Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman
Lawrence
Block, who started his career as an author by writing erotic pulp
fiction novels under such pen names as Jill
Emerson, Paul Kavanagh, Sheldon
Lord, Andrew
Shaw, Don Holliday, Lesley Evans, Lee Duncan, Anne Campbell
Clark, and Ben
Christopher, wrote, on average, one of these “sex
novels,” as they're known in the trade, per month. He's also
written many short stories, typically completing one in a single
evening or, sometimes, over a weekend, for which reason he calls one collection of his short stories and “novelettes” One
Night Stands and Lost Weekends.
The anthology contains 25 “one night stands” and three “lost
weekends.” Most of them are thrillers, but the book also includes a
science fiction story, “Nor Iron Bars a Cage.”
The
majority of the stories in this collection are of the so-called
“biter bit” variety, which involve a form of poetic justice in
which the tables are turned on the antagonist or, sometimes, since
Block's fiction is often populated with anti-heroes, the protagonist.
The formula is discernible fairly early on, but the stories remain
suspenseful because readers wonder how
Lawrence will bring about the ironic reversal which ends a particular
tale. To say that he's innovative in effecting his resolutions is an
understatement.
Here
are a few examples:
“The Bad Night”: Robbers and would-be killers, Benny
and Zeke, are subdued and bound by their intended victim, an aging
war veteran named Dan.
“The
Badger Game”: Dick Baron, a con man, misreads a lonely woman's
invitation to have sex with her as a con game, assuming that her husband
will arrive to rob him, but Sally English is sincere; when her
husband discovers them together, Baron knocks him unconscious before
having sex with Sally. Later, Baron is shocked when her husband,
having beaten Sally until she'd told him Baron's name, which the
husband then used in a bribe paid to the hotel's desk clerk in
exchange for Baron's room number, knocks at the con man's door.
Forcing his way into Baron's room at gunpoint, the husband shoots and
kills him.
“Bargain in Blood”: At Rita's insistence, Benny Dix,
a callow youth, murders her boyfriend, Moe, to win her heart, only to
learn, too late, that Rita is aroused by murder, and she stabs Benny
to death with the same knife he'd used to kill Moe.
“Bride of Violence”: After saving his girlfriend
Rita from a rapist, Jim rapes her himself, despite his knowledge that
she was preserving her virginity for their wedding night.
“The Burning Fury”: A woman promises to make a
lumberjack “happy,” but, after they leave the bar in which they
meet to go to his place, she discovers, too late, that there's only
one way to make him happy: he's a sadist.
“The Dope”: A mentally challenged man is astonished
that Charlie remains friends with him, even though Charlie served a
one-year sentence for the crimes they committed (robbery and
manslaughter), while he himself serves a 10-year sentence.
“A Fire at Night”: An arsonist regrets the death of
Joe Darkin, a firefighter who'd risked his life seeking to rescue
Mrs. Pelton, an obese woman, from the tenement that the arsonist—and
the late firefighter's fellow fireman—set earlier that night.
“Frozen Stiff”: Brad Malden, a terminally ill man,
decides to commit suicide by shutting himself inside the freezer at
his butcher's shop. When his wife Vicki shows up in the company of
another man named Jay, Malden realizes they're having an affair. To
deny Vicki the double indemnity his life insurance includes for
accidental death, Malden rigs a side of lamb with a meat cleaver so
that, when he gives the lamb's carcass a swing, the cleaver cuts his
throat, making it look as though he were murdered, confident that
Vicki's fingerprints, which are “all over the cold-bin door,”
will incriminate her.
“Hate Goes Courting”: John murders his older brother
Brad after the latter's endless taunts escalate and Brad rapes John's
fiance, Margie.
“I Don't Fool Around”: To avenge the murder of
criminal Johnny Blue, a veteran cop shoots and kills the
murderer, Frank Calder, making it look as though the shooting had
been in self-defense. The cop hopes his junior partner, Fischer, who's
bothered by the legally unjustified killing, will ask for a new
partner.
