“There are thirty-two ways to write a story and I’ve used every one, but there is only one plot–things are not as they seem.”
The quote above by Jim Thompson kicks off a detailed survey of modern storytelling in books and movies. David Bordwell, Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, seemingly has seen a thousand movies and still found time to read a couple thousand books. Perplexing Plots takes a roughly chronological approach at the beginning to describe the field of interest Bordwell wants to concentrate on: plot.
My favorite chapter in Perplexing Plots is Chapter 11: Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine. Bordwell makes a distinction between the Donald Westlake comic capers and the “Richard Stark” serious caper novels. I had no idea that Westlake divided the Parker novels into four parts with Parker the focus of Part One and Part Four while Part Two or Part Three would be told through one of the other characters to provide a contrasting viewpoint. Westlake structured the plots of the Parker novels to give maximum flexibility. This gives Parker (and his heist accomplices) the options of not just knocking over armored cars, but a football game, a casino, a convention of coin collectors, an Air Force base, an African embassy, a rock concert, a revival meeting, a jewelry auction, and a rural race track (p. 346).
I also enjoyed the contrast of Erle Stanley Gardner’s plotting with Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries. Throughout Perplexing Plots Brodwell refers to Tarantino who seems to embody the kind of plotting Bordwell holds up as the Gold Standard.
“Why are hard-boiled plots so hard to follow, let alone remember? In part because of all the lying, but we get that in whodunits too. More markedly, hard-boiled plots tend to abandon the Gold Age tidiness of physical clues, timetables, and a closed circle of suspects. Instead we must keep track of secrets shared among a vast cast spread across an urban milieu.” (p. 200)
Perplexing Plots both delights and informs. I know you are all well versed in mystery novels and noir movies, but I can guarantee you will learn new facts about the plotting of those genres that will make you sit up and exclaim, “Wow! I didn’t know that!” Highly recommended! GRADE: A
Oh, and does anyone know which movie that cover photo came from? It’s only credited to 20th Century Fox.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Acknowledgments — xi
Introduction: Mass Art as Experimental Storytelling — 1
Part I
1. The Art Novel Meets 1910s Formalism — 29
2. Making Confusion Satisfactory: Modernism and Other Mysteries — 55
3. Churn and Consolidation: The 1940s and After — 81
Part II
4. The Golden Age Puzzle Plot: The Taste of the Construction — 119
5. Before the Fact: The Psychological Thriller — 157
6. Dark and Full of Blood: Hard-Boiled Detection — 194
7. The 1940s: Mysteries in Crossover Culture — 235
8. The 1940s: The Problem of Other Minds, or Just One — 261
Part III
9. The Great Detective Rewritten: Erle Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout — 285
10. Viewpoints, Narrow and Expansive: Patricia Highsmith and Ed McBain — 318
11. Donald Westlake and the Richard Stark Machine — 336
12. Tarantino, Twists, and the Persistence of Puzzles — 357
13. Gone Girls: The New Domestic Thriller — 382
Conclusion: The Power of Limits — 405
Notes — 413
Index — 467
I’m going to have to look for this one.
As far as the photo, was that from a movie, or an NRA advertisement?
Jerry, I’m pretty sure that photo is from a movie, but I’m sure the NRA would love it, too!
LAURA
Though it looks like a publicity still not sen in the film itself.
Dan, thanks for identifying the movie the cover photo can from. Yes, it does look like a publicity still!
Dan beat me to it. I was going to say LAURA too.
Jeff,Dan is The Man!
I thought it might be “Laura”—but don’t remember the scene where Gene Tierney is holding the shotgun.
Deb, like you I don’t remember any shotgun toting Gene Tierney in LAURA, but Dan’s surmise that it might be a publicity still makes sense.
Maybe it is from LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN.
Patti, I haven’t seen LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN, but does Heaven require a shotgun?
I think the point of that saying is that one needs a heavenly host to take care of a woman brandishing a powerful weapon.
But, then, if it’s from LAURA, it’s, as the song notes, only a dream…
Todd, a shotgun is as American as apple pie.
The Parker novels were always divided into four parts (like Gaul?) but I’m not sure parts 2 and 3 always shifted the viewpoint away from Parker to other characters. I’d have to refresh my memory. I was a great Parker fan. As soon as I read THE SOUR LEMON SCORE fresh off the rack in 1969, I started looking for the previous 11 books in the series. A couple were still in print, the others not. I finally collected the OP titles in their Pocket Books and Gold Medal editions from used book stores and fellow fans. THE JUGGER was the most elusive; I finally nabbed it three years later. I had THE HUNTER and THE SEVENTH in both the PB first editions and the Gold Medal movie tie-ins as POINT BLANK and THE SCORE. Those were the days, my friend.
Fred, it me a couple of years to track down all the Parker paperbacks in the mid-1970s. I found most of them in used bookstores in Madison, Wisconsin but it took time. Each time I found a new Parker, I’d drop everything and read it. Those were the days, indeed!
Surprisingly, I was able to get a couple of my missing Richard Stark books in England. I do have the first 8 in the original Pocket Books edition. I still have one in the British Coronet (Hodder Fawcett) edition.
Jeff, I picked up a couple of those British Coronet editions in Canada.
Sounds like a fascinating read. I’m very weak on mysteries and crime fiction but have seen a good chunk of noir. I can’t name the film but my guesses narrow it down to one of the films Gene Tierney did with Otto Preminger: “Laura ” “Whirlpool” or “Where the Sidewalk Ends.” It could be “Night and the City” but I don’t think it’s “Black Widow” or “Leave Her to Heaven .” I remember a scene at the end of “Laura” with a Tierney holding a shotgun so that’d be my guess.
Byron, I may have to rewatch LAURA and focus on that scene with Tierney holding a shotgun. PERPLEXING PLOTS would bring you up to speed on crime fiction in a hurry!
Sounds good to me, particularly the Westlake chapter. I’ve read most of his books, though I know I am not up to date on the Dortmunder series.
Jeff, you would appreciate the detail David Bordwell provides.
Google image search turns up 3 versions of the Tierney-Shotgun photo at the Rotten Tomatoes site, so I guess that’s it, though I don’t remember the shot either. I should get hold of the book for the Gardner & Stout analysis. Seems like an odd pairing stylistically, though in terms of longevity and popularity makes sense.
Art, thanks for the GOOGLE image search verification! You would find some interesting analysis in that ESG and Rex Stout chapter!
Laura! I knew it before reading the other comments! By the time I get to my computer I’m half a day behind the East Coast contingent!
Bob, we’re all glad to get your confirmation of LAURA as the source of the cover photo!