Is it still possible in this age of generation gap, counterculture, revolution and militancy to write a funny novel about Caribbean dictatorships, the FBI, American business, Women’s Lib, gun-running, Erwin Rommel, divorce, pot, police brutality, the New Morality and selling rifles to the Indians? The answer is a resounding “Yes” if you happen to be one of America’s funniest writers named Donald E. Westlake, and your new novel happens to be called I Gave at the Office. The hero of I Gave at the Office is a television announcer named Jay Fisher who would rather not mention his employer’s initials. His normal life is spent as an anonymous stand-in interviewer of celebrities during lunch at a New York restaurant called The Three Mafiosi, but I Gave at the Office isn't about Jay Fisher’s normal life. It’s about what happens when Fisher is sent by the Network to cover the alleged secret invasion of the small Caribbean island of Ilha Pombo, and it permits the reader an exclusive opportunity to: • See Jay Fisher in troubled waters, having fallen off a boat in the middle of the night in the middle of the Caribbean in the middle of a thunderstorm. • See Jay Fisher spend an exciting Christmas in Wilton, Connecticut, with his ex-wife and his insurance man. • See Jay Fisher fall in love in a swimming pool with a beautiful blonde whose top is on the bottom. • See Jay Fisher, representing Good Americans everywhere, face-to-face with a Latin American dictator in the depths of his own palace, very nearly light his cigar. Donald E. Westlake’s most recent comic-suspense novel, The Hot Rock, was called by The New York Times Book Review “awesomely close to the ultimate in comic, big caper novels.” I Gave at the Office may be the ultimate.
Author
Donald E. Westlake (1933-2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950's, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms such as Richard Stark—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and Parker, a ruthless criminal. His writing earned him three Edgar Awards: the 1968 Best Novel award for God Save the Mark; the 1990 Best Short Story award for "Too Many Crooks"; and the 1991 Best Motion Picture Screenplay award for The Grifters. In addition, Westlake also earned a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1993. Westlake's cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson's noir classic. Some of the pseudonyms he used include • Richard Stark • Timothy J. Culver • Tucker Coe • Curt Clark • J. Morgan Cunningham • Judson Jack Carmichael • D.E. Westlake • Donald I. Vestlejk • Don Westlake
