The men in the tan-and-cream Chrysler came with guns blazing. When Ray Kelly woke up in the hospital, it was a month later, he was missing an eye, and his father was dead. Then things started to get bad.
From the mind of the incomparable Donald E. Westlake - Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster and Academy Aware nominee - comes a devastating story of betrayal and revenge, an exploration of the limits of family loyalty and how far a man will go when everything he loves is taken from him.
So says the copy on the back cover of my copy of HCC-009. I continued my Hard Case Crime reading with the other Westlake in my collection (although not the only other Westlake available from HCC). I enjoyed Double Feature so much I made 361 my follow-up.
Unfortunately I did not enjoy it so much. I think it's likely perfectly serviceable for what it is - a POV from a crook/ bad guy/ unsympathetic protagonist - but there was not much for me to latch onto. The plot didn't come across properly to me - I don't know how else to describe it. It was like following bad directions on a map. But purposefully constructed. I can't fault Westlake's approach or writing, I just didn't really respond to the aesthetic I guess. From the first to the last I just didn't sympathize with anyone, and that made for sloggy reading.
As I was reading I was "watching" it in my head simultaneously, which was an interesting experience. The film noir film I watched in my head was just fine. The prose worked for it, I didn't need to like the characters or find them or the plot all that interesting, it was all just mood and black-and-white hardboiled diversion. But I didn't enjoy reading it. I've spoken elsewhere and often of the necessity of scientists to invent the appropriate device to lift films entirely from people's heads; if such a device existed I could show you what I meant. Alas.
The title refers to an entry in Roget's Thesaurus for killing/ destruction of life.
And that's kind of the end of the review, here. Wasn't for me. You? Let me know what I'm missing here. It's a quick read, which means it's a quick re-read, too.
Anyone who wants a deeper dive is encouraged to check out the Westlake Review entry here.
~
The Hard Case Crime Chronicles will continue with...
Say It With Bullets by Richard Powell.
Appearing sooner or later. See you then.
Too bad this one seems to not measure up to the back-cover copy; that's a fine setup for a crime novel.
ReplyDeleteI can (and do) deal with stories about an entire cast of unlikable characters, I guess. None spring immediately to mind, but I'm sure I've got a few under my belt somewhere. It's certainly not a slam-dunk, though, and a writer who opts to not give their readers somebody to hang onto is taking a big risk.
Hey, just thought of one: "Apt Pupil," which I almost just now referred to as a Bachman novel. As well it could have been!
Without having a list handy, I'd say I enjoy quite a few unlikable or untrustworthy protagonists, or even films/ books with no one to root for. Or where everyone's compromised. One thing in that Westlake Review write-up of this resonated with me, let me find the quote. (old time radio sound fx of footsteps walking out of room, pages flipping, humming to one's self) Okay, here we go:
Delete"Ray is different from Westlake’s two previous first-person narrators, in that he’s a lot less inclined to give impromptu lectures on how things work... Westlake has decided he wants this protagonist to play his cards a lot closer to the vest"
And that's a stylistic decision, and it probably works, I don't know. But it didn't work for me. There was just nothing to hang on to with the main character. It was just him put through a bunch of set pieces.
Like I say, though, a straight-up adaptation of this done in 1940s/ 1950s film noir-y style would probably be awesome. Something about it as prose just feels less interesting to me.