Classic crime, memorably portrayed.
Stark is the pen-name crime writer Donald Westlake used for his darkest creation, the anti-hero Parker. You might remember Parker from Lee Marvin's portrayal in the '60s classic Point Blank, based on The Hunter (or, perhaps, from Mel Gibson's 1990s Payback - if so, bad luck).
Darwyn Cooke has adapted the first Parker story into graphic novel format in a lovely, loose, cartoony duo-chrome pen-and-wash style reminiscent of early 60's advertising. But the world being sold here is no consumer dream, rather a tale of a falling out between thieves, betrayal, and implacable revenge. Cooke maintains a feeling of tension by regularly changing the rhythm of the story-telling - wordless action sequences alternating with crisp, noir-style dialogue, lengthy internal monologues, and single establishing shots.
To be sure, he has top-notch material to work with, but the skill he shows in creating the early sixties ambience, in keeping the reader turning the pag, and in conveying the emotional existences of the cast proves him a master of the sequntial-art story form. I'm off to search out the next volume.
Unputdownability: I know what's going to happen, but I want to see it now!
Dortmunder and his associates get signed up to star in a "reality" show. Even toward the end of his life, Westlake still wrote the with energy and invention of a man a third of his age.
Donald Westlake may be gone, but as long as there are books like this around, unpublished in Britain for more than fifteen years after its original appearance in the States, there is still something to look forward to.
Westlake had two succesful careers as a writer, in parallel - one as Richard Stark, writer of the "Parker" series of novels (remember "Point Blank", the Lee Marvin anti-hero vehicle from the Sixties - and forget the Mel Gibson remake. That was a "Parker") and one under the Westlake name. Both wrote from the viewpoint of the criminal, and you always found yourself rooting for the bad guy. Stark's Parker was a deep, silent, vicious killer, but Westlake's strength is the "caper" novel - a gang set up a heist and the reader is privileged to sit on the planning and the execution. More entertainingly, Dortmunder (Westlake's lead character), although a masterful planner and executer, is plain unlucky. Invariably, whatever he steals has to be restolen, recovered, and then stolen all over again.
In this one, he is paid to steal a sacred relic (a saint's thighbone) that is being used as a bargaining chip in the attempt of a newly formed eastern European country to gain a seat in the UN. Simple, huh? If only.
The continuing cast of supporting characters delight, Westlake's dialogue is snappy and funny, and the bits of business work - what could seem contrived comes across as perfectly natural. And the inconsequential conversations in the bar he attends make Pulp Fiction's "cheeseburger" discourse, and Reservoir Dogs's "Like A Virgin" debate seem both important and dull. Ever wondered why the Indy Five Hundred is called the Indy Five Hundred? Or why cable TVs need cables and radios don't? The regulars in the OJ Bar & Grill 'll set you straight in no time.
The late Donald Westlake back in his Richard Stark guise to present one last adventure with Parker. If you have never read any of the novels, you may remember Parker as being played by Lee Marvin in "Point Blank" (a terrific film)or by Mel Gibson in "Payback" (a pointless remake).
Westlake/Stark is one of a few writers to make a success out of writing under two separate identities. Ed MacBain/Evan Hunter springs to mind (and, indeed, must be the only instance of a writer collaborating with his alter-ego on a single novel), but whereas MacBain/Hunter wrote completely different genres (policers and literary), W/S splits between "caper" novels and the adventures of killer/thief Parker. In this one parker tries to recover the proceeds of an earlier novel, hampered at every turn by police, state troopers, rival gangsters, bounty hunters, and accomplices; just another working day for Parker.
Taut, pacy, never a wasted word; Stark by name and stark by execution.
