1.My dad told me a story about something he used to do. Back in the dark ages, when people didn't use the internet they relied on other means for doing things that we now do with just a few keystrokes.For example, if you're in the construction industry today, and you are a salesman you can log on to a website and see all the projects that are being worked on, being bid on and use that website to place your own bid to do work.Back then they had clunky big blue books that served this purpose.I'm not sure when this story takes place. It was in the eighties, since we were living in Tenafly at the time. But my dad had various sales jobs during this time. What I'm saying is I don't know exactly what my dad was selling at the time and if I did it wouldn't matter much to you anyway because it's just concrete, some sort of concrete something or other that goes on floors. Apparently, my dad would take out ads sometimes for fictitious future construction projects in these clunky big blue books, or in some similarly unwieldy print resource (it boggles my mind to even think that at one point I had even done research for college papers using something like the Readers Guide to Periodicals). Then he'd wait for his competition, people who sold similar products to what he sold to submit bids so that he could see what prices they were offering and then he could adjust his own price accordingly. Apparently, a few times confused salesmen showed up at our house, thinking they were going to be doing a cold call at a business only to find a little suburban home with two cars in the drive way, a basketball hope and a shit ton of toy guns scattered all over the yard. I never knew this until last year.2.This novel is like that story (but much more engaging, interesting and better written). The novel centers around a man who a couple of years earlier had been laid off from a paper company.Times are tough.He's not alone in the mid-90's downsizing. He was good at his job, but not spectacular. He is competent and would be a great addition to a company, but he has no knack for resume writing. He doesn't now how to smooze his way through interviews. He's had no luck.So he makes up a fake company name and places an ad in a widely read paper manufacturing trade journal for what he thinks of as the job he is ideally suited for, with his experience and all of that. And then he waits for the resumes from other unemployed hopefuls to roll in, so he can see who his real competition is.And then kill all of the people who look better on paper, who have more experience, who he would hire instead of himself if he were looking to really fill this fictitious position.Because he also has in mind an actual position at with a near by paper company, a position he would be perfect for if only something were to happen to the person who holds the job now. Of course he must go, too.3.Reading this I kept thinking, how has this plot not been done before?Maybe it has and I don't know about the book. It's possible since there are millions of them. 4.The book follows our hero as he goes from being a mild mannered unemployed middle class everyman to being a serial killer. It's pretty fun, kind of painful (in the awkwardness and sometimes gruesomeness of the situations, not in the writing) to read at times, and it does sort of drag for a bit towards the start of the second half, but it's a good mixture of the comedic aspects of Westlake's work with the darker side of his Stark persona. This isn't necessarily the first Westlake novel I'd recommend to someone, but it's worth reading, and might appeal to people who aren't all that interested in reading his more crime oriented novels (like murder isn't a crime? (well you know what I mean, the heist sort of novels)), or who want to read something in the same vein of Thomas Berger's non-early books.
I think Donald E Westlake is rather like Lawrence Block, whose novel 'Grifter's Game' I read recently. Until his death in 2008, Westlake, an American, was a consummate and prolific writer of crime novels and short stories. Yet I suspect his work is not as well-known as it deserves to be. That is such a shame. He is a writer of great variety and ingenuity. His novels about Parker, a ruthless hitman (written under the pseudonym Richard Stark), are very good. So, too, is his Burglar series of novels. Those stories feature a not very good thief called Dortmunder and are light and humorous. Westlake also wrote a number of standalone crime novels, of which this one - 'The Ax'- is one of the best. It's perhaps not quite as good as the extracts from professional reviews on the front and back covers and the opening four pages of the paperback edition suggest. But it's certainly a very good crime story and an entertaining satire about one of the downsides of capitalism: enforced redundancy.The principal character is Burke Devore, a 51-year old married man with two children who has been unemployed since being made redundant two years ago from his job as a paper mill manager. With the family finances in a parlous state and his marriage in trouble, Burke is desperate to secure work in the paper industry. He resorts to a very unusual way of improving his chances of being employed. He places a false advertisement in a trade paper and obtains the CVs (résumés) of the people he considers to be his competitors for any work opportunities that may arise which are commensurate with his experience and status in the field. After doing so, he sets out to eliminate them one by one, thus (he thinks) leaving the field open to himself alone. Events move on from there.'The Ax' is gripping and entertaining. It's a real page-turner. It's very dark but also, at times, quite humorous. It examines the impact of mid-life redundancy on a person's family life. It does so in a way that charts many of the drawbacks associated with the pursuit of the so-called 'American dream'. 'The Ax' seethes with anger at what Westlake regards as immoral corporate tactics which serve the interests of company shareholders rather better than those of company employees. There are some problems with the book. It's strangely lacking in suspense and tension at times. There is also a fair bit of padding, particularly in relation to the incidents in which Burke tries to kill his so-called competitors. I was also concerned that some of what happens is simply implausible. For example, I found it hard to believe that a seemingly ordinary family man with no obvious underlying psychological problems would, despite the pressure he is under, ever resort to a killing spree of the sort depicted in the story simply in order to secure a job. The conclusion of the book is both unexpected and neat. Despite its faults, 'The Ax' is well worth a few hours of your time. 7/10.
