tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post4997463107942120905..comments2024-03-25T11:29:25.356-04:00Comments on Existential Ennui: Westlake Score and Review: The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution by Donald E. Westlake (Ballantine Paperback, 1973)Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)http://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-5705477800027710022012-11-14T05:32:11.232-05:002012-11-14T05:32:11.232-05:00Thanks for the short story suggestions, everyone. ...Thanks for the short story suggestions, everyone. Looks like I've got some investigatin' to do...Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-35759278087139483012012-11-13T16:58:15.524-05:002012-11-13T16:58:15.524-05:00I think quite a bit of his short fiction was never...I think quite a bit of his short fiction was never collected. He was never much associated with short stories. Most of the existing collections have some theme--his science fiction, or his Levine stories. <br /><br />He was by no means inept at writing short fiction. It's just that whatever it was that made him special didn't tend to come out as well in that form. With Westlake, the devil is in the details, and there was more room for those in a novel.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-48649127460291625432012-11-13T16:08:49.309-05:002012-11-13T16:08:49.309-05:00I'm surprised that collection doesn't incl...I'm surprised that collection doesn't include Westlake's "Anatomy of an Anatomy"; I read it in an Alfred Hitchcock collection back in 1964, so it came from early in his career, too.Benzadmiralhttp://benzadmiral-uncle.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-48621703686539204272012-11-13T13:21:12.208-05:002012-11-13T13:21:12.208-05:00If you like Ray Bradbury, you should try the maste...If you like Ray Bradbury, you should try the master of Sci-Fi short stories-Theodore Sturgeon. You should also try Robert Bloch (horror-suspsense), and Charles Beaumont (horror-fantastic fiction). Those writers will give you an appreciation for the short form.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-77497739841888438222012-11-12T17:32:35.429-05:002012-11-12T17:32:35.429-05:00Should try 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' by...Should try 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' by Flannery O'Connor as well. Fits very loosely under crime as well - the Misfit is straight from hell.<br /><br />Chris (different one)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-27397849818442855622012-11-12T09:49:13.972-05:002012-11-12T09:49:13.972-05:00If you want to read the short story at its supreme...If you want to read the short story at its supreme level of expression, Frank O'Connor is your only man, Nick. He didn't write crime fiction, but I detect some of the same attitude towards people as I find in Westlake's best stuff--compassionate yet biting, amused yet despairing, and yet in spite of all evidence to the contrary, perversely hopeful. <br /><br /><br /><br />Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-19249098334862241542012-11-12T09:22:54.688-05:002012-11-12T09:22:54.688-05:00I must admit, I struggle with the short story form...I must admit, I struggle with the short story form as well – exceptions being Ray Bradbury, and Michael Gilbert's Calder & Behrens stories. I've enjoyed some of the Westlake shorts I've read – and I've not read all of them, by any means – but nothing's really blown me away. I did have a line in the draft of this post about Westlake not being a master of the form, but took it out, as I haven't read enough of them to say that for certain. I'd like to get a few more under my belt before attempting as sweeping a statement as that.Nick Jones (Louis XIV, the Sun King)https://www.blogger.com/profile/17716508525331235684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-18250944198554235162012-11-12T09:02:43.224-05:002012-11-12T09:02:43.224-05:00I have this very edition, and read it with some in...I have this very edition, and read it with some interest. Westlake seems to have known quite well that the short story was not a form he was destined to master, but he does often seem to have used short stories as preliminary sketches for ideas he would then develop much more successfully in novel form. <br /><br />I also noticed that he was writing humorous stories much earlier than we are led to believe by some overviews of his career--indeed, his earliest short stories in this vein predate any of his serious crime novels, written as Westlake or Stark. This contradicts the notion that he started out as this very dark bloody storyteller, and then transitioned into a teller of whimsical stories of fumbled heists, and mistaken identities. <br /><br />I always seem to detect elements of humor in everything he writes--even in something as brutal and searing as "The Ax". People are funny, and he can't stop seeing that. What took time for him to develop was the ability to really sustain a gag, build on it, milk it to maximum effect, and he didn't manage to do that until "The Hot Rock", though many of his earlier comic novels are more than worthwhile. As I've said here before, dying is easy, comedy is hard. <br /><br /><br /><br /> Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00271250698430923736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448581132479481740.post-29573970340877678012012-11-12T08:57:20.085-05:002012-11-12T08:57:20.085-05:00Haven't got around to this one or Levine yet. ...Haven't got around to this one or Levine yet. I do have Thieves' Dozen, and found it enjoyable. <br /><br />I'm not a big fan of short stories in general--they're just something unsatisfying about them, like having a nibble of a sandwich instead of the whole damn thing, but make an exception if I really like the author's full-length work and especially if said author's shorts stories feature a character I like, as in Dortmunder's case. Davenoreply@blogger.com