{"id":333,"date":"2005-06-06T21:38:20","date_gmt":"2005-06-07T01:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=333"},"modified":"2005-06-06T21:38:20","modified_gmt":"2005-06-07T01:38:20","slug":"westlake_donald_9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2005\/06\/westlake_donald_9\/","title":{"rendered":"Westlake, Donald E.: (13) Watch Your Back!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new Westlake novel, Watch Your Back!<\/cite>, is a much more satisfying piece of work than the last Dortmunder novel, Road to Ruin<\/cite><\/a>. Here, the (formerly) loathsome fence Arnie Albright hands Dortmunder and Co. an extremely easy job. However, Dortmunder’s concentration is badly disrupted by the mob’s taking over the O.J. Bar and Grill, the group’s usual place to meet and plan. Obviously, he simply must Do Something (sorry, briefly channeling Sorcery and Cecelia<\/cite><\/a>, there), and with what effect on the paying job . . . ?<\/p>\n

It’s not a hugely clever book, but it moves along well and it’s satisfying to see justice being served, Dortmunder-universe fashion. I’ll be interested to see what happens to the young character introduced here, who has the potential to be the first apprentice crook in the series to date (unless I’m seriously misremembering). I am deeply relieved that the Brain Eater appears not to have gotten Westlake after all.<\/p>\n

Oh, regarding the title and its exclamation point: according to Westlake’s webpage<\/a>, which will change soon enough,<\/p>\n

\n

there are two meanings for that phrase, the American meaning and the New York meaning (America and New York are always at odds, so why not here?), and it was the New York meaning I meant. In America, “watch your back” means be careful, someone means to do you harm. In New York, it means, “Comin’ through!” Move over, in other words, or get hurt. I added the exclamation point in an attempt to juke the reader toward the New York meaning.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The new Westlake novel, Watch Your Back!, is a much more satisfying piece of work than the last Dortmunder novel, Road to Ruin. Here, the (formerly) loathsome fence Arnie Albright hands Dortmunder and Co. an extremely easy job. However, Dortmunder’s concentration is badly disrupted by the mob’s taking over the O.J. Bar and Grill, the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Westlake, Donald E.: (13) Watch Your Back!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,66,6],"tags":[433],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-dortmunder","category-mystery","tag-westlake-donald-e"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}