Customer Reviews

Money for Nothing

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For seven years, each month Josh Redmont has been cashing thousand dollar checks from an unknown benefactor. Money for nothing. Until one day a mysterious stranger arrives to "activate" him, to become a spy for the Ukraine. The Ukraine? Well, Russia didn't get everything after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and in this case the Ukraine inherited a unwitting spy who is now expected to do something very deadly as payback for all that money.

I will not claim that "Money for Nothing" packs the emotional punch of Westlake's "The Ax" or "The Hook" or that it is quite so funny as the wonderful, googy Dortmunder books. But "Money for Nothing" is still an interesting read about a rather average guy who finds himself in a very deadly situation. Make no mistake about it, there is a very palpable sense of menace lurking here, and it is entirely believable that the real cost of the "money for nothing" may be the lives of Josh, his wife, and his son. There was enough suspense generated to keep me eagerly turning the pages to find out what would happen next. As good as "the Ax"? No. But good nonetheless? Definitely yes.

Westlake is one of the great names in genre fiction (Actually, he's several of the great names in genre fiction, but that's another discussion, entirely), and a book by him is sure to be interesting, enticing, and eminently readable, at the very least. But, every so often, he produces something that reads more like an exercise than a fully thought out work. MFN is such a book. One can't get over the feeling that he came up with an amusing premise for a tale and then decided to challenge himself to see how many roadblocks he could put in his own way to try to figure out a solution. This, by the way, is similar to a couple of "challenge" novels he wrote with Brian Garfield a couple of decades ago wherein each author wrote a chapter whose main goal was to get the protagonists into an impossible situation and leave the other one to figure out how to extricate them. As a literary exercise, it's a lot of fun. As a novel, it leaves the reader asking "What next?", not in anticipation, but exasperation. Westlake can no more write a bad novel than Peter O'Toole can give a bad performance. But this is not one for the pantheon... more like for the underpatheon.

In Money for Nothing, a young slacker finds himself in dire straits. (Hey, I couldn't help it, all right). He's getting his checks for free. (Sorry. Sorry. I think I've got it out of my system now.) Let me start again.

In Money for Nothing, Josh Redmont, a college student is surprised when he starts receiving a $1000 check in the mail every month. He doesn't know who sent them or why, so, of course, he cashes them and spends the money. (Let's just say, he's not going to school on a Genius Grant,) And he keeps cashing them each month for seven years. Then, one day, a nice Russian gentleman from the KGB informs him that his cell of sleeper agents has been activated and that Josh has a little job to do--no big deal, just a minor assassination.

I had read several Donald Westlake books, most of them lighthearted novels about the unlucky burglar John Dortmunder. I was delighted with the Dortmunder stories; they manage to combine the excitement of the caper genre with the laughs of a good comic novel. I don't have those same good feelings about Money for Nothing.

The plot of Money for Nothing is thin enough to be a cover model for Vogue magazine. It isn't that compelling; this is a book that I could put down. The characters aren't much better. Westlake doesn't waste more than a few paragraphs on Josh's wife and child; they are there only to illicit your sympathy for Josh. Its hard to have any sympathy for Josh, himself; he is shallow and clueless, not the sort the reader wants to identify with. The humor, . . .well, perhaps two grins and guffhaw in the entire book. If you want to read funny crime novels, try the Dortmunder series or perhaps Fugitive Pigeon, another first rate novel by Westlake.

This novel is not up to Westlake's normal standards. If only someone had been looking over Westlake's shoulder when he was writing Money for Nothing, someone who could have said, "That ain't working. Here's the way you do it."

Donald E. Westlake's _Money For Nothing_, is kind of a strange book. It almost seems like Westlake isn't sure whether to turn this into a comic romp, like his Dortmunder books, or to be deadly serious, as in _The Ax_, so what we have is a bit of both, if you can imagine that.

Josh Redmont, an average New Yorker, has been receiving monthly checks of $1000 from a company called United States Agent for years. When the checks first started arriving, he did some minimal checking around to see if he could find the company or discern the reason for the checks, but his efforts never panned out. Now, many years later, he's approached by a stranger, who tells him "You are now active."

Josh is drawn into a dangerous world of spies and espionage with this simple command, and everything he does to try to pry himself loose seems to be of no avail, as he gets mired deeper and deeper in the scheme to assassinate the visiting head of an Eastern European dictatorship.

This is a weird mix of humor and seriousness. As Josh and a fellow agent, Mitch Robbie, go about trying to extricate themselves, there are a lot of humorous scenes. But the whole book ultimately builds to a violent climax that requires Josh to stand up to his captors and turn the tables on them and is deadly serious. I enjoyed the book, but it isn't on par with recent work by Westlake, such as _Bad News_ or _Put a Lid On It_.

