Petty Complaints

My gamble buying four old Richard Stark paperbacks, thinking I would need to have them to read before the new University of Chicago Press editions of Deadly Edge, Slayground, and Plunder Squad were published, failed.  I got the latest UCP edtions from Amazon well before I needed them. (The Passage and a Steig Larsson took longer to read than I bargained for.)  And now I have some garish and overpriced paperbacks sealed in plastic baggies (to preserve them? - or to keep the other books safe?) sitting next to my crisp, clean UCP editions.   Some people (you know who you are) beautifully curate old paperbacks.  I can barely stand to look at these.  It looks like I will, however, get to Butcher's Moon in ratty, paperback form well before the UCP edition is published in 2011.

Nobody seems to want to republish any of the Grofield novels.  I have paperback versions of all four (the first three in Foul Play Press editions and Lemons Never Lie from Hard Case Crime) and just finished the third one, The Blackbird.  And while I love Grofield, this book was not a strong outing by Westlake.  In the first Grofield book, The Damsel, Grofield hears, in his head, a specially composed film score to accompany whatever he's doing.  I thought that was the funniest and most endearing thing I've ever read about a character in crime fiction.  Sadly, there's no more of this in the next two books.  I think Westlake knew that The Blackbird was not properly implausible - but he let's us know that hippies are implausible characters, too (a clear reference to the two hippie villains in the previous Stark novel Deadly Edge.

Now I am on to Slayground, which shares the same opening chapter as The Blackbird.  I should have stricter standards but I love this shared chapter thing in these books and simultaneously feel that it would be a cheap gimmick if anyone else did it or does it.  (Has anyone ever done this?)  I know Westlake does it some with Joe Gores. 

I read an interesting piece in the New Yorker last week about Charlie Chan

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2010/08/09/100809crbo_books_lepore

and its may be planting the seeds of a future collecting project.  I've never read or seen anything Charlie Chan but the hunt for the books I think I could enjoy irrespective of that little fact.

Also in the New Yorker was a good piece on Agatha Christie

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/08/16/100816crat_atlarge_acocella

whom I, despite me being a long-time fan of crime fiction, have never read. 

And why can't someone at the New Yorker do a long piece on Donald Westlake?  And when will there be a proper Westlake biography?  Or a journal for Westlake studies?  There looks to be a very good survey of the Richard Stark novels in the New York Review of books back in 1985 but it is not freely accessible online.  I must get my hands on a copy of it.

Better Read Than Seen? Or Not?

I watched The Damned United the other night.  I've been an admirer of David Peace's books for a long time and 2009 was his big year with four of his novels all successfully adapted to film.  I have not read The Damned United but my gut tells me that the movie was better for me than the book would have been.  (I really wanted to listen to the audio book version of TDU read by John Simm of Life on Mars fame but could never find a copy.)  The Red Riding films come out at the end of summer on DVD.  I tried to see them in the theater but in DC they were only here for a very short time and it was logistically impossible to see them all.

Even though nothing could be more alien to me than Leeds in the early 70s and English football, I was thrilled with the movie.  I sort of knew about the legend of Brian Clough (who I discovered via reading about Jonathan Coe's great biography of B.S. Johnson).  I had certain images in my head and seeing them on film worked for me.  And I think that is the problem with adapting novels to film - in general, the depth and vividness of a book cannot compare with the time and budgetary limits of film.  Almost every film adaptation of a book fails.  (This is a sweeping generalization and I know there are countless examples I am not aware of which run counter to my argument.  But it is more or less true.)  I have a hard time watching the filmed version of anything I've read.

-Enduring Love and Atonement by Ian McEwan: couldn't do it
-The Golden Compass: had to stop after 15 minutes
-Watchmen: visually interesting but a failure overall
-Nobody's Fool/Empire Falls by Richard Russo: nice try HBO but no go
-The Ipcress File: this I want to see but its out of print in the US
-Strangers on a Train:  very good both ways
-Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro: opens this fall, am very interested to see
-About a Boy/High Fidelity/Fever Pitch(UK version): actually enjoyed all three films
-Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon:  the movie worked
-Clockers by Richard Price: movie was decent
-The Third Man by Graham Greene:  was a great film and then a book so doesn't count
-The Hunter/Point Blank by Richard Stark: something I really want to see now
-Eat, Prey, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert: I've been told I have to go see this
-Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee: John Malkovich makes most things great
-Any John Malkovich film that was a novel - they all work
-The Road by Cormac McCarthy:  will know shortly
-The Taltented Mr. Ripley/Plein en Soleil/Purple Noon: yes to the French version

I think I need to do some proper research to come up with better examples of failed adaptations of books.  My little list is comprised of what popped into my head after I watched The Damned United.

