Dortmunder and Parker

Currently I am listening to Donald Westlake's Dortmunder novels. I have read many of the Richard Stark pen named Parker novels and wanted to discover the differences between these two series. The Dortmunder novels are getting more and more funny as they go along—I am on the fifth one now: (Why Me?). I am glad that Westlake did not try to make Parker into this comic character but invented a whole new series for to vent his farsical criminal activities.

I have not published any reviews of the Parker books because I am trying to just let them develop before I form final thoughts. I can say that they are an excellent vehicle for Westlake to display his substantial minimalistic writing skills. Both Dortmunder and Parker are both very funny; Dortmunder because he is so inept, and Parker because he is so devoid of human feelings. In a Dortmnuder book you get the character getting a stolen ring stuck of his finger while he is arrested and questioned by the Police—while in a Parker book you get lines like, "He waved the Tommy gun at him conversationally." One is slapstick and the other is situational. Both funny in their own way. At the moment I think the Parker series is masterful and the Dortmunder series merely entertaining.

The Dortmunder books can stand alone but the Parker books are each like chapters in a very long novel. Westlake writes Dortmunder filled with scenes that are outlandishly comedic. He writes Parker with prose to sparse that it has you going back to see how you know what you know about a situation. Dortmunder is doomed to fail. Parker is always a surprise. I never know where the stor is going. If I had to lick just on, it would be Parker; hands down.