Certain writers have influenced my writing style, for good or ill. Kurv Vonnegut, Lisa Lutz, Molly Ivins, Art Buchwald.
But I can't think of another comic crime writer who is as
consistently funny as Donald Westlake. This book, as with many by
Westlake, features the unlucky John Dortmunder. Through good intentions
and plenty of planning, he tries to show that crime can indeed pay. But
his plans often go up in flames, which is to Dortmunder a disaster but
to the reader a howling delight.
As with Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake can also write dark, most notably chronicling the adventures of Parker under the pseudonym Richard Stark.
Scott Butki: Mr. Westlake, I want to repeat that it is a
honor and great pleasure to communicate with you. First, I am not sure
what to call you. Which do you prefer: The comic crime caper captain or
master of many (un)mundane mystery masterpieces? Yes, I'm a sucker for
alliteration.
Donald: Go with the C string. But how about promoting me to commander?
Scott: What is your latest story about? This is another in the adventures of poor John Dortmunder, right?
Donald: In 1917, in the middle of WW1, Russia had its two
revolutions. Chaos. The British had left a large store of munitions up
in Murmansk, to use against the Germans if they chose to invade Germany
from the east. Now they didn't want the damn Red army to get those arms,
so the British & the US sent several hundred troops into northern
Russia, where they fought the Red army for 2 years, 1918-1920,
unencumbered by any declaration of war, that being the only time US
soldiers fought Russian soldiers on Russian soil.
All this is true. Now we invent. What if (which is where all stories
come from, by the way) a valuable chess set, gift for the czar, sailed
into Murmansk while the war was going on, got lost in the shuffle, found
in 1920 by a platoon of American troops, who smuggled it home, where
more shenanigans took place, so it became lost again. Now it's been
found and descendants of those soldiers want Dortmunder to get it back.
Scott: Which do you consider stranger – reality or fiction?
Donald: Reality is stranger than fiction because God doesn't have to worry about being plausible.
Scott: Do your own ideas, like the concept for the Ax or Hook, ever scare you?
Donald: My own ideas delight me. Why not?
Scott: I won't ask you about your own writing habits, because I previously wrote a piece mocking those who ask authors that question
but I am curious about your choice to use a typewriter instead of a
computer. You're probably tired of explaining that choice but indulge me
please: Why not use a computer? And if you don't like to use computers
how is it that we are communicating via email?
Donald: I learned on typewriters, and still use the make and model I
started writing on when I was 17. That means, when I work, I'm thinking
about the work and not the equipment. E-mail is a convenience I finally
cottoned to in 1999, so that I said I was entering the 20th century just
as everybody else was leaving it. The computer is extremely useful for
research, if you're careful about your sources. But when I write, or
read, I don't curl up with a good computer.
Scott: What question – besides the one about the typewriter
and questions about your Richard Stark alter ego- are you most tired of
being asked.
Donald: What advice I would give to anybody about anything. Life is a slow-motion avalanche, and none of us are steering
Scott: What question do you wish interviewers will ask that
they don't ask? Because this is your lucky day – you get to ask it and
answer it.
Donald: I was once -- and only once -- asked if I could have had a
writing career without the movies. That stopped me, and I was very happy
to have to think about it, and decide I knew the answer. Yes; not this
career, but a career.
Without movie money, either from writing screenplays or selling
rights to novels, I could still have enough of a career that I could
support myself and not have to work at some other job, but it would be,
shall we say, a less lavish lifestyle.
Scott: Who are your three favorite living writers and why?
Donald: That is impossible to answer. I like this, I don't like that. Nobody hits a home run every time at bat.
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