Arms and the Man with the Getaway Face

I went to the gun range tonight to help my wife practice.  She has a 9mm Glock 17.  I was unarmed and she did all the shooting.  I had my copy of Slayground by Richard Stark with me but could not get any reading done with all the gunfire.   Instead I was put in charge of reloading the magazines and sweeping up shell casings.  (I'm sort of a modern day Stubbs.  Helpful, but limited.)

I got to thinking while she blasted away that for a series of books called The Violent World of Parker, the guns, for the most part are pretty tame.  In Slayground, Parker knocks off an armored car with some explosives and then gets trapped in Fun Island armed with a Smith & Wesson Terrier .32 five shot revolver with a two inch barrel.  That was in 1971.  Today no one would ever consider using such a dinky gun in a heist like that, especially a big, tough guy like Parker.  (Note:  I have been reading these Parker books in chronological order and realize that the attitude towards firepower may have changed by the time the series resumes in 1997 with Comeback.)  Most of the guns used or mentioned in the books are .32s or .38s.  There are some .22s and .25s.  Yes, machine guns are used in a few jobs but I view those as exceptions.  For the most part, people in Parker's world used small caliber revolvers and they are generally effective enough to do the job.  The few automatics mentioned are .380 caliber and only hold seven shots.  The Glock magazines I was reloading hold 17 rounds (plus the round in the chamber make for 18 shots in one gun).

For a multitude of reasons there has been a sea change in attitudes about the amount of firepower needed in handguns.  My gut tells me that it is guns in pop culture (on tv, and in films, and in music) that drive people to want bigger handguns.  And I suppose gun technology has changed tremendously since the Parker books started so it is cheaper and easier to get good, high-powered weapons. 

So while I was surround by 9mm Glocks and some very loud .45 automatics tonight, I think I prefer the menace of Parker with smaller weapons (or those giant hands of his).

Opportunity Costs

I've greatly enjoyed my Richard Stark binge - 13 Starks in a row (11 Parkers and 2 Grofields).  I started The Sour Lemon Score but put it aside to read The Passage by Justin Cronin.  My plans were to take a break after Butcher's Moon (maybe six months or so, not 23 years like some people) but The Passage was screaming READ ME NOW and I gave in.  (I'm glad I listened, the book is fantastic.)

A towering stack of must-read books has piled up while this Stark obsession has been going on:

-Naming the Bones by Louise Welsh (which I was a third into when I picked up The Hunter)
-Handling the Undead by John Ajvide Lindquist (which reminds me I still need to read Let The Right One In so I can watch the movie)
-The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim by Jonathon Coe (one of my absolute favorite novelists)
-The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
-61 Hours by Lee Child (due back at the library in 48 hours)
-The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (already started last fall? just got back from the library)
-Burial by Neil Cross
-The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost (recommended by a friend)
-An Egyptian Journal by William Golding (honestly, I have no idea why - it just seems neat)
-The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson (left over from October)
-The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman (wonderfully reviewed new novel about journalists)
-there are others that didn't make the list, trust me

To make matters worse, The Passage is making me want to read (and if I don't have, acquire):
-Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
-The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
-The Stand by Stephen King
-The Road by Cormac McCarthy
-The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (been meaning to read this for years)
-Feed by Mira Grant
-Earth Abides by George Stewart

And Amazon is sending me two new books - Lucy by Laurence Gonzales and Kraken by China Mieville (human-animal hybrids and squid, perennial favorites of mine).  And maybe, just maybe, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell.

As for now, I'm going back to reading Low Moon by Jason.  But only if I don't go dig out my Beryl Bainbridge novels.

Four Parkers

I completed the first part of my Richard Stark collection. I now have all of the Parker books Stark wrote before his 23 year hiatus.

I found terrible, old paperback copies of Deadly Edge, Slayground, Plunder Squad and Butcher's Moon on eBay. In a way, this was a stupid thing to do. In September, three of these books will be republished and will be easily available for the first time since, I think, 1985. Which means the prices of these crappy old paperbacks will plummet. But I couldn't wait that long. Butcher's Moon will be reprinted in the spring of 2011 - and then no one will ever again pay $88 for an old paperback copy of it. (The art and design on these 1985 reprints is hideous. I understand shelling out good money for vintage paperbacks that look good. I'll be embarrassed to be seen reading these things in public.)

I really should have my head examined for spending so much on these books - but I don't have money left to pay for psychiatric treatment.

