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BIO
Donald E. Westlake has written numerous novels over the past thirty-five years under his own name and pseudonyms, including Richard Stark. Many of his books have been made into movies, including THE HUNTER, which became the brilliant film noir Point Blank, and the 1999 smash hit Payback. He penned the Hollywood scripts for The Stepfather and The Grifters, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay. The winner of three Edgar awards and a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master, Donald E. Westlake was presented with The Eye, the Private Eye Writers of America's Lifetime Achievement Award, at the Shamus Awards. Sadly, Westlake died of a heart attack on December 31, 2008.
PAST INTERVIEW
May 3, 2002
Donald E. Westlake, author of PUT A LID ON IT, has an extensive bibliography and has carved out his own particular niche in the mystery genre. Westlake comments on his writing process and what type of characters interest him most in this interview with Bookreporter.com's Joe Hartlaub.
BRC: You already have a bibliography the likes of which most authors would envy. You continue at this late date --- and with the publication of PUT A LID ON IT --- to write novels of a quality that writers of any genre can only aspire to. What do you do to maintain the quality of your work?
DW: I don't do anything about maintaining quality, I just try to tell a story in such a way as to interest myself. I leave questions of quality to others.
BRC: You were crafting novels featuring the protagonist as anti-hero long before such became fashionable. Francis X. Meehan in PUT A LID ON IT certainly fits that description; he is the most sympathetic character in the novel, and he's a career thief. It is incidental that the second most-sympathetic character is an attorney. And Meehan, of course, is not the only criminal you have written about; there are Dortmunder and Parker, among others. What is there about the criminal mind that you find the most intriguing as a launchpad for a character?
DW: I find characters who are at cross-purposes with society, or opposed to society in some way, interesting because they are by definition the underdogs. They have to be clever, cunning, imaginative, dogged and wily, whereas society merely has to lean its weight a little. If you think of movie studio executives, say, as society, then I root for the independent producers.
BRC: As much as I enjoyed Meehan, the character whom I perhaps enjoyed the most in PUT A LID ON IT was Goldfarb. I found it particularly interesting in the way in which she remained inherently true to herself throughout the novel while going through some subtle but important changes through her experience with, and exposure to, Meehan. Was Goldfarb modeled after anyone specifically or is she entirely your own creation?
DW: I don't cast characters from life, but let them grow up on their own. Because Meehan was so quick and elusive, Goldfarb had to be somebody who could react fast.
BRC: Meehan, in PUT A LID ON IT, is a very intriguing character. He is, to me, the opposite side of the Parker coin. He is very nonviolent, and likable, unlike Parker. Yet he is like Parker in the sense that he is a career criminal and is likely to be the most intelligent, or clever, person in a room at any given time. Did you consciously make Meehan the antithesis (to an extent) of Parker or did he evolve that way as you were writing PUT A LID ON IT?
DW: Meehan evolved into his story. If you think of Parker as fast like a baseball or football player, Meehan is fast like a standup comic.
BRC: Your career as an author of fiction of a number of different genres has spanned several decades. Is there any one book which you felt constituted a significant turning point in your career?
DW: I don't know that any one book was of larger than normal significance in my career. My method has been more like water torture, one drop at a time.
BRC: There are a number of authors who have acknowledged your influence upon their careers. Have there been any in particular whose acknowledgment you found particularly gratifying? And if so, for what reason?
DW: Elmore Leonard and I share a tendresse. That's gratifying.
BRC: Do you have any plans for a future novel involving Francis Xavier Meehan? What are you working on now?
DW: I never say never, but I can't think that Meehan would attract my interest again. He's gone through what he had to go through. Now I'll just let him go bowling with Bernie.
BRC: On a related note, can we look forward to the release of any of your heretofore out of print works in the next year?
DW: Ask my publisher. Ask 2 or 3 times.
BRC: WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN has recently been adapted for film. Do you presently have any other novels that are being considered for adaptation for movies or television?
DW: Last year's BAD NEWS is in development, with screenplay by Doug Wright, who did Quills, and Milos Forman to direct. Our hopes are high.
BRC: Have you read anything in the past six months that you would recommend to our readers?
DW: You mean not by me?
