It is with sadness that I report the death of the brilliant writer Donald E. Westlake. One of the most gifted prose stylists in the English language, he will be best remembered for the many novels starring the morosely inept thief John Dortmunder and his crew. Westlake suffered a heart attack while on his way to a New Year's Eve dinner; he was vacationing in Mexico.
Yahoo News
Westlake's agility with language and plotting made his books satisfying in multiple ways. In my opinion his ability to construct complex story lines and build humorous situations was second only to P.G. Wodehouse.
Any fan of Westlake's writing will know the various characters who populate his Dortmunder novels: John himself, a perpetual Eeyore; May, his grimly dedicated life-partner; the gargantuan Tiny Bulcher, who in one novel is shown actually picking up subcompact cars and putting them into a tractor-trailer; Andy Kelp, who never knocks, and always steals cars with M.D. plates; Stan Murch, who will tell you every possible route he could have driven to make the rendezvous, and who listens recreationally to racecar-noise records with his Mom; the regulars at the O.J., whose malapropistic conversations are a recurring theme...oh, the list goes on and on.
Westlake also wrote countless screenplays, novels under various pseudonyms, most notably Richard Stark (whose "Parker" novels were as grim and noir-ish as the Dortmunder books were hilarious). His writing was stylistically versatile, internally consistent, and rich with references and allusions.
I cannot remember when I first became aware of Westlake's work, but for at least thirty years I have been a fan. To be sure, some of his books were stronger than others...but when he was on top of his game, there was no living writer who could make me laugh harder, or whose books I was so eager to re-read. It's sad to think that this prodigiously gifted and hard-working writer has now put a full stop to his wonderfully complex life sentence.
Here are a couple of links:
Wikipedia
Westlake's website
Please share your favorite Westlake quotes and moments in the comments.
R.I.P. to a great one.