_Jimmy the Kid_, by Donald Westlake
Mar. 10th, 2013 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayNot long ago, I finished reading Westlake's Parker novels. They are stories of a professional thief who is a complete sociopath, but is so incredibly competent at what he does that you end up rooting for him, even though he's an awful human being. Westlake's other major series, the Dortmunder books, is almost the inverse. Dortmunder is also a professional thief, but he and his friends are comically *in*competent, yet full of amusing and entertaining character traits, so they are fun to read about.
_Jimmy the Kid_ is the third Dortmunder book, and comes with a fun, meta surprise. Dortmunder's friend comes to him with an idea for a new caper: (paraphrased) "I read this great book about a crook named Parker. Let's use his plan from the book!" The Parker book in question, _Child Heist_, was never published in our universe, but the glimpses of it we get here are classic Parker. Westlake does a few compare-and-contrasts, where he actually includes a complete chapter of _Child Heist_, showing Parker carefully pulling off some action, then follows that with a chapter showing the corresponding action getting flubbed by Dortmunder and friends. It's the kind of thing that could get out of hand, but he stops doing it before it wears out its welcome.
For those concerned about triggery content, be assured that nothing bad happens to the kidnap victim. For that matter, nothing *too* horrible happens to anyone: No deaths, a few relatively minor injuries, and lots of embarrassment. Recommended.
_Jimmy the Kid_ is the third Dortmunder book, and comes with a fun, meta surprise. Dortmunder's friend comes to him with an idea for a new caper: (paraphrased) "I read this great book about a crook named Parker. Let's use his plan from the book!" The Parker book in question, _Child Heist_, was never published in our universe, but the glimpses of it we get here are classic Parker. Westlake does a few compare-and-contrasts, where he actually includes a complete chapter of _Child Heist_, showing Parker carefully pulling off some action, then follows that with a chapter showing the corresponding action getting flubbed by Dortmunder and friends. It's the kind of thing that could get out of hand, but he stops doing it before it wears out its welcome.
For those concerned about triggery content, be assured that nothing bad happens to the kidnap victim. For that matter, nothing *too* horrible happens to anyone: No deaths, a few relatively minor injuries, and lots of embarrassment. Recommended.