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PAST INTERVIEW
April 6, 2001
Hands down the laugh-out-loud funniest crime fiction writer out there today, yesterday, and most likely tomorrow, Donald E. Westlake is back with a new Dortmunder novel, BAD NEWS. Join Bookreporter.com's Senior Writer, Joe Hartlaub --- who, by the way, puts Westlake right up there with Hemingway on his list of great American writers --- as he chats with Westlake about the evolution of John Dortmunder, his short lived foray into the world of westerns, the interplay between his multiple personalities and much more.
BRC: BAD NEWS heralds the welcome return of John Dortmunder. Dortmunder remains a unique character in crime fiction on many levels. He's extremely intelligent, streetwise, disciplined, and careful. He is, however, plagued by bad luck to the extent that breaking even is about the best that he can reasonably expect. Yet he continues to pursue his chosen profession, long after most reasonable --- do I dare say, sane --- people would have moved onto another field of endeavor. Did you sit down and map out Dortmunder's psyche prior to writing THE HOT ROCK, the first Dortmunder novel, or was this complex personality of his something that evolved gradually?
DW: When I wrote THE HOT ROCK, I had no idea John D would be a series character, nor did he. But halfway through that book --- see the answer to question 6 --- he did have the firm realization that he was operating under a jinx, and that the only possible course was to struggle through it and, with luck, come out the other side. At that point, he thought the emerald was his jinx, but in fact it was and is me. To do the task, the best he can, no matter what happens in the world beyond his control, is his central motivation, because otherwise he'd just lie down in the road and never move again. But John Barth already wrote that book: END OF THE ROAD.
BRC: I'll have a couple of questions a bit later related to the marked divisions between the Westlake and the Stark books. There is, however, quite a division even under the books you write as Donald E. Westlake. BAD NEWS, for instance, is somewhat light, often subtlety hilarious in tone; while THE HOOK, published last year, is as quietly dark as they come. What influences the marked differences in tone of your different novels?
DW: I start with the story, almost in the old campfire sense, and the story leads to both the characters, which actors should best be cast in this story, and the language. The choice of words, more than anything else, creates the feeling that the story gives off.
BRC: BAD NEWS is impressive on a number of levels. You manage to present a complex caper while keeping its underlying principle understandable. Your supporting characters are incredibly interesting and memorable, yet never overwhelm or outclass Dortmunder, who is the nominal star of the show. What I really enjoyed, however, were the courtroom exchanges, especially those in which you make the reader privy to the thought processes of Judge Higbee. These, in my opinion, were perfect. How did you come by such knowledge? You apparently have either spent a lot of time in court astutely observing judges, or number one or two among your circle of friends.
DW: That stupidity is the primary wellspring of crime (as well as politics, religion, romance, and so many of the other elements of our lives) I'd long known. For instance, the 4 guys in the late 60's who attacked a jewel merchant on New York's West 46th St. --- Diamond Row --- on the sidewalk, so they could steal his jewel-filled station wagon, which they abandoned 2 blocks later because none of them could drive a stick shift. Where would I be without such people? And there's no shortage of them. Eleven years go I moved to an upstate rural area with a twice-weekly newspaper containing every time a one- or two-page Police Blotter. I believe that's Judge Higbee's only reading.
BRC: You have written one Western novel as Westlake --- GANGWAY, with Brian Garfield. Do you have any inclination to return to that genre in the near future?
DW: The West is Brian's home range. If I go west of New Jersey I get hives. I fly over it to Los Angeles, but that isn't part of the West, or even of this spectrum of reality. In a word, no.
BRC: What can you tell us about FIREBREAK, the next Parker novel to be published under your Richard Stark pseudonym?
DW: A firebreak is a small fire set in front of a big fire, to stop the big fire by robbing it of fuel. I wanted to adapt that idea, by having people commit a small robbery, in the course of which they discover, but don't get, something much more valuable. But the small robbery, by forcing an upgrade of defensive systems, makes the big robbery that much harder, or perhaps impossible. I also wanted Parker to operate in the Internet age without losing being Parker. He's always operated in the world without really being with the world, and cyberspace means that the rest of us are more and more living the same way.
BRC: Have you ever sat down with an idea that seemed ideal for say, a Parker novel, and then found, as you began writing, that the idea was better suited for another novel?
DW: I had an idea for a multiple robbery story that I thought would be ideal for Parker because it would irritate him so. But then I realized I ran the risk of making him a figure of fun, which would ruin his credibility forever. Thus was born John Dortmunder and THE HOT ROCK.
BRC: There is a marked distinction between your Westlake and Stark personas. Yet, they both spring from the same person --- you. How often do you find these personas competing for your writing attention? And have you mastered a way to allocate your time to satisfy both?
