Max Riffner
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Do You Need a Backstory?
This is part of a larger though process in crime/pulp fiction that I’ve been having not so seriously for the last four years. I started reading 361 by Donald Westlake last night. He’s the guy that wrote Payback (which the Mel Gibson movie is based on [which is apparently being re-released on DVD with the original badass version intact]).
Not surprisingly, 361 touches on some of the same themes, namely, revenge. Thirty pages in, we have everything set up. Two brothers. The oldest brother’s wife is dead. Their father is dead. Both murdered. Apparently dad was a lawyer for bootleggers back in the day. Protagonist is the younger brother and he is just out of the Air Force. GO!
That’s it. I thought there would be more backstory as to how or why the protag is such a badass. Nope. He just is. Same with the older brother. They beat on a guy for information like it’s what you do everyday. No explanation.
See, this is a big for me. It’s always been a bit of a barrier, and maybe its all mental for me. However, I always wanted to plan that stuff out better when telling the story – why is the guy a complete badass? Isn’t there a reason? How does one research this sort of thing?
Westlake breezes into it and you don’t even care about the ‘how’ or the ‘why.’ The Syndicate killed his dad; he’s going to kill them. End of story.
Maybe that is all you need sometimes when you are telling a tight genre story. Maybe it’s that easy (look at Apocolypto for what it is – a minimalist action movie heavy on spectacle). Or maybe as crime fiction writers moved on, there was a demand for more back story, and after reading a lot of modern stories, 361 seems refreshingly stark and minimal.
I was hoping you’d chime in on this, Jason. I know you know your crime fiction…
Anyway, yeah! I saw a bunch of Parker novels used on Amazon for literally a buck a pop. I will probably pick some of those up (definitely Slayground – that sounds awesome). Thanks for the recommendations!
Are you going to check out the new cut of Payback?
jasonMar 8, 09:52 AM
Also, if you liked Payback, you should check out the Lee Marvin-version I mentioned; Point Blank. Really bleak yet stylish. I’d also recommend Lee in The Killers, a noir-esque based on a Hemingway tale, co starring John Cassavettes, Angie Dickenson, Norman Fell (Mr. Roper from 3’s Company) and Ronald Reagan in his final film role before becomming Govenor of California. My final film recommendation in this genre is the original version of Get Carter with Micheal Caine. Its a perfect example of the minimal backstory approach to crime stories
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Mar 6, 09:27 PM
Westlake wrote The Hunter (the book that both Gibson’s Payback and the Lee Marvin film Point Blank were based on) under the name Richard Stark. Hunter was the first in his “Parker” series of crime novels. These books are incredible examples of bare-bones, hard-boiled storytelling. No real explanations or motivations for Parker’s criminal ways is given, or nessesary. He simply IS. Perhaps the best example I can think of in minimalist storytelling I recall in the series is SLAYGROUND, a novel that takes place in one location over a single night; Parker makes a lone stand against the Outfit in an abandoned amusement park. A little explanation to set up the story is given, but no unnessasary twists and turns and complicated cross plots here; just a bad mofo fighting other bad mofos. While reissues of many Parker novels have been popping up in the past few years, a little hunting in used bookstores and flea markets can usually produce copies for a buck or under. Next time I see you I’ll try to remember to pass on some I have.