| Author | Message | ||
     Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
Hey Everyone Across the Pond and Elsewhere: This week, two pieces, one a redo of a tribute I wrote about Donald Westlake some years back: http://tbdeluxe.blogspot.com/2013/01/whatever-mask-he-wore-donald-westlake.html Why the repeat? Because the first film based on a Richard Stark novel since Westlake's passing has just been released. My view of it is here: http://tbdeluxe.blogspot.com/2013/02/burchfield-at-bijou-parker-versus-parker.ht ml "When the fresh-faced kid behind the box-office window offered him the matinee senior discount, Burchfield told him to go to hell." Thanks for reading and have good week! Thomas | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I'm a huge fan of Donald E. Westlake, Thomas. I discovered him through the local library as a teenager and enjoy his comic crime novels as much as the grim and gritty serious ones. One of those rare authors for whom being ridiculously prolific is not a sign of dodgy quality. I'd put him alongside Ramsey Campbell and Robert A. Heinlein in that respect. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
And add Patricia Highsmith and Christopher Fowler to that list. The tenth Bryant & May novel, 'The Invisible Code', is due out in paperback in June. I can't bloody wait!! Any more authors who seemed incapable of writing a bad book? | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
Thanks Stevie! I can't think of any. Certainly none of the Stark/Parker novels are bad, even if some are better than others. I recall reading an interview with Westlake some years ago where he described THE JUGGER as a bad book. Oddly, though, that's one of my favorites. I have to admit, I didn't finish HIGH ADVENTURE and wasn't too crazy about SMOKE or GET REAL. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 212.183.128.41 |
I haven't read anything like as many Westlake novels as you undoubtedly have, Thomas, but I have read many of the Dortmunder and Stark novels as well as a fair amount of stand alone books. My favourite remains 'Dancing Aztecs'. One of the greatest comic thrillers ever written, IMHO. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 212.183.128.32 |
Chris Fowler's Bryant & May novels are the greatest things of their kind since Dortmunder & Kelp. Like 'Sgt Bilko' it is the equally immortal cast of support characters and the attention to continuity that makes them special and so damn funny and, frequently, sad. Authors capable of creating such unalloyed joy deserve to be venerated more than any other, IMO. I'm also a massive fan of Frank Richards, btw. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 212.183.128.109 |
Add Philip K. Dick as well. We need to pickle and study these writers' brains. As much as I love him I don't include Stephen King among that fold. He's brilliant when he isn't being calculating and writes from the heart but all too often his books read like writing by numbers. Let's try this genre style. For all his impossible prolificism Westlake never fell into that trap but always seemed to write what pleased him with effortless abandon and consistently great literary quality. Like; Wells, Greene, Heinlein, Bradbury, Thompson, Highsmith, Dick, Campbell, Fowler and others of their ilk, imho. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
Oh, I'd hate to see any great writers' brains pickled. Let their magic remain a mystery! | ||
| David_lees (David_lees) Username: David_lees Registered: 12-2011 Posted From: 92.17.171.66 |
Yes, don't pickle them. Eat them and absorb their abilities. That's how it works, right? | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
Yes, indeed! |