Serendipity and the Origin of the Mourner in Richard Stark's The Mourner

The Mourner, the fourth of Richard Stark's Parker novels, is about the theft of a 15th century French statue. As part of the telling of the story of the statue's history, Ralph Harrow - the father of Bett, Parker's current squeeze, uses the September 1958 issue of Horizon magazine:

Harrow licked his lips and glanced at his daughter, but she was no help. “To begin with, I'd like you to read a brief article in this magazine.” He said magazine, but it was obviously the book he meant. He held it up, and Parker saw above the picture a title: Horizon.And below the picture a date: September, 1958. So it was a magazine that looked like a book. Harrow opened the magazine-​book, muttering to himself, “Page sixty-​two.” He found the page and extended the open book.

Stark then gives even more specific details:

This article concerns a group of eighty-​two statuettes in a monument at Dijon, in France.” He turned the book around so Parker could see. “You see the title? 'The Missing Mourners of Dijon', by Ferdinand Auberjonois.”

In general, the Parker novel do not feature overly specific descriptions of much of anything. So all this detail got me wondering if this article about the statues was real or not (I knew of Horizon magazine - in fact I came across a bunch of copies at a used booksale several months ago but barely looked through them). And it turns out, Stark did his homework:

http://prestwidge.com/horizon/mtoc.htm

I had never heard of the Mourners before so I thought they could have been made up. (Whenever Stark/Westlake wrote about African gems I always assumed they were made up. I know he likes to create fictional African and South American countries so made up statues seemed par for the course.) But on page 62 there is the article by Ferdinand Auberjonois that Parker refuses to read.

This is not much of discovery. Anyone so inclined could have easily found this out (and probably already has). But in a great case of serendipity, 37 of the real Mourners are on tour in the US for the first time right now:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/arts/design/13mourners.html

As best I can tell, the Mourner in The Mourner is not on display.

I noticed two other things while looking at the table of contents for the mentioned issue of Horizon. One is that Harrow (the town) is in an article and I am guessing that is where Stark got the name to give to Bett's father.

The second thing I noticed takes a wild leap of imagination to make (and is probably nothing more than coincidence) is that there is an article by Freya STARK in the same issue. The first Parker story was published in 1959. If Donald Westlake read the magazine in September of 1958, did he get his new pen name from here? Yes, it is a stretch. But he did get the idea for his fourth book here - so maybe it is not that much of a stretch.

The Case of the Missing Starks

A literacy charity is running a book sale since mid-April in the building I work in. I, of course, have been going in every day since they opened. And I am not finding anything good. At all. Ever. Even though I have searched through dozens of boxes and tables of books, I have not found a single Donald Westlake or Richard Stark novel amongst the 50,000 or so books they have. Which is all I really want. Some people seem to find Starks everywhere. But not me. I'm losing auctions for them on eBay. The library can't find the few Starks I need. I can't even find pirated ebook versions of them. I know the four Starks I need will be republished by the University of Chicago Press this fall and next spring but I don't think I can wait that long. (I can remember when I used to see Starks all the time - back when I didn't want them. I remember standing in Second Story Books looking at copies of the Grofield books and thinking, How can a crime novel about an actor be any good? So I crossed Stark of the list of writers I was interested in - even though I made the judgment based on the wrong series of books, not knowing that Stark primarily wrote the Parker novels. In fact, my booksense has failed me twice when it comes to Donald Westlake. I always turned my nose up at his Dortmunder books, too. I thought I only liked non-Dortmunder, non-Stark books. I only tried the Dortmunder books after Westlake died a few years ago. Now I love his Dortmunder books, too.)

I did manage to find a Simenon novel that I did not have - Maigret and the Tavern by the Seine.
This is a significant accomplishment because it turns out I have approximately 160 Simenons (Maigrets and non-Maigrets) and it is very difficult to to find a recognize one I don't have. To celebrate, I vacuumed my Simenon bookcase tonight and cataloged all of the books.

Since this book sale started, the only other books I've bought are:
Savages by Shirley Conran
Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo
Straight Man by Richard Russo
The Draining Lake by Arnaldur Indridason

Savages really confuses me because it seems to be regarded as chick-lit (not my cup of tea) but it looks good. Of the reader reviews I've come across, most people seem to have had a wonderful time reading it. And I can't get enough of jungles and survivalist stuff these days (the effects of repeated/prolonged exposure to Lost, Bear Grylls, Survivorman, Freddie Spencer Chapman, and the HBO mini-series The Pacific). And the book has maps in it.

The two Russos are nice Vintage trade paperback editions. I've been wanting to re-read Straight Man and couldn't pass it up. And I'm stockpiling Scandanavian crime fiction so I had to grab the book from Iceland. I've got two of his other books and hear very good things about him.