“Just Window Shopping”: A woman, catching a voyeur
peeping at her, invites him into her house, at gunpoint, to have sex
with her. When she won't take no for an answer, he shoots her,
killing her with her gun, which she'd set aside as she'd pressed herself
upon him. Police try to beat a confession out of him, but he refuses
to confess to a rape he did not commit.
“Lie
Back and Enjoy It”: After an armed woman is raped by the motorist
who'd picked her up hitchhiking, she shoots and kills him with a
revolver she carries in her purse, telling him that, until he'd raped
her, she'd intended only to steal his car and to leave him stranded with
“a little money to get home on.”
“Look Death in the Eye”: A beautiful woman is picked
up in a bar by one of the three men she notices are interested in
her. At his apartment, she stabs him to death, cuts out his “bright
eyes,” and takes them home to keep in a box with others she's
collected in the same way.
“Man with a Passion”: Jacob Falch, a blackmailer, is
on vacation after having extorted money from a mayor whose wife Falch
photographed in various “compromising positions.” Now, Falch
encounters Saralee Marshall, a young woman hoping to escape her
small-town life by becoming a model. She agrees to pose nude for him
in his motel room, where Falch plies her with liquor and has sex with
her, only to discover, later, that her boyfriend, Tom Larson, who was
hidden in the closet, has photographed them. Informing Falch that
Saralee is only seventeen, Larson tells Falch that paying him to
suppress the photographs “is going to cost . . . plenty.”
“Murder Is My Business”: A woman invites a hit man
to her apartment after hiring him to kill her husband, and they have
sex. Afterward, a man hires the hit man to kill someone at a
particular address. Now, the hit man has two people to kill on the
same night. He kills both of his clients: the man is the husband
who's hired the hit man to kill his wife; the woman is the wife who's
hired the hit man to kill her husband.
“Nor
Iron Bars a Cage”: Two Althean guards discuss their planet's first
prison: a 130-foot-tall tower with a cell at its top and sides that
slope in, preventing anyone from escaping by climbing down it. Food
is delivered by a pneumatic tube, and the prisoner tosses discarded
items from the cell's balcony. The guards leave the key to the
prisoner's shackles in his cell and wait until he throws them to the
ground. Then, the prisoner flaps his wings and flies away, escaping.
“One Night of Death”: A condemned man's son ties his
ex-girlfriend, Betty, to Dan Bookspan, the son of his father's
dishonest business partner, for whose murder his own father is being
executed at midnight in San Quentin's gas chamber. Then, the
condemned man's son turns on the gas jets in his victims' apartment
at the same time that his father is being executed in California. In
doing so, he obtains revenge on Dan for his having stolen Betty after
his own father had killed the elder Bookspan.
“Package Deal”: John Harper, a local banker, hires
Castle, a “professional killer,” to murder four small-time
criminals who have taken over the seedy activities of Arlington,
Ohio. Castle kills all his targets, and then notifies a man in
Chicago, who responds, “We'll be down tomorrow.” The implication
is that the Chicago party is a mobster. Either Castle has
double-crossed Harper, notifying the Chicago gangster that the local
competition has been eliminated and that Arlington is now ripe, as it
were, for the picking or he has actually been working for the Chicago
mobster, rather than for Harper. In either case, a double cross has
occurred, a device that gets considerable play in Lawrence's short
stories and novels.
“Professional Killer”: Professional killer Harry
Varden receives a telephone call from a woman who, without knowing
his name, hires him to kill her husband, saying he's boring and she's
met another, more exciting man. By killing her husband, she will
receive his life insurance and be able to marry her lover. When Harry
collects the slip of paper from his post office box, along with his
client's payment in full, in cash, he is angry as he learns the name
of his target. He calls Pete, another hit man, hiring him to kill his
own client, his wife, who has unknowingly hired Harry, her own
husband, to kill himself.
“Pseudo Identity”: After renting an apartment in
which to spend the nights he works late as a copywriter, bored and
boring Howard Jordan gradually assumes an alter ego, that of Roy
Baker, a hip, fun-loving guy who is popular with the in-crowd. When
he sees his wife, Carolyn, with another man, he poses as her
boyfriend, and sets her up, telling her to come to his apartment,
where, dressed as Ray Baker, he kills her. In doing so, he realizes,
he has also destroyed the life of his alter ego, as he can never
again be Ray Baker without risking arrest and trial for Carolyn's
murder. His is stuck with Jordan's lackluster, responsible identity
and life.
