Donald Westlake

I've been both fortunate and unfortunate enough over the years to meet a lot of my heroes. Some of them have been utterly cool -- Mark McGwire, for instance, was great, as were Richard Ford and Richard Russo -- and some have made me want to stick pins in my eyes -- John Easedale from Dramarama, I'm talking to you...but I think you were a drug addict or alcoholic when I met you, so I have no hard feelings, apart from the fact that I stopped buying your music for about a decade; and I once had a bad experience with Margaret Atwood, too, but that's another story all together and probably related to, you know, Canada and America being at war for all these years. And then some, like Donald Westlake who died on New Year's Eve, make you feel like you've known them for years and years and also teach you something in the process.

I first met Westlake a few years ago at the LA Times Festival of Books. We were on a panel together along with Eric Garcia and Stuart Woods moderated by Marcos McPeek Villatoro. It was a very cool panel in that Eric and I mostly sat there and stared at Westlake and tried not to embarrass ourselves, but mostly because Westlake kept saying things that made me completely reconsider how to approach writing fiction, never mind how to live a life as a writer that didn't make you a miserable piece of shit in the process. We sat next to each other in the signing booth after and chatted while I signed books for the 7 people in line for my signaturee and the 70 in line of his and I told him, in no uncertain terms, that he'd been a big influence on me, though I hadn't at the time written anything very noirish per se and he said that he hoped I read some better writers than him, too, just to fill out my field of knowledge.

That night, Lee and I got to chatting with him again at the annual Book Prize party the Times has...except that our chat turned into a three hour long conversation about writing, movies, screenplays, life, etc. that ended up being one of those moments for both Lee and I where, after, we said, "Did that really happen? Did we just spend three hours talking to Donald Westlake?" And the really cool thing was that it wasn't just that Westlake was pontificating, he was asking us stuff, too, we were actually talking to Donald Westlake and he seemed perfectly content, never mind that Lee and I were very nearly slobbering fools in his presence. He was sweet, effusive and told us great stories for an entire evening and then Lee and I sat in the car on the way home and repeated all of the stories back to each other, as if we hadn't both experienced them together.

Westlake was an excellent writer -- those of you not familiar with his novels are probably at least familiar with his screenplay for The Grifters -- and his influence on books and movies runs deep (again, for those of you not in the know, it's a good bet that Pulp Fiction wouldn't have existed without books like Westlake's Parker novels). Do yourself a favor and visit your local book store and pick up a title or two. You won't be sorry.

Comments

[pete medina]

Thanks, I know the best way to find out how to write is by reading his books, but could you share some of his thoughts on how to approach fiction

I have a bookcase full of his books, I always hang on to them.

[C.A. Gilder]

Tod, thank you for this entry!

I can honestly say that Donald E. Westlake was my very first "favorite" writer in that I had to have a copy of any DEW paperback I could find. I've read his stories over and over again.

It was great reading your post and your memories of having met him... I am so jealous!

He'll be missed...