Quote of the Day — Your Stars, Today
‘Darker, tonight, without the moon, but lots of high tiny white pinpoints of stars in clusters and lines and patterns all across the black sky, looking as though they really ought to mean something. If only the thousands of white dots were numbered, you could connect them, and then you’d know it all. The secret of the universe. But nobody even knows which dot is number one.’ ~ Donald E. Westlake, Drowned Hopes.
(Images from STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR and THE ELEPHANT MAN.)
February 8, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I trust you’re aware of the fact that Donald E. Westlake also writes crime thrillers under the name “Richard Stark.” In cinematic envisionments of “Stark” novels his hit man anti-hero has been played by Lee Marvin, Anna Karina, and Jim Brown.
Westlake also penned the superb script for Stephen Frears’ masterful Jim Thompson adaptation The Grifters .
February 8, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Yes, and the crook anti-hero Dortmunder has been played by Martin Lawrence, Robert Redford, Paul LeMat and George C Scott, under a variety of aliases.
(I had forgotten about the Godard connection though. Wild.)
If somebody made just one really good adaptation, they’d have a franchise on their hands. The books have a reassuringly predictable format, inside which Westlake springs lots of nice surprises, like the rogue astrology above.
February 8, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I’m sitting here naked thinking about the Great Books. God, they’re Great!
February 8, 2008 at 10:21 pm
They are, aren’t they? And you know what else they are? Books,
February 8, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Hey Denby! How’s it hangin’ ?
February 9, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Sweet and low, D-Ehr!