Re: RARA-AVIS: Donald Westlake, An Appreciation

From: Mark Finn (markfinn@texas.net)
Date: 04 Jan 2009

  • Next message: blumenidiot: "Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Donald E. Westlake, Mystery Writer, Is Dead at 75 (NYT obituary"

    I did a tribute on The Cimmerian: http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=2725

    As a published and ostensibly working writer, there aren't a lot of current authors that constitute an influence on my craft. Most of them, in fact, are dead (Robert E. Howard, Raymond Chandler, John Collier, Fred Brown, etc). Westlake was one of the few living authors that I actively read and deconstructed to learn from. Now I've got to move him into Category A.

    Incidentally, I'm chalking this up to the last crappy thing to happen in 2008, rather than the first crappy thing to happen in 2009. Why start the year on such a huge downer?

    Mark Finn

    --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "crimeflix" <jmks100@...> wrote:
    >
    > These are such wonderful appreciations. Westlake's passing is
    > obviously a tremendous loss for crime fiction. His body of work--the
    > quality and quantity--is unsurpassed in the history of the genre. I
    > had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times at the Edgars and
    > he was always very gracious and friendly. Hard to pick a favorite
    > book, but I love The Ax. I also think The Grifters was by far the
    > best Jim Thompson adaptation--not an easy thing to pull off, and it
    > was a rare time that Hollywood chose the right person for the job. We
    > lost a true Grand Master, and I'm sure his work will continue to
    > resonate for decades to come.
    > Jason Starr
    >
    >
    > --- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, DJ-Anonyme@ wrote:
    > >
    > > Jeff asked:
    > >
    > > "So, The Hunter is the second Paker novel?"
    > >
    > > According to Berkeley Medallion it was. They started their
    > numbering
    > > with Slayground, which was the one new paperback they published in
    > their
    > > short Violent World of Parker series (with that label in the upper
    > left
    > > hand corner of each cover, along with the number they assigned),
    > then
    > > followed it with four or five more, starting with Point Blank (the
    > title
    > > they used for The Hunter, even though the movie was largely
    > forgotten in
    > > those pre-home video days. The others were random choices, too, no
    > > order. I remember they published The Score as Killtown, The Outfit,
    > > maybe one or two of the others with Score in the title, but not Man
    > with
    > > the Getaway Face or, I don't think, The Jugger.
    > >
    > > Mark
    > >
    >



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