tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post645623627098334816..comments2024-03-25T11:29:25.356-04:00Comments on Existential Ennui: Westlake Score: Adios, Scheherazade, by Donald E. Westlake (Hodder & Stoughton, 1971)Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-8529455246144658182013-03-21T22:39:31.490-04:002013-03-21T22:39:31.490-04:00Well, I just finished Adios Scheherazade.
I thi...Well, I just finished Adios Scheherazade. <br /><br />I think it's one of the best books he ever wrote, and one of the most honest (albeit a very backhanded nigh-Jesuitical form of honesty). It's not really about porn at all; that's just the McGuffin, so to speak. It's about what all his books are about--identity. Finding it, losing it, trying to hang onto it, suffering for it, being liberated by it. I almost think you could almost use this book as the keystone to the whole Westlake/Stark/etc canon. Contains references to every kind of story he ever worked on--even references Point Blank. <br /><br />It's one of those "There but for the grace of God" stories he told now and again--the road not taken, or more to the point, the road he managed to get off before it was too late. <br /><br />Further up, I compared it to Portnoy's Complaint. I think it's actually a much better book than Portnoy's, which I read for the first time a year or so back. But hey, I'm weird. <br /><br />This should not be a rare book. And it should not have been sold as a run-of-the-mill dirty book, but the irony is strangely satisfying. Sometimes what Westlake is doing seems to be as much performance art as literature. <br />Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-14803970728733740972013-03-05T07:16:13.770-05:002013-03-05T07:16:13.770-05:00Oh yeah, I have a copy – and blogged about it a co...Oh yeah, I have a copy – and blogged about it a couple of years ago (you can find it via the search box). But I don't think I'll get to read it for a little while yet; apart from anything else, I'm being badgered by a bunch of commenters on the Spy Who Came in from the Cold post to read a different spy novel: le Carre's The Looking Glass War!Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-66757702112864320572013-02-26T06:38:37.126-05:002013-02-26T06:38:37.126-05:00But think about it--the two rarest and most expens...But think about it--the two rarest and most expensive volumes of Westlake-iana (at least if we're talking fiction published under his name) are a book about porn, and a book about a boy who just got a toy dump truck. <br /><br />And the book about the toy dump truck wins!<br /><br />Let me put it another way--have you ACQUIRED The Spy in the Ointment? Is it in the queue? Given your extensive knowledge of spy fiction, I'm curious to get your take on it. But it's a long queue, I know.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-77056675154834354812013-02-26T03:58:03.242-05:002013-02-26T03:58:03.242-05:00Ah yes, the mythical Philip: the most expensive We...Ah yes, the mythical Philip: the most expensive Westlake book by far. I was considering doing a post on it, but I've never seen inside a copy. <br /><br />Here's a thing: my other favourite writer, Patricia Highsmith, also wrote a children's book, published almost ten years before Philip in 1958 – Miranda the Panda. Not quite as pricey as Westlake's one, but almost as scarce.<br /><br />And nope: still haven't read Spy in the Ointment!Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-53020059756316409212013-02-25T15:17:46.000-05:002013-02-25T15:17:46.000-05:00Weird--I just ordered a copy of this a few days ag...Weird--I just ordered a copy of this a few days ago--paid a bit more than I normally do for a used book online, but I don't see this one ever getting reprinted, until such happy day as every single Westlake novel that he put his (or Tucker Coe's) name on is in print. <br /><br />As you already know, most copies of Adios available online come with price tags that can only be described as obscene. But cheap compared to "Philip" the one book he wrote for children. Which somebody really ought to scan and put online somewhere, just so us completists can say we've read it. <br /><br />Did you ever get around to "The Spy in the Ointment", btw?Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.com