Smoke by Donald E. Westlake Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Smoke
Book Review: My Hopes Went Up In Smoke
Summary: 2 Stars
After all the hype about Donald E. Westlake, I decided to read one of his novels to get in on the fun. Maybe SMOKE is an exception to his usually good romps, but I was really bored throughout the novel. With the exception of a couple of characters, the rest of them were stereotyped, formless and boring. So much could have been done with this great plot. Oh, well.... I won't give up on Mr. Westlake. His Dortmunder novels get great press, so guess I'll give one of those a try. I WANT to like his writing. So many people do! Help me out, folks. Am I missing something?!!Book Review: Old Idea - boring redone
Summary: 1 Stars
Did you ever see the film "Memoirs of an Invisible Man" with Chevy Chase? Unfortunately the film is from 1992 and the book (at least mine) dates from 1995. There are some details all too similar to be accidental (e.g. that everything is invisible except the things in the stomach or the restaurant scene). But the film is much better than the book - I wish I would have read the first one!Book Review: The Joys of Being Invisible
Summary: 3 Stars
Freddie Urban Noone, contrary to his initials, is not having fun. During a normal business day, which for Freddie is robbery/burglary, he runs afoul of two young research doctors. They capture Freddie, and decide he will be their human volunteer for an experiment they are conducting for a tobacco research institute. The experiment inadvertently succeeds beyond any expectation, and Freddie is invisible-and escapes. Everyone: doctors, tobacco industry, and crooked cops want Freddie for all the wrong reasons.The author has given careful thought to all aspects of being invisible and uses them well. In a nutshell, invisibility has few advantages and many woes for the hapless victim. Freddie must either be naked (including shoeless) or done up like a scarecrow with a fright mask, gloves, and every inch of him covered. He must modestly distance himself from the public for at least two hours after dining while his food travels down his intestinal track. Freddy fortunately has a sunny disposition and a great deal of patience. He also is blessed with a cheery, beautiful, slightly skewed girlfriend who reminded me of Elaine in Seinfeld without the neuroses.
The book has many humorous moments and some excellent insights, but it seems erratically paced. There are slow moments and repetitious action. I felt the author got a little weary of his own edifice. The ending was so abrupt; I actually looked for a few more pages. I don't know if it was Mr. Westlake's intent, but the last scene seems melancholy and wistful. The farce turned into a melodrama without a connecting passage. I was left vaguely unsatisfied.
Book Review: The one that got away
Summary: 5 Stars
Donald Westlake has never written a book, that I know of, about an honest person doing an honest days work. Freddy Noon, the protagonist of this story is unusual in that life is pretty good for him. He dosn't suffer the kind of perpetual disaster of the Sort visited on Dortmunder and Co, but when things go wrong for Fredy, they go very badly wrong. Freddy is a thief that one day makes the mistake of trying to rip off a research establishement. He is captured and turned into a scientific subject. The results of this experiment toss his life upside down and threaten to cost him his girlfriend and launch several threats on his life. This experiment also makes Freddy's career take off. This book is typical Westlake, which is to say it is very well written, the story moves like an express train, you have a lot of fun reading it and there is no gain to doing so.
Westlake does not have a menagerie of freeks, despite what happens to Freddy he is not a freek, nor does he populate his universe with cardboard cutouts. Freddy is as real and vital. The people in Westlake's books interact in so honest a fashion it startles one to realize what has happend to your sympathies.
This book can also be viewed as an allagory of what life is like in the modern world. All there are is compromises, and you have to give up a great deal for succuess, which might cost you more than the gain is worth. This loss is permenant.
Even the Freddy's name is alegorical. His life is very much the "Urban Noon"
Book Review: The only book I've ever read that made me laugh out loud.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Smoke" is about a criminal who is invisible. Does that mean that he can get away with ANY crime? No way. As you read this, you will find out that being invisible and a criminal don't work well together. Absolutely hilarious. I read it in three days!