Comments on: Crime fiction

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:15:32 +0000

Tom Jimson, which really clinches the Jim Thompson tribute. ("May, some famous writer said it once: The law's an asshole.") That novel weirded me out a little; I didn't think it was right for Dortmunder to be confronting real actual evil. The Dortmunderian world requires a suspension of belief in the world of Parker.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 01:30:32 +0000

18 - I assumed it was supposed to be a refuge from a Jim Thompson (The Grifters, Pop. 1280, The Killer Inside Me) novel, given the name ("Tom Jameson", wasn't it?).

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:34:53 +0000

Even if early Dortmunders are out of print, public libraries seem to be particularly likely to have them. And they're estimable institutions worthy of your support anyway.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 03:52:05 +0000

Yes, but the real question in Jimmy the Kid is which Parker novel? There is, as far as I can find, no Parker about a kidnapping. I'd suggest that Westlake started one, found it wasn't working, and decided to save some of it to use in a Dortmunder. I rather thought he should have ended the Parker series with Drowned Hopes, which is a Dortmunder but also features a hard man supercrook who I suspect was based on Parker - but still, I always come round to the view that a new faintly subpar Stark/Westlake is still better than almost any other author's best, so what the hell. Unfortunately, we haven't got the option of having him write more books in 1975. Just recommend that new readers read the new ones first and work their way up to Slayride or The Hot Rock. And finish with Drowned Hopes and What's the Worst that Could Happen? Oh, and Dancing Aztecs. And I'd like to see his screenplays as a separate volume, too.

By: Adam Stephanides

Adam Stephanides — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:18:51 +0000

Another book to look for if you like Parker is The Spy in the Ointment. As its title suggests, it’s a spy spoof (a practically vanished genre); but its premise is that a normal guy is, through a case of mistaken identity, thrust into a Parker-like milieu of violent, untrustworthy types and has to survive using his wits. It’s the funniest of Westlake’s books that I’ve read, though I confess I’m not a Dortmunder fan.

361, an early, serious crime novel by Westlake (under his own name), is also worth digging up, though it’s not particularly Parker-ish.

By: Adam Stephanides

Adam Stephanides — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:06:28 +0000

One thing always sort of bothered me about the Parker books: Parker is supposed to be a master thief and planner, but most of the jobs he pulls (that we read about, anyway) don’t make a profit, and his coworkers have a tendency to end up dead. To be sure, Westlake does have an explanation of sorts for this: he lost his stash of cash and has to rebuild it quickly, so he can’t be too picky about the jobs he takes or who he works with. But still, you’d think word would have gotten around that these days it’s unlucky to work with Parker.

I didn’t like Ask the Parrot that much, for two reasons. First, Westlake takes Parker out of his usual setting, instead putting him in a A Simple Plan-like situation. And while I applaud his willingness to experiment, I like the old way better. Second—and this is what really bugged me—Westlake cheats; though unfortunately I can’t think of how to describe how, even vaguely, without spoilers.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:50:12 +0000

Westlake probably should have stopped the series with What's the Worst That Could Happen?, in which we discover how everything can go spectacularly right and yet feel like a Dortmunder book.

By: Matt Weiner

Matt Weiner — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:42:07 +0000

early and out-of-print Dortmunder novels Oh no! This is shocking. Why Me? is possibly my favorite; maybe The Hot Rock. The most recent Dortmunders have been making me think he needs to retire the character, though. Did The Road to Ruin have any point at all?

By: rilkefan

rilkefan — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:14:12 +0000

I love the Dortmunder books. Jimmy the Kid isn’t my favorite (though the last few pages are hilarious – and that’s with me not even realizing how self-referential it is) – maybe Bank Shot or Why Me?.

By: godoggo

godoggo — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 03:30:17 +0000

The Bad Plus blog, Do the Math, is probably my favorite arts-oriented blog, and, though the main emphasis is on jazz, it covers a little of everything, with quite a bit of content on crime fiction. Googling "Richard Stark" on the blog gets 7 hits

By: BillCinSD

BillCinSD — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 21:18:51 +0000

I concur that the joke in Jimmy the Kid is very good indeed. The Westlake/Dortmunder book “The Hot Rock” was made in to a pretty good movie with Robert Redford as Dortmunder. I think Zero Mostel and Elliott Gouild are in the movie also.

By: Nigel

Nigel — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:26:42 +0000

The joke in Jimmy The Kid is sublime, and that’s on top of the standard Dortmunder hilarity, which is pretty high.

By: Slayton I. Musgo

Slayton I. Musgo — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 19:00:06 +0000

I’m starting to think that Stark’s characters aren’t really “ruthless and clear-thinking professional criminals”. They may want to be, may think they are, but there is more. That part keeps coming through the cracks. It shows up in the 3rd act when thigs fall apart, and in the last act where Parker gets away with the help of a kind citizen.

This annoyed me at first – it was not the kind of escapism I signed up for. But it is clearly the author’s intention.

By: Tripp

Tripp — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 18:25:32 +0000

I think the Slate piece is cribbed from Banville’s longer Attraction of Crime Novels essay, which explains why he wanted to write a crime novel.

http://images.amazon.com/media/i3d/01/banville2.pdf

By: Henry

Henry — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:25:14 +0000

tony – the dialogue between Banville and Westlake linked by nigel above is pretty interesting in this respect – Banville says that writing noir is freeing up his writing style.

This has never happened to me before, where characters suddenly became interesting. Because characters the way John Banville writes, they’re marionettes that I move around. They do what I tell them and they don’t have autonomy outside me. I suppose what I’m doing quite late in my so-called career is getting back to storytelling. And there is a deep-seated desire in human beings for story. Always has been, always will be.

Hogan – I haven’t read Jimmy the Kid, nor most of the early and out-of-print Dortmunder novels, much to my chagrin. Some of the Parker novels I’ve only been able to read in Italian translation (Guardita la Spalle, Parker!), again because they are out of print. The Library of America needs to do an edition one of these days …