“Ride a White Horse”: Andy Hart's daily routine is
disrupted when his favorite bar is forced to close for two weeks for
having sold alcohol to a minor. After he eats at the diner he
typically frequents, he tries another bar in the neighborhood, the
White Horse, where a 24-year-old blonde invites him home with her,
and they become a couple, living together as if they were married,
buts she doesn't talk about her past, and Andy isn't sure how she can
pay her bills without working. The woman, Sara Malone, asks him to
pick up a package for her at the local library. He does so, picking
up additional packages at the library and elsewhere. He unwraps one
and discovers it contains a white powder, which Sara identifies as
heroin. Andy quits his job and works full-time for Sara, a pusher,
and becomes addicted to heroin, losing interest in Sara. He wants to
expand their operation, and, when Sara is hesitant, he stabs her to
death.
“A Shroud for the Damned”: An aged mother knits
shrouds. When her son becomes a thief to feed them and begins to
associate with criminals, she stabs him to death after he dons the
shroud. She is confident that the shroud won't only keep him warm on
cold nights, but that it will also “keep the evil spirits from
him.”
“Sweet Little Racket”: After losing his business, a
liquor store, to a chain of stores, an unemployed entrepreneur
decides to demand protection money from wealthy businessmen,
threatening to kill their children if they don't pay him $50 per
week. When he attempts to extort a fifth victim, Alfred Sanders,
Sanders tape-records him threatening to harm his son, Jerry. When
Jerry is killed by someone who drives a car similar to that of the
extortionist, the criminal realizes that Sanders's tape recording
will send him to prison.
“The Way to Power”: A corrupt police chief takes one
of his cop's advice when the cop, Joe, suggests they frame Lucci, a
freelancing bookie, for the murder of a tramp. Joe volunteers to kill
the tramp. Instead, he has Lucci come to the chief's house, shoots
the chief, then shoots Lucci, and tells the investigating officer
Lucci shot the chief for “cracking down on him” and Joe killed
Lucci. Joe wonders whether the chief's widow is still awake,
commenting to the reader, “I felt powerful as hell.”
Shared or Recurring Element
|
Stories Featuring Shared or
Recurring Element
|
Robbers
|
“The Bad Night,” “The Dope”
|
Con men, blackmailers, and
extortionists
|
“The Badger Game,” “Man with a
Passion,” “Sweet Little Racket”
|
Rapists
|
“Bride of Violence,” “Hate Goes
Courting,” “Lie Back and Enjoy It”
|
Hit men and other killers
|
“The Dope,” “A Fire at Night,”
“Hate Goes Courting,” “I Don't Fool Around,” “Just
Window Shopping,” “”Lie Back and Enjoy It,” “Look Death
in the Eye,” “Murder Is My Business,” “One Night of
Death,” “Package Deal,”Professional Killer,” “Pseudo
Identity” “Ride a White Horse.” “A Shroud for the Damned,”
“Sweet Little Racket,” “The Way to Power”
|
Sadists
|
“The Blinding Fury,” “Bargain
in Blood,” “Look Death in the Eye”
|
Sex perverts
|
“Bargain in Blood,” “The
Burning Fury,” “Just Window Shopping”
|
Female character named Rita
|
“Bargain in Blood,” “Bride of
Violence”
|
Double crosses
|
“Package Deal,” “Sweet Little
Racket,” “The Way to Power”
|
Fornication, lust, paraphernalia,
rape, or seduction
|
“The Badger Game” (adultery),
“Bargain in Blood” (sexual sadism), “Bride of Violence”
(rape), “Frozen Stiff” (adultery), “Hate Goes Courting”
(sex), “Just Window Shopping” (voyeurism), “Lie Back and
Enjoy It” (rape), “Man with a Passion” (statutory rape),
“Murder Is My Business” (adultery), “Ride a White Horse”
(fornication)
|
As the table above indicates, in addition to the common “biter bit” plots, these stories share certain types of characters (robbers, con men, rapists, hit men and other killers, sadists, sexual perverts, and lonely men and women); in one case, two stories both feature a woman named Rita. Although some characters are naive, most are wise to the ways of the world, sometimes behaving in a cynical, even cruel, fashion. For example, sex is easily available and, generally, tawdry. The protagonist of “Murder Is My Business” callously murders the same woman with whom, earlier, he'd had sex, and the main character in “Bride of Violence” rapes his own fiancee after having saved her from another rapist.
