King and Westlake

[Maoster]

Just finished the book for the first time and really enjoyed it. What really amazed me was the reference early on to the books of Donald Westlake, who under his own name wrote various (fairly lighthearted) crime capers but under the name of Richard Stark writes jet black crime noir stories, with a really violent and amoral lead character, "Parker". It always amazed me that the same writer could churn out such utterly different novels.

I have been a massive Westlake/Stark fan for years and wasn't aware of this connection to a SK novel. I wonder how much the Stark/Westlake dichotomy above inspired SK in writing this book - and also whether SK and Westlake ever discussed it or if he actually read the Dark Half?

I don't know if any of you guys have read the books in question and if so what you think of them?

Cheers

Mark

[Bev Vincent]

The "Richard" part of Richard Bachman came from Westlake's pen name. I like Westlake's caper novels best.

[Pucker]

Westlake is pecious . . . especially if you like a little humor with your . . . humor.

The Dortmunder novels are exceptional and I also highly recommend Axe, about a guy who goes about saving his job by . . .


well, you'll have to read it for yourelf.

[GNTLGNT]

"Duality" is quite the King hallmark(when he cares to send the very best)...