeps you interested. By the end of the book I absolutely despised Charles Yukl. This is good reading for those who love true crime.
The Piano Teacher The True Story of a Psychotic Killer
I really enjoyed this book. It was intense, and very explainitory. It started with the terrible murder that happened in 1966 and the murder that happened after his parol in 1974. Then it went into Yukle's up bringing. It explained the lifestyles of his parents. They were both very good musicains. They taught Yukle music from a very young age and they were very strict with him. His mother was a perfectionist, and expected him to play every thing perfect. She would make him sit at the piano until he did. When his brother was born they weren't as strict with him. They let him do and be who he wanted. Soon his parents were divorced. He and his brother lived with their father and his new wife. He didn't see his mother for years after that. Yukle and his father weren't very close at all. His father was very cruel to him. He always made Charles feel unworthy. Yukle was a loner and kept to his music, the one thing he was very good at. His grades in school weren't that great except for music. He quit school to go into the army. He was still a loner there to. He was court marshalled and sent back home. He went back to school and met a young girl in band that he really liked. He moved to Chicago to go to school for photography. He felt like a different person behind the camera. Things didn't work out with the girl back home and soon he met his wife; she was one of two women that he was able to talk to, but he was never able to completly open up to her. It talks about the police reports and the events leading to his conviction. It was all very intresting. I like reading true stories rather than fictional, and this one kept me reading until the end.
(7 reviews)
