Richard Stark's Parker year one

This looks like turning into a series that is well worth following - The Archive is a great fan of the Richard Stark Parker series and will be following this series on, All Pulp which looks at the history of the character.

"In this series of articles, Van Allen Plexico explores the history of Richard Stark’s (Donald E. Westlake’s) criminal pulp noir character, “Parker,” in his many appearances across various media. In this first installment, we discover Parker’s origins and earliest appearances."

Find it HERE

THE OUTFIT BY RICHARD STARK

Historical data:
Originally published 1963
This edition Chicago University Press
cover price $14.00
As by Richard Stark AKA the late Donald Westlake

This is the third in the Parker series and although I enjoyed the previous book, The Man with the Getaway Face, this third volume is much more in the style of the debut Parker novel, The Hunter. Indeed the first three Parker books are something of a trilogy.

When we left Parker he'd had a facelift, robbed an armoured car, wasted the bird who fingered the robbery and avenged the death of his plastic surgeon. And all in the usual bizarrely humorous Parker style. This third books starts with Parker still getting trouble from the outfit - word on his new face is out and having to constantly look over his shoulder is making it difficult to operate.

Parker's fed up of running and he decides to become such a thorn in the outfit's side they they lay off him. Another relentlessly paced thriller follows with Parker coming across as brutally nasty and yet compelling as ever. Even with the author's minimalist style the book is highly coloured and the network of professional thieves Parker mobilises to hit at the Outfit are as well organised as any covert governmental department.

The Parker books are true classics - perhaps a little too brutal and morally ambiguous for the mainstream, but I have no doubt that the Parker books will one day be up there with the classics of noir. Or,as the French call them, Roman noir - the term roman noir (“black novel") was employed to describe a range of books, some that an English speaker might think of as mysteries, others as gothic melodramas.


On a personal level I'm still a newcomer to the books - I've done the first three as well as several of the later Parker books and I've enjoyed each and every one. Though Parker does seem to become a slightly mellower character in the later adventures and, although still worth reading, it is these early books that are the real deal.

The world Parker in which operates is a very real world that exists in parallel with the commonplace and Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) knows this world very well.

These are excellent books and my favourite series at the moment.

ASK THE PARROT - RICHARD STARK

ASK THE PARROT
RICHARD STARK
QUERCUS BOOKS
£6.99 (USA COVER SHOWN)

Parker's back and it's just like him to be thrown into the action from the first page - when this book opens he's running through a woodland, the police in pursuit after a bank heist - he can hear the police dogs behind him and he runs straight into a pointed gun.

The guy holding the gun's not a cop, though. But local Tom Lindahl who has his own plans for Parker. The man, a recluse, who lives along with a mute parrot is bitter and when he comes across Parker he sees a plan to get back at those who wronged him in the past and in doing so become incredibly rich.

An early scene in the book, where Parker with Lindahl joins up with the posse looking for him bristles with suspense and excitement. The reader is always aware of what Parker is capable of and at any moment he could hit boiling point.

Man, I love the Parker books and I've still got so many more to discover.

PARKER'S BACK IN GRAPHIC FORM

Darwyn Cooke's graphic novel of Richard Stark's first Parker novel, The Hunter AKA Point Blank AKA Payback is due to hit stores in July. Fans eager to see the book can find a preview HERE.

I'm more than looking forward to this one myself, having only recently discovered the Parker books and reading The Hunter for the most part with my mouth hanging open in amazement.

The books really are wonderful and the graphic novel looks to be shaping up nicely - go and check out the preview and look at the first few pages.

FLASHFIRE - PARKER'S BACK

FLASHFIRE
RICHARD STARK
QUERCUS £7.99

This is only the second Parker book I've read - that fact that it's number 23 in the series did nothing to spoil my enjoyment and I didn't need to know the entire history of the series to follow the story. In fact it's very much a standalone novel and once again has left me eager to start my next Stark/Parker.

The book starts off with a bang when Parker tosses a petrol bomb into a garage in order to create a diversion for an armed gang to carry out a robbery in another part of town.

However Parker's double crossed by the gang who want to keep his stake in order to finance a jewel robbery further down the line. Their big mistake is leaving Parker alive when they flee to carry out their plans.

Another lesson in hardboild excellence that left me clamouring for more of the enigmatic Parker and I've just moved Firebreak, another Parker, to the top of my TBR pile.

Parker, stubborn old git that he is follows the gang to Palm Springs and sets about putting a plan together that will see his money returned to him, or at least that's the theory. As with The Hunter, the only other Parker I've read thus far, the story moves along at a breakneck pace. And Parker's just as nasty as ever and totally without redeeming features.

PAYBACK

I saw this movie a few years back and remember enjoying it but, in those days, I never knew anything about the Richard Stark/Parker book on which it was based. And then recently I read my first Parker - The Hunter and was so impressed that I wanted to see the movie again.

And so one Amazon order later the disc is spinning in my DVD player.

Okay it's still an enjoyable enough movie but after reading the book the flaws become visible. Firstly in this movie the Parker character is called Porter - I don't understand the reasoning behind the name change. And secondly although the character goes against Mel Gibson's "NICE GUY" image (or at least the image he used to have) it's still a watered down version of the remarkable character Richard Stark/Donald Westlake invented.

There are a few major plot changes too - although the reasoning for Porter/Parker's wife double crossing and shooting him is stronger than the book, the rest of the film, particularly the Hollywood ending, is much weaker.

Mel Gibson is fine in the role and does come across, for the most part, as the nasty lowlife of the books but as always the book is far inferior to the source material.

A good film then, very good in fact, but not exactly Richard Stark's Parker. In fact I think I liked it a lot more when I didn't have the book to compare it with.

The other film based on the book was Point Blank which again I haven't seen for years but I've got that movie on the way so expect a review here soon.

THE HUNTER AKA POINT BLANK AKA PAYBACK BY RICHARD STARK

Richard (Donald Westlake) Stark's Parker is a character I know by reputation and until now I had never read any of the books that people so rave about. Anyway I recently purchased the new Alison&Busby edition (which is not the one pictured) of Point Blank, originally titled The Hunter.

Now I kinda' knew what to expect from the book - I'd seen the both the Mel Gibson and Lee Marvin movies based on the book. I started reading it last night and I finished it after a second sitting about ten minutes ago.

All I can say is, wow!

"The funnies call it the syndicate. The goons and hustlers call it the Outfit. You call it the Organization..But I don't care if you call yourselves the Red Cross, you owe me forty-five thousand dollars and you'll pay me back whether you like it or not."

To say the character of Parker is relentless is something of an understatement - is there a nastier, more cruel anti-hero in all of fiction?

The Parker books are widely considered classics and any thoughts I have on the character are redundant but I will say I bloody loved the book and have just ordered two more Stark/Parkers.

Excellent stuff