This is the longest Dortmunder novel coming in at 422 pages in the 1990 Mysterious Press edition. In The Hot Rock length is achieved by having the team perform multiple jobs to cope with a cascading series of problems. Each new caper is tightly defined and once the initial disbelief is overcome, just as tightly planned and executed. In Drowned Hopes the book also gains its length from multiple capers, but this time it is the same one over and over again. Sounds boring, right? But it’s not.The sequence of capers is based on a natural-seeming progression of trial and error. Error in the sense of failure (something that we know Dortmunder and friends have past experience with) and trial in the sense of “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Along the way there are plenty of characters, diversions, and mini-/micro-plots. Some might think the book overly long and padded. Is it? I did not think so when reading it, but after a few days I can imagine it being a bit shorter, but not by much.While a lot of the length comes from the repetitively attempted jobs, a fair amount of it also comes from the introduction of several necessary characters (and some that add to the fun, but could have been left out for brevity). At the top of the list is Tom, a former cellmate of Dortmunder. He was only released from prison because he’s old and been inside fro a very long time, money is tight at all levels of government, and the prison system is filled to overflowing straining said budgets even further. So Tom gets released despite his being a hard-nosed, homicidal career criminal. Next comes Wally, a friend of Andy Kelp’s who (remember the book was released in 1990) knows computers and software and how to locate and retrieve information from sources that he may not have legal access to. The third essential is Doug a competent, diver and diving instructor who’s had a few problems of his own. The rest of the characters liven up the story in little comedies here and there.Like all of the previous novels, this one breaks fresh ground in plot and caper. Tom buried a sizable stash (700k) from an armored car heist almost thirty years ago. He had the habit of saving stashes in out-of-the-way places so that he would have access to funds whenever he needed them. But he also had the habit of double-crossing (often permanently) his associates during or after each job. But while he was “inside” the successfully hidden armored car bundle became part of a reservoir, making it a bit difficult to regain.Tom comes to Dortmunder since he knows him to be a competent criminal who can follow a plan and execute it. Tom’s plan is simplicity itself: blow up the dam, drain the water, and grab the stash. Unlike everyone else, the hundreds of people living downstream from the dam are of no account to Tom. John (and more importantly, May) find this unacceptable and so John suggests that Tom let him come up with an alternative. That’s when the real fun begins.Like all of the Dortmunder stories, this is a fast and easy read. It flows along nicely for most of its length. The details that make an occasional passage seem unnecessary are later “rescued” by a further plot twist or revelation. As in all of the books, the author does an admirable job of tying things up before bringing down the curtain. This may be one of the less funny entries, but the writing and story are as good as or better than any other book in the series. Here, the comedy is a little more off to the side and the story feels more serious (but the premise is nutty). Another Four (4) Star outing for John & company.
For a series of criminal capers, Westlake’s Dortmunder novels unspool at their own comfortable pace. Readers just sit back and let the whole thing unravel in front of them. The same amusing characters – Andy Kelp, Stan Murch, et al – appear again and again, and it’s like being with friends (shady, criminal and sometimes incompetent friends, but friends nevertheless). That’s not to say that these books lack dramatic tension or suspense, as Westlake will happily take his readers to a point of real jeopardy. These are your friends after all, and you do care what happens to your friends.An old and very mean cellmate of Dortmunder’s emerges from prison with the tale of how his greatest ever hoard is now buried beneath the soil and water of a large reservoir. He enlists Dortmunder to help him recover it. If Dortmunder fails, the old cellmate will just blow up the reservoir and drown everybody below.It’s a beautiful scenario of difficult operation versus greed (as well as responsibility to fellow man), and is perfect for Westlake’s laid-back comic set pieces. I’m not spoiling anything by saying that attempt after attempt goes wrong, so that by the end the reader really does empathise with how frazzled Dortmunder is. A particular highlight is the attendance of a low-taste wedding and then – in my favourite plot strand – the activities of the gang unwittingly costing the bridegroom his sanity.It’s always tempting to compare these books to the work the same writer did under his Richard Stark non de plume, but they come from different directions. The Parker tales are a deadly cut-throat razor on a cold dawn, while the Dortmunder capers are a nice lie-in followed by a hot breakfast later that very same morning.