DW: When Stark isn't off sulking somewhere, or whatever he's doing when he won't return my calls, I alternate between the two. That usually works well, though occasionally an idea for the wrong guy drifts through my mind. I make a note, set it aside, and hope it makes sense when the time comes to look at it again.
BRC: How did your Richard Stark persona come to evolve?
DW: If it weren't for received ideas, the publishing industry wouldn't have any ideas at all. When I was first being published, in the 60's, an article of belief in publishing was that women bought hardcovers and men bought paperbacks. This was demonstrable nonsense, but since everyone believed it, and they all knew they were all smart and knowledgeable, it must be true. I was selling one book a year to Random House, which is all a publisher can stand from a writer (another received idea), and I wanted a different publisher where I could do different things. Okay, paperback, for men. So I did a betrayal-revenge-tough guy story, with a cold-blooded lead who got caught at the end. Pocket Books bought it and asked if the guy could escape at the end and appear in more books, and it turned out he could, and Parker was born. If I'd known he'd be back in more than 20 books, I'd have given him a first name. Anyway, in that first book I gave him none of the softnesses you're supposed to give a series character, and no band of sidekicks to chat with, because he was going to pound through one book and goodbye. Once he became a series character, I made the conscious choice that he would never act like a series character, never wink at the reader, never pull his punches. Better for him, better for me.
BRC: What have you read in the past six months that you would care to recommend to our readers?
DW: In this general field, a few months ago I read Dennis Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER, which is terrific. Lehane in one leap jumped out of genre and into the novel. More recently, I reread, for the first time in more than 30 years, Vladimir Nabokov's PALE FIRE, and it's as outrageous and intricate and funny and brilliant as ever.
BRC: In addition to BAD NEWS and FLASHFIRE, your latest Parker novel under your Richard Stark pseudonym, your Mitchell Tobin books, under your penname Tucker Coe, have also been reprinted during the past year. Tobin is another extremely intriguing character. I don't know if he's dysfunctional --- he actually functions quite well, once he makes the physical and mental jump to get out among people --- but he desperately wants to stay at home in his shame, literally build a wall around himself, and be left alone. There were five Tobin books published in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Have you ever been tempted to bring Tobin back, however unlikely such a resurrection would have been?
DW: Mitch Tobin is working through a traumatic state. When I started the last of them, DON'T LIE TO ME, I realized the series was running to an inevitable end. And that's the only time I ever created a series character on purpose. The problem was, he had to resolve, one way or another. If he got over the trauma, he'd become just another private eye, and I couldn't use him. If he settled into neurosis and became another self-pitying kvetch, I didn't want to be around him. At the end of DON'T LIE TO ME, he goes to sleep. I knew then he'd never wake up.
BRC: Besides the Mitchell Tobin novels, are there any of your other novels presently out of print that you would like to see reissued?
DW: All of them. That is, all of Westlake and Stark. Th-th-that's all, folks!
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PAST INTERVIEW
April 21, 2000
Prolific author Donald E. Westlake, often referred to as the Mystery grand master, is back again with his latest thriller, THE HOOK. Not simply a mystery, THE HOOK, like his recent book THE AX, is full of psychological suspense. Bookreporter.com's Senior Writer Joe Hartlaub has followed Westlake's career through the years, reading Westlake and his infamous pseudonym, Richard Stark. Delve into Donald's dark world with Joe as your guide in this interview.
TBR: Your first book, THE MERCENARIES, was published in 1960. This year marks your 40th year of publishing with the publication of your latest novel, THE HOOK. What are the most significant changes that you have seen in the business of writing and publishing in the past 40 years?
DW: All of the changes in publishing since 1960 are significant. There are far fewer publishers. The many magazines, ranging from pulp to slick, that used to serve as both farm teams for writers and lures to readers, with hundreds of short stories every month, don't exist. Most of the doors for new people have been sealed. On the positive side, the mystery genre has gained astonishing respect. Of the 8 publishers in hardcover that regularly did mysteries in 1960, the editors at 7, assigned to mysteries, were also the cookbook editors.
TBR: The underpinning of your new novel THE HOOK --- the tyranny of the computer over the book-publishing business --- rings too true to be fiction. Was that particular aspect of THE HOOK drawn from personal experience?
DW: I never directly draw fiction from personal experience, though I do absorb what I see and use some of it in different ways. A few writer friends of mine have had their careers under bombardment the last few years, which obviously I observed from a there-but-for-the-grace-of-God-go-I perspective.