Donald Westlake was the master at taking a concisely stated idea and turning it into a madcap crime novel that veers between the comedic and the terrifying.

MFN is no exception. It starts out with a simple premise. A young husband in New York has been receiving money every month for several years. He doesn't know why, but has grown accustomed to it. One day, on a ferry, he is told he has been 'activated' and must follow orders precisely if he is not to be killed.

What follows is a madcap set of characters including actors, assassins, Federal agents, mad heiresses, tin horn dictators, and failed former spies. Westlake knows just how to throw them together and mix in what might be termed a screwball comedy, if it weren't for the fact that people occasionally die.

Comic juxtapositions abound and he wraps things up nicely at the end as always. If you like Westlake, don't miss this.

So one day, out of the blue you receive a cheque for $1000. Do you throw it in the bin or, after making a reasonable effort to find out who sent it and why, do you cash it and keep the money? Josh Redmont went with the second option and the cheques continued to arrive for seven years.

Since cashing that first cheque, Josh has finished university and found a job with an advertising agency. He is now married with a young son. He has also changed apartments a couple of time in those 7 years and the cheques kept arriving as regular as clockwork, finding him at his new address which was rather disturbing.

Then one day, while his wife and son are taking a short holiday without him, he is approached by a man who appears quite friendly right up until the moment he utters a phrase that almost stops his heart - "you are now active". The man uttering these words is Mr Levrin. He's under the impression that Josh is a deep undercover mole who has been waiting these past 7 years to be called into action. It's a belief that Josh instinctively didn't dare contradict.

And so, Josh Redmont is thrust into the spy world, a most unwilling participant. He is joined by another accidental mole by the name of Mitchell Robbie. Together they figure out that they've been activated to participate in an assassination attempt and then they figure out just how expendable they will be when the job is over. Not a pleasant thought, but one which motivates them into action.

Donald Westlake is an author who is able to put an amusing spin on any subject he chooses. Whether it's the wry humour that you acknowledge with the twitching of the corner of the mouth or uncontrollable bursts of laughter that leave you red-faced while witting on the train (*sigh*), both moments are provided in MONEY FOR NOTHING. He slips the humour into this spy thriller / assassination conspiracy effortlessly and although it should feel out of place in the more dramatic scenes, it doesn't.

We only really ever find out the bare minimum about each character, just enough to keep the story unfolding. Although he's the protagonist, we don't really get to know Josh particularly well apart from the fact that he loves his family and that will motivate him to stay alive. The bad guys are nothing more than caricatures of all the menacing evil secret agents and their henchmen ever to grace a thriller story. Mitchell Robbie, however, turns out to be a goldmine of entertainment value and I felt he stole the show every time he came into the picture. He is a budding amateur actor who embraces his role of undercover mole as an opportunity to put his fledgling acting experience through its paces.

It's strange, Josh, his wife and Mitchell Robbie are all in serious trouble, their lives are in danger and they suffer at the hands of their captors, yet thanks to Westlake's prose the story still felt light and amusing. Heck, it wasn't until people started getting shot that I realised that the situation was actually getting serious. It's not a complex plot in fact the premise is quite straightforward once the predicament is explained. What is complex though is working out how Josh was going to get himself and his family out of what looks to be a desperately dire situation.

By and large Donald Westlake stories are humorous affairs with the protagonist placed in the most difficult and sometimes ludicrous situations. The entertainment value lies in watching the imaginative ways in which these characters try to get out of those situations. In MONEY FOR NOTHING, Westlake has definitely stayed true to form, both creating an outlandish predicament for his protagonist and then injecting plenty of humorous moments as he engineers his way out of it.

Stick with Westlake if you love comedy, mysteries or novels noir. His "Parker" series itself is an unequaled classic.

Donald E. Westlake aka Richard Stark, Tucker Coe, Curt Clark et all, has written another good comic mystery. While MONEY FOR NOTHING is not as goofy or as humorous as his excellent "Dortmunder" series, it does tell a good story.

While a student in college Josh Redmond starts receiveing $1000 per month from an anonymous benefactor. He continues to receive these check for the next seven years. That's $84,000! Because he needs the money Josh makes a feeble attempt to find out where the checks come from, then he gives up and just accepts the checks as a sort of "gift from God." After his marrage Josh never tells his wife about the mysterious money. As one might expect, with out warning, the mysterious benefactor makes himself known and demands certain services for his money. What happens next threatens to destroy Josh, Josh's family, and his friends.

