Given how interested Westlake is in fleshing out the
psychology of the secondary characters in the Parker novels
(he uses whole chapters to plumb their pysches) I think it
might be interesting to view Parker as a extremely repressed
individual. Parker as he thinks of himself isnt a fully human
figure. He strives to be calculating, efficent and
"robot-like". All the people around him are fully human, they
have desires, interests and feel emotion. Parker can
recognize those desires interest and values but has few of
them himself. At least, he doesnt see himself as having them.
The work he does is done in an effort to make himself feel as
if he has a goal. What does he do with that money? He gets
rid of it as fast as he can so he can go do more work. His
feelings for Claire are supressed but he has them. In Deadly
Edge he acts in ways only explainable by deep feeling. I
wouldnt be at all surprised that if in the final Parker
novel
(hopefully dozens of titles from now) that Parker finally
breaks out of the repression of his feelings that he's felt
since his wife shot him (before the first novel began). The
cold-steely "self contained" character he seems must surely
be a mask that he wears. Otherwise he's just a demented
unfeeling whacko who pulls hesits like a serial killer
murders people. I'm okay with that. But perhaps Westlake
wouldnt be.
As for Westlake saying The Jugger was his worst novel I refer
you all to the link below which sums up the concept far
better than I could:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Nook/5171/books/jugger.html
Jesse
> As to Parker, I can't see him as a fully
formed
> character.
> He has been given a perfect functional
description
> by
> Stark, but besides planning and executing heists,
I
> can't
> tell what he thinks or believes in, or why.
That
> Westlake
> has succeeded time after time under such
limitations
> is a
> miracle, a glowing example of the "show, don't
tell"
> method.
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