Bookmark this one: “The Many Lives of Donald Westlake: On the man who created Parker and the quest for the perfect character,” by Michael Weinreb.
I was interviewed for the piece, but that’s not why I’m giving it its own post. (I’m barely quoted, which is fine by me as I’m not a big fan of a public profile anyway, but I provided a great deal of information “on background,” as we say in the biz.)
If you aren’t familiar with Grantland, it was created by sportswriter Bill Simmons as an outlet for top-notch writing on sports and pop culture. It has a deserved reputation for excellence, as demonstrated by this fantastic article.
You’re going to love it. I also think it’s the single best way, short of convincing the person to pick up a book, to serve as an introduction for anyone who asks you, “So who is this Donald Westlake (or Richard Stark) guy that you love so much?”
I intend to use it for that very purpose just as soon as I’m done writing this post. Check it out.
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You’ve got your fingers in every Parker pie! :)
I totally agree, this was a fantastic article. I’m a big Bill Simmons fan, but I have to say that I have been disappointed with Grantland. The sports writing has been top-notch, but the popular culture stuff has been fairly low-brow and uninteresting, seemingly aimed at the post-SNL celebrity-obsessed demographic.
This article, however, is precisely the kind of quality writing and research (and appreciation) on a slightly less than mainstream (although with the love Westlake has finally been getting recently, Parker is getting pretty mainstream) subject that I was hoping to get from Grantland.
Lawrence Block shared the link to this article on his Facebook page yesterday and it’s the best thing I have read yet about DEW.