MONEY FOR NOTHING must be Westlake's five hundredth novel! (I really don't know how many novels, short stories, screen plays and articles he has written, but there are websites devoted to him.) I have been trying for years to read everything Westlake has written. Every time I think I have him covered I find another "Nome de Plume" for this prolific wordsmith. Several of his books have been made into big bucks movies, PAYBACK staring Mel Gibson and WHAT'STHE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN with Danny Devito are just two that I can name.

Josh receives a cheque for $1000 and has no idea why he received it. Month after month he receives another, and another. He tries to work out who is paying the money but no one answers the phone number on the cheque and the address is incomplete. After seven years Josh has become used to the money. He now has a family but he also has a man waiting for him at the bordering area to his daily ferry. It seems Josh has been paid to be a sleeper agent for the Russians without even knowing it and they have some evil plans for him.

This is a pretty good novel although it does move a bit slow at times. It is an enjoyable read though. I read the Ax also by Westlake before this which was brilliant so it did put my expectations up to masterpiece standards for this book which it did not quite achieve. Still a good book though. Definitely read the Ax if you are looking for a great Westlake novel.

Ample and very entertaining cleverness is on display in the opening chapters of this book, as author Westlake constructs a truly imaginative yet believable scenario where an everyday middle-class New Yorker suddenly wakes up to find himself an undercover operative for a radical activist group from the Ukraine! Ample and very entertaining cleverness is also on display in the middle section, as our hero (the middle-class New Yorker) finds satisfying ways to regain a measure of control and turn the tables on his foreign handlers... for a time, anyway. The final chapters, alas, dispense with the ample and entertaining cleverness, but still deliver serviceable scenes of escape attempts, confrontation, and resolution. All in all, then, we end up with a pretty good thriller that is easily worth spending a couple of days reading on the porch or at the beach.

MONEY FOR NOTHING is Donald E. Westlake's latest novel. It is not his greatest or his best, though with a career consisting of so many milestones, that particular bar is a stratospheric one. It is certainly a great book though and, just so no one thinks that The Master is being damned with faint praise here, it is absolutely not to be missed. I'll get the complaint out of the way early, though it's not even a complaint or a quibble...not really. I simply would have preferred the book to have a darker touch. I'm a fan of Westlake's lighter work, such as last year's PUT A LID ON IT and SMOKE, as well as novels he wrote back before I could even hold a pencil properly, or even knew what one was, but that I've only read recently. However, there was a gravitas missing in MONEY FOR NOTHING that I think would have been appropriate.

Now let's go the premise. The premise that drives the plot here is worth the price of admission and gravitas shmavitas; it is absolutely brilliant. You take your average schlemiel named Josh Redmont, who is just starting off on his own with more outflow than inflow and all of a sudden he gets a check for one thousand dollars in the mail, issued by "United States Agent." He tries to find out who "United States Agent" is but can't. He figures 'what the hey' and deposits the check. He gets a second check the following month --- and then another and another. Twelve thousand dollars a year! And the checks keep coming. And coming. The seasons change and the years go by. Things get better, inflow matches outflow and then surpasses it on a regular basis. Whereas, at one point, the thousand dollars a month was more often than not a lifesaver, it slowly becomes a nest egg. Redmont marries, he and the Mrs. have a little Redmont and still the checks keep coming, one thousand dollars a month. Money for nothing. And then...

Redmont is waiting for the ferry that takes him to the family cottage on Fire Island, when a stranger walks up to him, sits down next to him, smiles and says three things: 1) Hello. 2) I'm from United States Agent. 3) You are now active. Oh, and the stranger also hands him a passbook account book for a Cayman Islands Bank, a passbook that is in the name of JOSH REDMONT, reflecting a deposit and balance, as of the previous day, of forty-thousand dollars. At first, all the nice, generous stranger wants is a safe house. Oh, but that's only where it starts. It doesn't take Josh long to figure out where all of this is going but, when he finds out, he doesn't want any part of it. He also has no idea how he got involved in all of this or how he and his family are going to get out intact --- if they get out at all. And even worse, how is he going to explain it to his wife? He even wishes that he'd never cashed the checks, though, as we find out, it wouldn't have done him any good to refuse them. And besides, what would you have done with them?

But...but...here is what is so astounding. Westlake takes this premise, this idea of monthly money for nothing and makes it so perfectly plausible that you can't help but shake your head in wonder. I'll tell you this much: it's not a case of mistaken identity, not at all. Redmont is supposed to get those checks. As they used to say in the old Superman comic books, when something implausible would happen, "It's not a dream! Not an imaginary story!" No, this could happen to you. It would be highly unlikely, but it could happen.

So dark touch, light touch, whatever. Westlake once again demonstrates that, in the twilight of a brilliant career, he can continue to achieve the impossible while making it look easy.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub