Perplexing Plots: David Bordwell

 

The subtitle of this book is "Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of Murder." Bordwell was an influential film scholar; this book, the last one he published, focuses on crime fiction and films in the 1900s up to more recent times. He discusses the development of crime fiction plots and narratives and notes the same developments in plays and film of that time. In the book, he proposes that crime fiction exposed audiences to new forms of storytelling and increased their familiarity and acceptance of more complex plots. 

But I am not knowledgeable about films and film theory, so I will also include this description from Columbia University Press, the publisher of the book:

In Perplexing Plots, David Bordwell reveals how crime fiction, plays, and films made unconventional narrative mainstream. He shows that since the nineteenth century, detective stories and suspense thrillers have allowed ambitious storytellers to experiment with narrative. Tales of crime and mystery became a training ground where audiences learned to appreciate artifice. These genres demand a sophisticated awareness of storytelling conventions: they play games with narrative form and toy with audience expectations.

I was motivated to read this book for Bordwell's in-depth discussion of crime fiction authors. He was a big fan of Rex Stout (as am I). One chapter is devoted to Stout's Nero Wolfe series and Erle Stanley Gardner's mysteries. Two other chapters I particularly enjoyed were "Viewpoints, Narrow and Expansive: Patricia Highsmith and Ed McBain" and "Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine." Raymond Chandler's books were also covered in depth.

This book was very dense, sometimes over my head, but I enjoyed it. The content was academic; not dry but challenging.

My husband read Bordwell's previous book, Reinventing Hollywood: How 1940s Filmmakers Changed Movie Storytelling. I will be reading that book, maybe next year.

There is an excellent review at George Kelley's blog; George lists all the chapter titles, which is very useful.

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Publisher:   Columbia University Press, 2023 
Length:       412 pages
Format:      Trade paperback
Genre:        Nonfiction
Source:       I purchased this book in 2023.

The Man with the Getaway Face: Richard Stark

Under the pseudonym of Richard Stark, Donald E. Westlake wrote a 24-book series featuring Parker, a thief and hardened criminal. Almost all of the books center around a heist.

In the first Parker novel, The Hunter, the focus is on revenge. Parker's wife and his partner betrayed him; after a heist, he was shot and left for dead. Parker goes after them, trying to get his share of the money back. Thus the second novel, The Man with the Getaway Face, is the first real heist novel in the series.

This book gives the reader a picture of the mechanics of setting up a heist, in this case, an armored car robbery. There is a "finger" who finds the opportunity for the heist. There is a person who provides the bank roll, the money to carry out the heist. Obviously there is the planning.




This time Parker is partnered with a guy called Skimm. A quote from the book describes the differences between them:

Skimm, like most men on the bum, lived from job to job; he spent more in one year than most make in five and was always broke, dressing and looking like a bum. How he did it, where it all went, Parker didn’t know. 

He [Parker] worked it differently, spending the money and time between jobs living at the best resort hotels and dressing himself in the best clothes. There was no overlap between people he knew on and off the job. He owned a couple of parking lots and gas stations around the country to satisfy the curiosity of the Internal Revenue beagles, but never went near them. He let the managers siphon off the profits in return for not asking him to take an active part in the business.

One of the givens in a heist story is there will be hitches in the plan. In this one, there are two hitches (at least) and one of them Parker is expecting. The other is a surprise to Parker and to the reader. The entertaining part is seeing how the story plays out when Parker runs into the problems.

In this book, even though Parker sees the problems early on, he is committed to the heist because he needs money dearly. He just paid a small fortune to have his face restructured, because people in the Outfit (the organization that is his nemesis) know what he looks like. So now he needs to build up his capital.

My thoughts:

In my review of The Hunter, I described Parker as having no redeeming qualities, and I said that there was "nothing admirable or likable about him." That is not far from the truth, but if so, what does pique my interest in these books? I do find Parker fascinating as a character study and I am sure that is due to Westlake's writing, which is very plain and unadorned. Parker is a professional. He is pragmatic; he makes his decisions related to completing a job in an intelligent way. He does not kill unnecessarily although this is mostly because he realizes that this is not in his best interests.

This book is like "the anatomy of a crime" (or in this case, a robbery or heist). It does not glorify the crime or the criminal, but treats it more like a job. There is no back story for Parker, no discussion of how or why did he come to this point in his life. We learn that he did care for his wife and misses his relationship with her, but that seems to be the only thing in his life that he has any emotional thoughts about. And even that is only a one-paragraph digression. The book is a non-emotional, straightforward story about a crime and the fallout from the crime.

I also see comparisons here with some spy novels I read. It seems like espionage appeals to the type of person who is good at thieving and killing, but in that case they get to do it for a cause. Sometimes they enjoy it, sometimes they are conflicted. In Parker's case, he is never conflicted about his job. This isn't everyone's type of book, but I am continuing on through the series for a while.

Some other resources:

• In a very detailed overview at The Westlake Review, which notes how accurate the description of New Jersey is. Posts at this blog do include spoilers.
• A review at Olman's Fifty.
• A review at Existential Ennui.

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Publisher:  Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008 (orig. publ. 1963)
Length:     213 pages
Format:     Trade paperback
Series:      Parker #2
Setting:     New Jersey, mainly
Genre:      Hard-boiled
Source:     I purchased my copy

Crime Fiction Reading in June 2017

In June I began reading from my 20 Books of  Summer list (my list is HERE). Only five of my seven books read this month were from that list. The Big Killing was a carryover from my reading in May, and I purchased Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective in June so that I could read it prior to watching the TV series. So I am a bit behind on the list, but still doing well. I read three books from the 1990s and only one vintage mystery, published in 1937.

These are the seven books I read in June:

The Big Killing (1989) by Annette Meyers

Xenia Smith and Leslie Wetzon are executive headhunters located on Wall Street. This is the first of the mysteries featuring this team. Wetzon meets Barry Stark, a potential client, at the Four Seasons for lunch. He excuses himself for a moment; shortly after that, Leslie Wetzon finds his dead body in a telephone booth at the restaurant. Both Smith and Wetzon are very interested in the homicide cop, Silvestri, who is assigned to the murder. The main protagonist, Wetzon, was formerly a dancer on Broadway, and that side story lends the most interest to the story for me. 

Vanishing Act (1995) by Thomas Perry

I have only read two books by Thomas Perry, and I feel like I have found a new favorite author. The first was The Butcher's Boy, about a man who murders for hire, and a brilliant young analyst, Elizabeth Waring, who notices a pattern related to his crimes. Vanishing Act is the first in a series about Jane Whitefield, a Native American guide, who helps people in trouble find new identities and disappear. I will be reading more books by Thomas Perry later in the year.

Dangerous Davies: The Last Detective (1976) by Leslie Thomas

Dangerous Davies is a hapless detective with serious flaws who through patience and determination manages to solve the cases that he takes an interest in. The book was published in 1976 and Davies takes up the cold case of a teenage girl who disappeared in 1951. My review is HERE. I will continue reading the series (only 4 books) and watching the TV series.

The Man with the Getaway Face (1963) by Richard Stark

This is the 2nd book in the Parker series by Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake). Parker is an amoral crook; Westlake wrote 24 books about him between 1962 and 2008. I find it hard to describe these books, so I am borrowing a paragraph from The University of Chicago Press, the publisher of the reprint edition: 

"Parker goes under the knife in The Man with the Getaway Face, changing his face to escape the mob and a contract on his life. Along the way he scores his biggest heist yet: an armored car in New Jersey, stuffed with cash."

Track of the Cat (1993) by Nevada Barr

Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr is a fine debut novel, the first in a series about Park Ranger Anna Pigeon. In this novel, Anna has a posting in Texas (the Guadalupe Mountains National Park). The book is a nature lover's delight, and Nevada spends a lot of time hiking in the park. Nevada is a loner, cranky, not much for socializing; a different kind of heroine. 

The Black Ice (1993) by Michael Connelly

The second novel in the Harry Bosch series starts on Christmas day; Harry is eating his Christmas dinner alone and is on call. That same night, he ends up in a motel room where the dead body of Narcotics detective Calexico Moore has been discovered; or so they assume, since the body has been in the room for weeks and is in bad shape. The investigation into how Moore died takes Harry to Mexico.

Busman's Honeymoon (1937) by Dorothy Sayers

This is the last novel in Dorothy Sayers' series about Lord Peter Wimsey. After five years of being wooed by Peter, Harriet Vane has finally said yes, and we get a peek at the wedding planning, the nuptials, but most of all their first few days of marriage at Talboys, where a dead body is discovered.

The Hunter: Richard Stark

The Hunter is the first novel in a series by Richard Stark (one of Donald Westlake's pseudonyms). The series of 24 books features an amoral criminal, Parker,who specializes in payroll robberies. He is not a killer for hire, but he will kill if someone gets in his way. In other words, not a very nice guy. He has no redeeming qualities. He has no remorse for what he does; on the other hand, he is not sadistic. He does not think much about what he does at all. He just conducts his business and moves on. In this novel, Parker is seeking revenge on Mal, a man who double-crossed him, took his wife, and stole his share of the proceeds from a job.

This story felt kind of numbing in the first reading. As soon as I finished this book, I wondered if I want to continue reading books about a protagonist who is narcissistic and unsympathetic. I don't dislike the character but there is nothing admirable or likable about him, at least in this book. The writing is plain and unadorned, the story is hard-boiled, with lots of violence. There is little description or exposition. There is a lot of action and dialog and that is how you learn about the characters, most of which are very similar to Parker.

The real test, however, was that it was just as compelling when I was rereading portions of the book as I worked on this post. So, in the end, the answer is that I do want to continue reading this series. I will be reading the second book, The Man with the Getaway Face, in June, for a special theme on Heists / Bank Robberies at Friday's Forgotten Books at Patti Abbott's blog, pattinase. And I have ordered the third book in the series, The Outfit.

A review quote from the Christian Science Monitor, cited at the publisher's site:

If you’re looking for crime novels with a lot of punch, try the very, very tough novels featuring Parker. . . . The Hunter, The Outfit, The Mourner, and The Man with the Getaway Face are all beautifully paced, tautly composed, and originally published in the early 1960s.

A quote from an article at CriminalElement.com

The Hunter should be on everyone’s short list of must-read novels. Its historical significance to the crime genre is on par with The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon. In the same way those novels introduced hardboiled noir to the world, The Hunter jumpstarted the era of the antihero that we still see ripples of today. It is action-packed storytelling with an innovative structure and one of the most unique and most celebrated characters in all of crime fiction.

Other resources:

• An introduction to the novel written by Donald Westlake
• Review by Nick Jones at Existential Ennui
• A detailed analysis, with spoilers, at The Westlake Review

Film Adaptations

This first book in the series was the basis for at least two movies: Point Blank, starring Lee Marvin and Payback, with Mel Gibson. I watched both movies after finishing the book.  I had watched Payback years ago, but this was my first viewing of Point Blank. Both movies try to humanize Parker, but they do stick fairly close to the story in the book. I think Lee Marvin's  portrayal of Parker is closer to that in the book, but Mel Gibson depiction of the crazy drive that Parker must have to achieve his goal is also very well done.


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Publisher:  Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008 (orig. publ. 1962)
Length:     198 pages
Format:     Trade paperback
Series:      Parker #1
Setting:     New York City
Genre:      Hard-boiled
Source:     I purchased my copy

20 Books of Summer 2017

This year I was reminded of 20 Books of Summer by Nancy at NancyElin, whose list is here. The originator of the challenge is Cathy at 746 Books. Check out Cathy's list for more information.

For the 20 Books of Summer challenge I am choosing twenty books to read between June 1st and September 3rd, 2017. There are options for 15 books or 10 books for those who don't want to commit to 20.

And this is my list:

• The Fashion in Shrouds by Margery Allingham (1938)
• Murder Begins at Home by Delano Ames (1949)
• Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr (1993)
• The Emperor's Snuff-Box by John Dickson Carr  (1942)
• Red Bones by Ann Cleeves (2009)
• The Black Ice by Michael Connelly (1993)
• Evil at the Root by Bill Crider (1990)

• Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans (2009)
• City of Dragons by Kelli Stanley (2010)
• Dr. No by Ian Fleming (1958)
• Malicious Intent by Kathryn Fox (2004)
• Dead Skip by Joe Gores (1972)
• Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday (1941)
• The Distant Echo by Val McDermid (2003)
• Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry (1994)

• Deep Water by Christine Poulson (2016)
• Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers (1937) 
• New Orleans Mourning by Julie Smith (1990)
• The Man with the Getaway Face by Richard Stark (1963)
• Brothers, Keepers by Donald E. Westlake (1975)

Crime Fiction Reading in March 2017

March was a good reading month and I stuck to crime fiction the entire month. So without further ado I will list the books I read...

Fear Itself by Andrew Rosenheim

This is the first in a series of historical mysteries set in the US just before and during World War II, starring Jimmy Nessheim, a German-American FBI agent. My review is here.

Over My Dead Body by Rex Stout

This is the 7th book in the Nero Wolfe series, published in 1939. I am rereading the series in order at least until I get to The Silent Speaker, book 11 in the series. And I will probably continue past there.  I like this book because it features Nero Wolfe's long-lost adopted daughter, who is visiting the US and needs his help. 

Dancers in Mourning by Margey Allingham

The Albert Campion books are another series I am rereading in order. In this case, I am aiming to get to Tiger in the Smoke (1942). Dancers in Mourning is the 8th book, published in 1937, and I read it for the Crimes of the Century meme at Past Offences. My review is here.

The Rainbird Pattern by Victor Canning

The Rainbird Pattern (1972) is the 2nd book in a loose series called the Birdcage books. They all revolve around a covert security group in the UK, a branch of the Ministry of Defense. In this case we have two plots, one about the search for an heir to a fortune and the other dealing with a kidnapping plot, which converge at the end. The book was adapted as a film, Family Plot, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film treatment is very different from the book. My post on the first Birdcage book, Firecrest, is here.

The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum

The Bourne Identity, published in 1980, was the first of three novels about Jason Bourne written by Robert Ludlum. (The series was continued by Eric Lustbader, starting in 2004.) My review is here.

The Hunter by Richard Stark

Richard Stark is a pseudonym used by Donald E. Westlake for two of his series, the Parker series and the Alan Grofield series. This book is the first in the Parker series, and it is a revenge novel. Parker has been double-crossed and left for dead and now he is tracking down the people who betrayed him.