What do You think about The Ax (1998)?
I came across this book in the mystery section of the library. Picked it up because I remembered I had it on my to read list, didn't know a thing about it. Once I started, I was hooked. This is no mystery in the typical sense. Why this book doesn't receive more praise & recognition is a mystery. But then, it is Westlake; one of the best writers ever. This novel is about as close to perfect as I believe possible. Truly an incredible read. Premise; believability; dialogue; pacing; it's all just perfect. Throw in some cutting humor & social commentary and you have an incredible story. "Today, our moral code is based on the idea that the end justifies the means. There was a time when that was considered improper, the end justifying the means, but that time is over....every single CEO who has commented in public on the blizzard of downsizings sweeping America has explained himself with some variant on the same idea: The end justifies the means". Our hero(?), Burke Devore, was a 50-something assembly line manager at a paper company for twenty-some years when he got the pink slip(it was actually yellow). The company merged with a Canadian competitor and moved all production(jobs) to Canada. After two years of no takers in finding work, he devises a plan. It is simple, brilliant and highly illegal; but then, the end justifies the means in his mind. You will need to read the book to get the details. I remember reading "A Clockwork Orange" for the first time back in the 80's. I realized I was pulling for Alex (called an 'Anti-Hero' by some). I am reminded of that same feeling here in The Ax. Burke makes himself into a amateur hit-man and I found myself hoping he gets away with it each time he went out to take care of another "hit". Highly recommend.
—Curt Buchmeier
When are downsizing and unemployment funny? Well, they are in the hands of Donald Westlake, whose protagonist Burke Devore loses his job in the paper industry and loses the affections of his wife (at least temporarily) to another man. Burke would kill for a job -- literally. He sets out to eliminate his biggest employment rivals -- and regain the affections of his wife. Along the way, he skewers the parasites who feed on folks who've gotten the ax: employment counselors, feel-good retraining experts, downsizing (rightsizing!) sloganeers. Westlake's book is dark but has its moments of sick humor. He maintains the tension nicely throughout the novel. Burke's so superficial he's almost a sociopath, but the plot wouldn't work with someone with depth, feelings and a grasp of consequences. I had no trouble suspending judgment for the sake of the yarn. I'm glad I found a job before I read this. The Ax was published in 1997, but might be more relevant in the current (2009) economy
—Marguerite
About 20% of the way through this one, I wasn't sure it was going to be so great. It's written in the 1st person, and with a fun concept: a 51 year old man who has been unemployed for 2 years decides to start killing off the competition for a job he wants.The reason I was losing my enthusiasm early on was that it seemed the novel was becoming redundant. Well, that changed about a third of the way in. I got hooked big time.Like the human train wrecks of A Simple Plan and The Big Picture, we ride alongside our anti-hero as he plots his path of murder. This is not a sympathetic character. He is a psychopath. Although he feels entirely justified, this does not wash with the reader (one would hope). His actions and thoughts expose an amoral sociopath, and as a reader, you keep going because you just have to see how this is going to turn out.(view spoiler)[When I finished the novel I was dumbfounded. The son of a bitch got away with it! My immediate reaction was disgust. My later reaction was a great admiration for Westlake for choosing this. The best stories don't need to end the way you would like, so evoking any strong emotions is a good thing when it comes to the reading experience. (hide spoiler)]
—Bill
