2 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: The Hunter by Richard Stark
I have enjoyed both Westlakes, the light one and the dark one. Both got a bit repetitive in the end, but overall both character arcs worked well in their own genre. I think it was very clever to divide his writing to two pen names, as otherwise the readers would have needed to separate the two themselves.
Comment by Strange-Avenues at 24/02/2025 at 18:39 UTC
1 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I really enjoyed The Hunter and accepted that it was a mark of its time for anything that might be problematic for the modern audience.
I haven't read Westlakes other works and may look into them once I have finished the Parker novels. The formulaic approach you mention with it being repetitive seems to be common among authors of the 60's to the 80's and was very hard to break out of.
The biggest issue I had was separating Parker from his movie versions. I have sene Payback and Parker but not the older films so the film versions I have seen are more likable to an extent.
I think I could get behind a proper adaptation with Parker being the cold ruthless monster from the first book and I believe there is an audience for that, but the way film adaptations are and the way they want to portray the character is to make him someone yoi want to root for because he is a charming and funny guy who doesn't hurt innocent people.