The genesis of the Dortmunder series according to Westlake was that he originally began writing The Bank Job as a Parker novel but as he wrote it the kept getting funny on him, so he converted it into the first of a series of comic crime novels. Dortmunder is not bumbling so much as unlucky, except for the one book series where he has nothing but good luck. As time went on the Dortmunder books became increasingly Parker-like, to the point where Westlake figured he could go back to doing Richard Stark novels. The Dortmunder to start on if you want to is Good Behavior. You'd be interested in Jimmy the Kid because in it the Dortmunder crew do a job based on a Richard Stark novel, and there are snippets of that novel (not an actual part of the series) throughout the book.
I'd also like to quote a favorite Westlake line, from Dancing Aztecs, from memory so it's probably not word-for-word: "The New Jersey State Police all drive Plymouth Furies. They will continue to drive Plymouth Furies until someone manufactures an automobile called Kill. Then the New Jersey State Police will drive KIlls."
Humorous crime caper novels are not necessarily my thing either, but I must a say I’ve been sitting on GET REAL, the last of the Dortmunder series for nearly a year now just because I don’t want to be done with the series. The only other humorous series I’ve plowed through are the Toby Peters series from the late Stuart M. Kaminsky, primarily because I enjoy Peters’ interactions with the “real” Classic Hollywood celebrities who drive each of his cases. Similarly I’ve been sitting on reading that series’ last book, NOW YOU SEE IT, for years now. I’ll probably just reread those books just to put off that dilemma awhile longer.
I meant to say in the piece that I do think Westlake is funny. THE SEVENTH is pretty funny in how crazy it gets, and his non-caper comic novel A LIKELY STORY was an early favorite, around when I first started really liking his books.
I was going to watch it before writing this post, but I just finished the book this morning, and I figured I had enough going on with these books already that I shouldn't complicate things. But I do intend to watch it soon.
I’ve had Killy on my to-read list for some time, mainly I suppose b/c the name stuck in my head when I was looking over Westlake’s bibliography. Read it now mainly b/c it’s always enjoyable to read something, then be able to read something good about the book you just read. I enjoyed it well enough, and your closing thought here that the novel’s main theme “we all relish the suffering of our enemies, all we want is to win” makes sense to me.
I did NOT have Valdez is Coming anywhere on my to-read list. Having read 3 of Leonard’s novels, including 2 for which I’d already seen and enjoyed the movie adaptation (Jackie Brown & Get Shorty), I found all the novels pretty meh. Not bad or anything, just kind of inert on the page. Not that I think my reaction to a novel is particularly significant, but it is odd to me that a book where I’d already liked the faithfully-adapted movie, could be so lifeless (twice). So I’d pretty much finished with Leonard, I figured.
But again, read a book, then read a critical essay about the book, that’s appealing, so what the hey, I bought me a copy of Valdez (local library did not come through), and man, am I glad I did, because that was the good stuff. I gather I liked it somewhat more than you did, since I wouldn’t add the “little bit disappointing” of your conclusion, & FWIW I did not find the Valdez-Erin romance as unconvincing as you did. (I do see your point that it fits with the expectations of the genre, or of the market, so much as to suggest that Leonard put it in for that reason but…sometimes something works, even if that’s true.) Quite possibly I was just so taken with the spare prose narration that I’d put up with a lot.
Anyway, grateful to you for putting me in the way of reading these, and for the essays here.
The genesis of the Dortmunder series according to Westlake was that he originally began writing The Bank Job as a Parker novel but as he wrote it the kept getting funny on him, so he converted it into the first of a series of comic crime novels. Dortmunder is not bumbling so much as unlucky, except for the one book series where he has nothing but good luck. As time went on the Dortmunder books became increasingly Parker-like, to the point where Westlake figured he could go back to doing Richard Stark novels. The Dortmunder to start on if you want to is Good Behavior. You'd be interested in Jimmy the Kid because in it the Dortmunder crew do a job based on a Richard Stark novel, and there are snippets of that novel (not an actual part of the series) throughout the book.
I'd also like to quote a favorite Westlake line, from Dancing Aztecs, from memory so it's probably not word-for-word: "The New Jersey State Police all drive Plymouth Furies. They will continue to drive Plymouth Furies until someone manufactures an automobile called Kill. Then the New Jersey State Police will drive KIlls."
Humorous crime caper novels are not necessarily my thing either, but I must a say I’ve been sitting on GET REAL, the last of the Dortmunder series for nearly a year now just because I don’t want to be done with the series. The only other humorous series I’ve plowed through are the Toby Peters series from the late Stuart M. Kaminsky, primarily because I enjoy Peters’ interactions with the “real” Classic Hollywood celebrities who drive each of his cases. Similarly I’ve been sitting on reading that series’ last book, NOW YOU SEE IT, for years now. I’ll probably just reread those books just to put off that dilemma awhile longer.
I meant to say in the piece that I do think Westlake is funny. THE SEVENTH is pretty funny in how crazy it gets, and his non-caper comic novel A LIKELY STORY was an early favorite, around when I first started really liking his books.
If you're at all curious the film of Valdez Is Coming is pretty good. And Lancaster is pretty good in it!
I was going to watch it before writing this post, but I just finished the book this morning, and I figured I had enough going on with these books already that I shouldn't complicate things. But I do intend to watch it soon.
& it happens to be included w/ Prime at the moment
I’ve had Killy on my to-read list for some time, mainly I suppose b/c the name stuck in my head when I was looking over Westlake’s bibliography. Read it now mainly b/c it’s always enjoyable to read something, then be able to read something good about the book you just read. I enjoyed it well enough, and your closing thought here that the novel’s main theme “we all relish the suffering of our enemies, all we want is to win” makes sense to me.
I did NOT have Valdez is Coming anywhere on my to-read list. Having read 3 of Leonard’s novels, including 2 for which I’d already seen and enjoyed the movie adaptation (Jackie Brown & Get Shorty), I found all the novels pretty meh. Not bad or anything, just kind of inert on the page. Not that I think my reaction to a novel is particularly significant, but it is odd to me that a book where I’d already liked the faithfully-adapted movie, could be so lifeless (twice). So I’d pretty much finished with Leonard, I figured.
But again, read a book, then read a critical essay about the book, that’s appealing, so what the hey, I bought me a copy of Valdez (local library did not come through), and man, am I glad I did, because that was the good stuff. I gather I liked it somewhat more than you did, since I wouldn’t add the “little bit disappointing” of your conclusion, & FWIW I did not find the Valdez-Erin romance as unconvincing as you did. (I do see your point that it fits with the expectations of the genre, or of the market, so much as to suggest that Leonard put it in for that reason but…sometimes something works, even if that’s true.) Quite possibly I was just so taken with the spare prose narration that I’d put up with a lot.
Anyway, grateful to you for putting me in the way of reading these, and for the essays here.