Comic guy's mother loves Westlake!

Conversation turned to a familiar but endlessly interesting subject at my local comics shop this evening.

"My mom loves everything by Westlake," the clerk said. "No matter what name he writes under."

"Who loves Westlake?"

"My mom."

"You have a pretty cool mom," I said.

"Oh, yeah. She loves sex, violence and humor."

That sounds like one righteous mother.

***

The day's other Westlake note is on deadpan humor. The Man With the Getaway Face, second of the twenty-four novels Westlake wrote under the name Richard Stark about the deadly and deadly efficient thief Parker, contains three gorgeous examples. The last is a bit of a spoiler and the third is long, so I'll quote the first:

"Skimm was standing by the stove, watching a battered tin coffee pot. He'd spent so much of his life jungled up he didn't know how to make coffee any other way but in an old beat-up pot. There were two heavy china mugs on the table, and steel spoons, but no saucers. A pint of Old Mr. Boston stood next to one mug.

"`Sit down,' Skimm said, `she's almost ready.'

"Parker sat down at the table and lit a cigarette. `You got an ash tray?'

"`Yeah, wait a second.' Skimm looked around and then brought a saucer over to the table. `Here you are.'"

© Peter Rozovsky 2011