brainfreiz wrote:
> In the first Parker book, Parker is walking into NYC
across like the
> Washington Bridge and Stark cuts into the POV of a
commuter who just think to
> himself "Boy, that guy looks mean." Then its back to
Parker and the commuter is
> never heard from again.
Your point is well-taken, but that description of what
actually happens at the beginning of THE HUNTER/PAYBACK (same
book) is wrong. Here's the first paragraph:
"When a fresh-faced guy in a Chevy offered him a lift, Parker
told him to go to hell. The guy said, 'Screw you, buddy,'
yanked his Chevy back into the stream of traffic, and roared
on down to the tollbooths. Parker spat in the right-hand
lane. lit his last cigarette, and walked across the George
Washington Bridge."
So there's nothing from an individual commuter's POV, per se,
and nothing ostensibly about how tough he is. Westlake/Stark
does go on to talk about how the "office women" collectively
were drawn to him because of his flinty badness and how the
"office men" barely noticed him because he didn't have a car,
and if they did notice him they either dismissed him as a bum
or recalled back when they didn't have a car and thought they
were empathizing with him, but didn't understand that it
wasn't the same thing (paraphrase here).
By the way, I wrote a brief review about this classic about
four (?!) years ago for Al Guthrie's "Noir Originals" site. I
got Resnick's first name wrong, but I did talk about how
Westlake came up with the idea for Parker , among various and
sundry other aspects of the novel.
The entire review is available at:
http://www.allanguthrie.co.uk/hrs62.htm
All the Best-
Brian Thornton
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