TBR: One of the most enjoyable aspects of THE HOOK, for me, was the reproduction of Bryce Proctorr's outlines in which you not only showcase the deterioration of the man as a writer; but gently satirize the action-adventure literary genre. Do you by any chance have a completed, unpublished novel based on one of these outlines lurking in the wings? If so, will it ever see the light of day?
DW: Anybody who can turn one of Bryce's outlines into a completed novel wins a prize yet to be named. Those outlines are the equivalent of a room after the hand grenade goes off. The lamp and the chair and all the rest are still there, but not coherent.
TBR: Your book THE AX, a thriller now in paperback, is the chilling story about a downsized executive so desperate to get a job he decides to "off" his competition. The scariest thing about this book is that you almost believe the character's rationalizations for killing his peers. What was your inspiration for this cynical plot?
DW: There is nothing cynical about THE AX. As THE HOOK came from observing other people nailed to the floor, so did THE AX. A friend of mine, now retired, was then a major exec at a major bank, and one of her jobs, the last four years, was the farewell interview. What rose mostly from her stories was sadness, the spreading sadness of people being forcibly divorced from their lives. I have read, and believe, that anger is sadness projected outward. I thought, what if somebody turned that sadness into anger, not in a Polish-cavalry-against-the-Nazi-tanks heroic suicide way, but in a productive way? THE AX came from that.
TBR: What made you gravitate toward writing as a profession?
DW: My father wanted me to be an architect. The one thing I learned was that the kitchen and bathroom should be near each other, to simplify the plumbing. Nothing about it interested me. Or about anything else, except making up stories. If literacy weren't so nearly universal, God knows what I'd be. A drain on the State, I shouldn't wonder.
TBR: Your Parker novels have enjoyed a loyal following that has endured and in fact grown over the years. Will we be seeing any Parker novels from Richard Stark in the near future?
DW: You will see FLASHFIRE from Richard Stark, set partly in Palm Beach, in October or November, I forget which. You will see FIREBREAK by Richard Stark roughly a year after I finish it, which will be some time after I finish this.
TBR: You have been amazingly prolific over the course of your career. Could you share your work schedule with us?
DW: My work schedule has changed over the years. The one constant is, when at work on a novel, I try to work seven days a week, so as not to lose touch with that world. Within that, I'm flexible on hours and output. I used to be less flexible, but realized there was no point pushing myself, I was going to do it whether I cracked a whip over me or not. In my 20s and 30s I usually wrote at night, roughly 10 PM to 4 AM, alone in my lit room, like a solitary balloon sailing through the night. I loved it, but social reality impeded. Now I wander in here at 9 in the morning or so, and come back for a while in the afternoon. I am a very lenient boss.
TBR: Are you working on anything now?
DW: I am working on FIREBREAK, though at the moment I'm confused about what happens next in there. This is a good moment to clear the brain by thinking about something else. You, for instance. Thank you.
TBR: What authors have influenced your work?
DW: Lord, what authors have not influenced my work? Some have shown me errors I might have made if they hadn't made them first, for which I'm so grateful I won't mention their names. Others have wowed me with specifics: Theodore Sturgeon, Peter Rabe, Anthony Powell, many more. When I was 14 or 15 I read Hammett's THE THIN MAN (the first Hammett I'd read), and it was a defining moment. It was a sad, lonely, lost book, that pretended to be cheerful and aware and full of good fellowship, and I hadn't known you could do that. Seem to be telling this, but really telling that. Three-dimensional writing, like three-dimensional chess. Nabokov was the other master of that. You could learn something from Nabokov on every page he ever wrote.
TBR: What are you reading now?
DW: At the moment I'm reading STRANGE FRUIT, a fascinating history of that song and of Billy Holiday's link to it. Before that I read UNTOUCHABLE by John Banville, a terrific fictional retelling of the Anthony Blunt story. And before that THE WILD PARTY, the 1928 novel in rhyme by Joseph Moncure March that everybody but me right now is turning into a musical.
TBR: To date, what is your favorite novel that you have written?
DW: I always like the most recent novel best, because it's still vivid. However, not to waffle, my overall self-favorite is KAHAWA, because it kept getting bigger than it was supposed to be, and I kept following it, and I think I was fairly brave not to run away from it.
TBR: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
DW: Sorry; I have no space left for advice. Just do it.
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