In
having written several, sometimes many, short stories which contain
the same elements, Block developed themes and characters that he
would later use in series of novels. His hit men become the
precursors of his series
about “professional killer” Keller, the anti-hero-protagonist of
Hit Man,
Hit List,
Hit Parade,
Hit and Run,
Hit Me,
and Keller's Fedora.
Block's
style captures the gritty underworld of the big cities in which his
stories often take place, and his plots exhibit his familiarity with
the vices and crimes committed by those who live in such cities.
However, his tales are not limited to big cities; the action in “Lie
Back and Enjoy It” seems to take place in the middle of nowhere,
while the action in “Man with a Passion,” like that of “A Bad
Night,” occurs in or outside small towns.
Structurally, many of Block's stories tend to follow Aristotle's narrative divisions of plot into three parts: beginning, middle, and end:
Structurally, many of Block's stories tend to follow Aristotle's narrative divisions of plot into three parts: beginning, middle, and end:
“Lie Back and Enjoy It”
Beginning:
A driver picks up a young woman who's hitchhiking.
Middle:
The driver rapes the hitchhiker.
End:
The hitchhiker steals the driver's car and kills him.
“Look Death in the Eye”
Beginning:
A beautiful woman in a bar waits for one of three admirers to make a
pass at her.
Middle:
One (“Mr. Bright Eyes”) picks her up.
End:
In his apartment, the woman kills him, cuts out his eyes, and leaves
with them, adding them to her collection at home.
“Just Window Shopping”
Beginning:
A voyeur watches a woman in a shower.
Middle:
The woman confronts the voyeur with a gun, inviting him into her
home.
End: When the woman, demanding sex, refuses to take no for an answer, the voyeur kills her.
End: When the woman, demanding sex, refuses to take no for an answer, the voyeur kills her.
Although
Block himself has admitted he's not at his best in creating titles
for his stories, those in One
Night Stands and Lost Weekends
are effective. They're not only eye-catching, but they also tend, in
many cases, to hint at, or even to summarize, their stories' plots,
especially once it's recognized that he often employs the “biter
bit” formula:
“The Burning Fury” suggests the lumberjack's motive
for savagely beating a woman he's never met before.
“The Dope” suggests why the mentally challenged
robber and killer is easily controlled by his partner in crime and
why he continues to regard his “buddy” as a friend, despite the
other man's harsh treatment and manipulation of him.
“Frozen Stiff” alludes to a dead body (a “stiff”)
and the manner of death (“frozen”), suggesting that the "stiff"
froze to death.
“Just Window Shopping” suggests that the voyeur is
not interested in “buying” (i. e., in having sex); he's just
looking, or “window shopping,” a critical insight into why he
refuses the woman's demand for sex and why, despite being beaten by
the police, he refuses to confess to rape, a crime he did not (and,
indeed, might not have been able to) commit, for it appears that he
is probably psychologically impotent.
The
idiom used as the title of “Lie Back and Enjoy It” supposedly
originates with the Chinese philosopher Confucius,
who allegedly said, “If rape is inevitable, lie back and enjoy it.”
Certainly a callous and sexist bit of advice, to say the least, the
expression introduces the crux of Block's story, which concerns a
hitchhiking woman who is raped by a supposedly good Samaritan, the
motorist who stops to give her a ride. The phrase also indicates the
rapist's indifference to his victim's well-being; when she uses the
same idiom, as she is about to shoot and kill the man who has raped
her, the irony of her words underscores the poetic (street) justice
she's about to deliver. This narrative's title shows how much
information and meaning can be implied by the well-chosen name of a
story.
By studying these stories, anyone who aspires to writing thrillers, especially of the noir type, can learn the craft.