THE HUNTER by Richard Stark (Avon 1984)
Rather than bore you with basics better covered elsewhere, I'll just refer you to VWoP's page on this, and also the Bookgasm review.
Back?
Okay, well, of course I loved this book, for all the usual reasons given why everyone loves it. Interestingly, in a recent interview (via Bill Crider), Westlake mentions that he had no plans originally for a Parker series. The Hunter was supposed to be it, period. It does have the flavor of a sort of literary experiment--style, character, and story all stripped down to their brutal essences, all in perversely perfect harmony.
There's a lot of speculation about Parker's popularity--how such a vicious cypher could elicit so much and such powerful reader sympathy. It's come up here before, in the comments to this post and this one. I've never seen the appeal of villain protagonists as an especially perplexing conundrum; what puzzles me is why so many people think it has to be explained in terms of something else. I think it works best when some other element clearly places the story in the realm of make-believe (i.e. the science fictional aspects of Aeon Flux, Kriminal's comic-booky costume, all the weird melodrama surrounding Fantomas). The almost abstract minimalism achieved by Westlake in these novels is sometimes mis-described as realistic, but in fact the intense stylization carves out an alternate reality all Parker's own.
This isn't everyone's favorite Parker novel, but it is indisputably a classic and a masterpiece, and there does seem to be something definitive and essential about it that, to my mind, sets it apart from the (admittedly few) others I've read.
See, by the way, Kimberly's excellent review of one movie adaptation, Point Blank.
THE MAN WITH THE GETAWAY FACE by Richard Stark (Pocket 1963)
This is the cover that finally sold me on taking the plunge into the Parkerverse (despite the exorbitant prices of the books); as I've said before, "What's cooler than guys with bandaged faces? Not very damn much, in my opinion!" The hell of it is, this novel opens with the words, "When the bandages came off . . ." Here I was hoping for a novel where Parker runs around with his head all wrapped up like this, but in fact it's the eponymous getaway face itself that he sports pretty much from start to finish.This is the direct sequel to The Hunter, and Parker needs the new face because he ended that novel on the wrong side of the Outfit--a version of the mob that's just as stripped down to a nearly cartoonish essence as everything else in Parker's world.
Most of the early part of this one is concerned with a heist that I found only moderately interesting. More interesting to me is the trouble that comes looking for Parker in the middle of it, after someone murders the plastic surgeon who gave him his face. He has to race against the impatience of the doctor's vengeful assistants to prove to them he didn't do it, or they clue the Outfit in on his new identity.
I'd appreciate it if anyone could point me to other vintage crime novels that revolve around this whole "getaway face" criminal plastic surgery idea. Richard Sala tossed that chestnut into the mix in Thirteen O'Clock, in the character of Web:
See also the Bookgasm review.
THE OUTFIT by Richard Stark (Pocket 1963)
Out of this bunch, this one's my favorite, just because I really dig Westlake's depiction of the Outfit and the details of its operations.The Outfit has been put wise to Parker's new face, and the novel opens with a hood taking a shot at him in his hotel room. So now he decides to straighten the whole matter out once and for all, by delivering on a threat he made back in The Hunter. The threat, basically, is that he'll put word on the street that it's open season on the Outfit. He explains that independent pros like himself always case every place just by habit, no matter where they are, and anyone who's ever been in an Outfit-run operation knows that knocking it over would be like taking candy from a baby. The only reason his loose, informal network (really just a pool of guys he knows who do that kind of work and sometimes join him on a job) leaves the Outfit alone is a kind of professional courtesy. So he starts to see some people, and make some calls, and write some letters, and it's a lot of fun to see how everything unfolds, once word gets through the grapevine that it's okay to hit the Outfit.
I have no idea how authentic the central notion is, that you've got organized crime, and you've got this professional class of independent criminals, and they pretty much try to leave each other alone. It makes for some great reading here, though!
I know this is where The Mourner would go. I have a copy lined up; I just didn't feel like waiting to get it before I read and reviewed these four I have in hand.
THE SCORE by Richard Stark (Avon 1984)
As the title suggests, this one's entirely devoted to a heist, and it's a hum-dinger, in a different league altogether from the puny armored-car job Parker pulled in Getaway Face. This time, Parker joins a small army of crooks to knock over a whole town--banks, jewelry stores, payrolls, everything! Naturally, it doesn't go entirely according to plan, to put it mildly! I thought this was as much fun as The Outfit, and the only reason I preferred that was because I dig the mob angle just a bit more than the heist angle.See also the Bookgasm review.
It's ridiculous that these novels don't stay in print on a more regular basis. It makes them damn expensive and inconvenient to acquire in a lot of cases (let me just reiterate my thanks to John Grace for providing me with Hunter and Score). It seems superfluous to recommend them, but in case I really wasn't the last one to discover them, I can definitely say they're worth some time, trouble, and money. I know I'll be checking out some more of them!
8 comments:
Recommended: SLAY-GROUND!
Funnily enough, I too have been reading Parker novels lately (I'm in the middle of Butcher's Moon right now). What can I say, great stuff :)
I've got all the Parker novels I could find and afford. One of the few series that took a hiatus of something like 20 years and came back just as strong as ever.
Some similar series that are good are Max Allan Collins' Nolan and Quarry series. I've also heard about an Australian rip off called Wyatt by some guy named Disher, but I haven't read any of those.
yeah ASk The Parrot was the last Parker novel and its a good one if you can find it. Tries to rip off a race track in that one.
also thanks for linking to my reviews.
Regarding other series where the hero undergoes a face-lift, try Dan J. Marlowe's first 2 Earl Drake books, The Name of the Game is Death and One Endless Hour. At the end of Name, Drake is left badly burned from head-to-toe; like Westlake, Marlowe never intended to write a series. When he was finally convinced to revisit the character, he had Drake undergo experimental cosmetic surgery that gives him a new face and a new lease on life, in One Endless Hour. From there, the stage was set for a series of books, released in the "Operation" series (like Operation: Drumfire, Operation: Fireball, and Operation: Flashpoint) which see Drake gradually transforming from a Parker-like character into something more akin to a secret agent, ala Matt Helm.
Recommendation for Marlowe's Name of the game is Death is seconded.
I'm in the middle of The Mourner now. It's not as fun as The Outfit, but it's still good stuff.
The first time I came across the get-a-way face theme was in David Goodis' Dark Passage. You might like that since he wears the bandages a lot longer than Parker. The Dark Passage movie is very good, too.
Thanks for the great suggestions--I'll check them out!
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