Pulp Poem of the Week

sex with
needles

          Motörhead
          “Be My Baby”
          2006

Pulp Poem of the Week

There’s point driving
the getaway car
if nobody’s going
to get away.

          Donald E. Westlake
          Bad News
          2001

Pulp Poem of the Week

A little man—
a clerk or a butcher—
he can hide for a while,
but a guy so dumb
he can only make dough
writing words on paper—
he ain’t got a chance.

          Steve Fisher
          I Wake Up Screaming
          1941

Book Review: Donald E. Westlake, Bad News (2001)

An excellent Dortmunder in which Westlake succumbs to his weakness for low-hanging fruit only when he has to name law firms. (Kleinberg, Rhineberg, Steinberg, Weinberg & Klatsch, anyone?) This time out, Dortmunder helps to create a false heir to 1/3 of an Indian casino, and much of the fun is the route by which he ends up participating in this job that is far from his usual line of (illegal) work. While Bad News lacks the (surprising) gravitas of some of the preceding novels in the series, by this point the members of Dortmunder's crew (Stan, Tiny, Murch, Murch's mom) have (surprisingly?) passed the threshold of LOVABLE, and time spent with them is time delightfully spent. Grade A-