Looong post ahead!
The poker game novel is one of the real stumpers in
Block/Westlake pseudonym hunting. Chances are it was a sleaze
novel, and the best reference source on Block/Westlake
paperback original sleaze is Lynn Munroe's catalog #24. But
even Munroe says "No one involved [in the poker game novel]
will "remember" today the published title or pen name."
In Munroe's great article on Hal Dresner and other early
sleaze writers
(in Books are Everything #30, 1995), Dresner tells the story
like this:
"The weekly poker game produced one book written mostly in a
ten hour stretch: one writer at the machine while six others
played cards. The purpose was to provide some funds for the
widow of a writer who had recently died. The final ms needed
some reworking as speed was a higher priority than
consistency. I recall that the lead character was, at various
times, called by different names; his military history was,
depending upon the writer, a stint in the Marines, Air Force,
and Navy; and during one 24-hour period there were two
sunsets and three sunrises. Still the final product was
saleable and, legend has it, Scott Meredith even waived his
commission. If true, that is the most remarkable aspect of
all."
The Joe Gores version of the poker game novel story suggests
another twist. Given that Gores says each writer only read
the last page of the previous chapter, a possible working
method would be Chapter 1: A does B, Chapter 2: B does C,
etc. to Chapter 10: J does A, completing the loop. Westlake
mentions this technique in Adios, Scheherezade, and according
to Dresner, he and Westlake do this as they follow a wallet
changing hands in Lust Trail (as by Don Holliday, Leisure
Book 652, 1964). I'm still looking for a good candidate with
this plot device among the giant trash mountain of '60s
paperback sleaze.
(Probably the most famous truly literary work using this
device is Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde, which was on Broadway
last fall in David Hare's adaption The Blue Room, which
starred Nicole Kidman's butt, which also appeared in the
scary movie Dead Calm, based on a Charles Williams novel--
hey, right back on topic!)
Finally, I'd like to state that from uncomfortable personal
experience, Lawrence Block really really really does not want
to talk about or sign his early pseudonym stuff. So if anyone
emails him and he writes back with an answer, please let me
know!
Bob Vietrogoski, proud to be born in 1968
rav7@columbia.edu
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