Freddie was a liar. Freddie was a thief.
Freddie Noon his name was, the fourth child of nine in a small tract house in Ozone Park. that's in Queens in New York City, next door to John F. Kennedy International Airport, directly beneath the approach path of every big plane coming in from Europe, except when the wind is from the southeast, which is very rarely is.
Throughout his childhood, the loud gray shadows of the wide-body jets swept across and across and across Freddie Noon and his brothers and his sisters and his house as though to wipe them clear of the table of life, but every shadow passed and they were still there.
What would be a better disguise for a thief than invisibility? Imagine how easy it would be to break into any building, leisurely explore rooms for loot, then leave the premises without any chance of someone seeing you, much less identifying you as a burglar. The possibilities are endless. Or so they might seem.
Invisibility is a two-edged sword as is soon discovered by Freddie Noon, the small time crook featured in Donald Westlake's Smoke. After being caught in the act stealing by two cancer researchers, Freddie "volunteers" to take their experimental drug designed to alter skin pigment and thus fight melanoma. Of course they reassure him that "Nothing will go wrong," and that they have the antidote which "won't be necessary at all." Cue the ironic music.
Freddie escapes and returns home only to discover his girlfriend cannot see him. She can hear him and feel him, but otherwise cannot detect him which obviously creeps her out. Even dressed, Freddie presents a headless and handless body of clothes across the breakfast table. Peg soon resolves this with full-head Halloween masks of Dick Tracy, Bart Simpson, Frankenstein's monster and the Ayatollah Khomeini. Playtex gloves complete his makeshift attire which he dons when entering the outside, visible world.
Stealing while invisible presents its own set of problems for Freddie, as Westlake gleefully describes. Whatever loot Freddie grabs does not become invisible and appears floating in the air as he makes his escape. Each theft, therefore, requires Freddie to plan a series of innovative strategies to take advantage of and also overcome the limitations of his invisibility, providing plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong.
All the while, Freddie is being pursued by the cancer researchers (hoping to confirm he actually is invisible so they can perfect and sell their formula), as well as a nefarious corporation who wants Freddie to be a spy for them and gather insider information from closed meetings, congressional hearings, jury deliberations, etc.
While this may all sound preposterous and idiotic, in the hands of a master storyteller like Donald Westlake, the characters are the spotlight. Unlike the invisibility of the scientist Griffin in H.G. Wells' Invisible Man which is haunting and eventually drives him mad, Freddie's situation is presented more ironically and comically as one offering tremendous possibilities along with unforeseen obstacles.
Westlake shares with readers all of Freddie's frustrations: shaving his invisible face, walking up stairs when he cannot see his feet, resting his eyes when he can see through his eyelids, kissing his girlfriend who cannot see his lips, and more everyday pitfalls. And there is real tension as Freddie works his trade while eluding bad guys and good guys alike.
Who will gain control of Freddie, including Freddie himself? Is there an antidote? What if the invisibility cannot be reversed? Questions and characters drive this plot forward to the last page. A fun, engrossing, thoroughly unexpected and compelling read, with plenty of tension as well as humor. This is one of my favorite books.
And remember, Westlake has many, many more books out there to explore (see below).
Invisibility is a two-edged sword as is soon discovered by Freddie Noon, the small time crook featured in Donald Westlake's Smoke. After being caught in the act stealing by two cancer researchers, Freddie "volunteers" to take their experimental drug designed to alter skin pigment and thus fight melanoma. Of course they reassure him that "Nothing will go wrong," and that they have the antidote which "won't be necessary at all." Cue the ironic music.
Freddie escapes and returns home only to discover his girlfriend cannot see him. She can hear him and feel him, but otherwise cannot detect him which obviously creeps her out. Even dressed, Freddie presents a headless and handless body of clothes across the breakfast table. Peg soon resolves this with full-head Halloween masks of Dick Tracy, Bart Simpson, Frankenstein's monster and the Ayatollah Khomeini. Playtex gloves complete his makeshift attire which he dons when entering the outside, visible world.
Stealing while invisible presents its own set of problems for Freddie, as Westlake gleefully describes. Whatever loot Freddie grabs does not become invisible and appears floating in the air as he makes his escape. Each theft, therefore, requires Freddie to plan a series of innovative strategies to take advantage of and also overcome the limitations of his invisibility, providing plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong.
All the while, Freddie is being pursued by the cancer researchers (hoping to confirm he actually is invisible so they can perfect and sell their formula), as well as a nefarious corporation who wants Freddie to be a spy for them and gather insider information from closed meetings, congressional hearings, jury deliberations, etc.
While this may all sound preposterous and idiotic, in the hands of a master storyteller like Donald Westlake, the characters are the spotlight. Unlike the invisibility of the scientist Griffin in H.G. Wells' Invisible Man which is haunting and eventually drives him mad, Freddie's situation is presented more ironically and comically as one offering tremendous possibilities along with unforeseen obstacles.
Westlake shares with readers all of Freddie's frustrations: shaving his invisible face, walking up stairs when he cannot see his feet, resting his eyes when he can see through his eyelids, kissing his girlfriend who cannot see his lips, and more everyday pitfalls. And there is real tension as Freddie works his trade while eluding bad guys and good guys alike.
Who will gain control of Freddie, including Freddie himself? Is there an antidote? What if the invisibility cannot be reversed? Questions and characters drive this plot forward to the last page. A fun, engrossing, thoroughly unexpected and compelling read, with plenty of tension as well as humor. This is one of my favorite books.
And remember, Westlake has many, many more books out there to explore (see below).
Happy reading.
Westlake, Donald E. The Hot Rock
John Dortrmunder and his gang of small time thieves must steal an emerald from its current owner and return it to its rightful owner. However, although the caper is successful, the gang finds it needs to commit another crime to complete the contract and secure the stone, then another, and then another, each excursion perfectly planned and executed without any violence, but with unexpected results.
Westlake, Donald E. The Ax
Westlake, Donald E. The HookA man decides his dream job is within his reach. All he has to do is kill the person holding the job and a small number of better qualified candidates. Can an ordinary man bring himself to commit several murders and make them look like accidents?
Two writers, one successful but facing writer's block, and one with a great book he cannot get published, agree to a pact to use each other's skills to get the book to market. Sounds straightforward? But wait, there is a murder clause in there that hangs over this suspenseful, twisting plot.
Also, check out this very handy Donald Westlake annotated bibliography of his writings under his own name.
Plots are given as well as critical evaluations, but no spoilers are used, so you can pick what looks interesting. My favorites include books about the comic Dortmunder heist stories (Jimmy, the Kid); terrorist/pacifist group mix-up (The Spy in the Ointment); locating Aztec statuettes (Dancing Aztecs); writing a porn novel (Adios, Scheherazade); fleeing from a gang (Fugitive Pigeon), and many, many more
On Westlake's web site, there is a bibliography of all his books, including those penned under his other pseudonyms.
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