What do You think about Drowned Hopes (1991)?
This was my introduction to Donald Westlake and there are things I really like. He is funny and plays with language. John Archibald Dortmunder is an anti-hero, a small time criminal who literally struggles to keep his head above water in this tale. His old cellmate, Tom Jimson, shows up unannounced at Dortmunder's home with a proposal for a caper that John just can't stomach. Many years ago, Tom heisted $700,000 that he stashed behind the library in a small town in upstate New York. He did some time, lots of time and the state of New York put in a reservoir that put Tom's money under 50 feet of water. Tom is looking for help to blow up the dam so he can get his money, retire and live quietly. John and his wife are horrified at the thought of the many people who would be drowned by the dam breaking, but Tom cares not a bit. John and his big, not totally pure heart take on the job of getting the money by some less harmful means. Tom has to get money out of some of his other stashes to fund the deal, other expertise has to be called upon, and the caper is off. My favorite line is "Real life. The greatest interactive fiction of them all." The story is a bit convoluted and clumsy at times, but I will watch for more by this author.
—Martha Grace
(This was a "shared read" with Donald-- my first time reading a Westlake novel. Donald had listened to a couple audiobook versions of other "Dortmunder" novels, so we chose this based on those experiences. As always, a shared read means no nit-picking witty, insightful, and detailed reactions.)We laughed a lot during the reading. That's a good sign in a comedic "crime caper" novel. I could easily imaging this book being turned into a film. (And that's a compliment, in this case.)I think we both agree that the book was a little on the long side (400+ pages) for reading together, which always slows down a reading even further. There were parts that probably could've been edited out. Personally, I felt my interest wander whenever we got paragraphs of descriptions of the particulars of "how stuff works"-- or how the zany gang was physically arranging things. Yeah, I don't really care about that sort of thing, and I don't have much success in visualizing it, honestly. I'd much rather read dialogue than descriptions of objects being maneuvered. Fortunately, those boring bits were fairly few and far between.The characters (according to Donald) are mostly the same recurring cast from the rest of the Dortmunder series, but apart from one or two references to previous books, I didn't feel like I was stepping into the middle of a story without knowing the background.Drowned Hopes was first published in 1990. Now, I remember 1990-- or parts of it-- quite well, so it pains me to realize that a novel published that year should seem slightly dated at times. Not in any way that is detrimental to the enjoyment of reading it, but yes, dated. (It's like when I watch a re-run of Seinfeld, laugh at some outdated piece of technology or hairstyle-- or Jerry's "mom jeans". I think, "But it hasn't been that long since this show was on..." And then I do the math and realize that, yes, it has been 25 years since the first episode aired, and gosh, I'm not getting any younger, either. Yikes.)So, final word: The story was amusing-- very funny in parts-- and certainly good enough that I'd read more by the author. (But maybe further down the road, because it felt like this one took quite a while to finish, and I'm ready for something different.)
—Michael
This may be my favorite of the Dortmunder novels (that I've read). Which is funny because while they all share the pessimistic worldview of Dortmunder himself, this was the first one where Westlake's side narratives painted a truly dark and misanthropic, if humorously done, picture of the world. Maybe because the antagonist of this book is so much darker then the ones in the other D. novels I've read? So, anyway, that tonal switch interested me. I also favor this book because it had a three paragraph sequence that actually made me laugh out loud for several minutes thanks to the sentence that culminates it (for anyone who's read the book or will read the book, it's the scene with the postman). I really admire things that prompt a visceral response, rather then you just smiling slightly to yourself while thinking "Oh, that's funny."
—Alex
