God Save the Mark

If you looked up the word 'gullible' in the dictionary Fred Fitch's picture would surely be there. There is not a con man in New York City who hasn't tried and succeeded in bilking Fred and separating him from his money. Fred's Uncle Matt, of whom Fred has never heard, has been murdered and in his will he left all of his money to Fred -- a tidy sum of over $300,000. Along with the money Uncle Matt apparently also left Fred his amply endowed girlfriend/stripper Gertie Divine. Apparently Uncle Matt came by his money in some rather illegal ways and whoever whacked Matt is out to get Fred. Fred, tired of being such an easy mark, has no idea who he can trust anymore as he begins getting hang-up calls, black cars slowly follow him down the show more street, someone starts shooting at him and Gertie is kidnapped. He realizes that he will need to solve Uncle Matt's murder case himself because he can't even trust the police anymore.

The subtitle of this book is "A Novel of Crime and Confusion" and it is absolutely right. I was very confused through most of the book though highly amused at the hapless Fred and the parade of quirky characters. It all makes sense at the end of the book so Westlake definitely did the job he set out to do. His books are old-fashioned as Westlake started writing in the late 50's but they can be a lot of fun with some of the zaniest characters a reader is likely to ever have the pleasure of meeting. show less

When I first opened this book, I saw that there were 47 chapters in it and groaned. That seemed like a lot of chapters. Fortunately, they are short and snappy and immediately draw you in to the world of Fred Fitch, who is a lucky charm of sorts to con men. As one summary of the book says, he's like a human version of the Go space on the Monopoly board -- pass Fred Fitch, collect $200. Imagine, then, the danger he feels at learning that he's inherited a fortune from his long-lost uncle. The vultures will be circling. He'll have to learn to be suspicious and figure out who, if anybody, he can trust if he wants to keep his money.

This was a very funny book, if a bit embarrassing at points because of Fred's gullibility rearing its head. show more "Fred, stop DOING that! He's out to -- oh, you just signed the cheque, didn't you. Dammit!" Because it's so hard to figure out who to trust, the story twists and turns like mad, leaving you unsure of where you stand (other than with Fred). It may not be a laugh-out-loud novel, but it is certainly fun. show less

I have been reading Donald E. Westlake novels throughout my adult life, yet I am still finding books of his I have not read. I finally caught up with "God Save the Mark," a gem published back in 1967. I don't know whether to feel sorry I didn't read it decades ago or happy to have waited for the right time to open it, as with a bottle of fine wine that's been aging in the cellar for years.

This may be the only book title I have ever encountered that has a footnote, at least on this edition. The footnote explains that, according to the Dictionary of American Slang, a mark is "an easy victim," a sucker, in other words. That perfectly describes Fred Fitch, our narrator and main character, who is so trusting and gullible that confidence men, show more or for that matter, girl scouts selling cookies, can easily take him for every cent he has in his pocket.

This is true even though his best friend, Reilly, is a cop on the New York City bunco squad.

So when Fred inherits a large sum of money from his Uncle Matt, an uncle he didn't even know he had, confidence men (and women) begin to gather like vultures circling a corpse. He doesn't know if he can trust anyone, including his friend Reilly. Attractive women are suddenly interested in Fred. These include Gertie, an ex-stripper he seems to have also somehow inherited from Uncle Matt, and Karen, Reilly's girlfriend. How he escapes with his money does seem to be through the grace of God, except that Westlake leaves us with the possibility that perhaps Fred really hasn't escaped at all.

Westlake started out writing hardboiled crime novels, and he continued with his Parker series right up until the end of his life. Yet it was comic crime novels like "God Save the Mark" that were his true gift to the world. show less

I read this as part of an ongoing project to read all the Edgar winners for Best Novel. It was the 1968 winner, published in 1967.
Although another character refers to him as a shlemiel, I'd say Fred Fitch, the protagonist and narrator of GOD SAVE THE MARK, is a shlimazel. The way I heard it, the shlemiel spills the soup in the shlimazel's lap. Fred Fitch's way of being a shlimazel is that he's a sap, a sucker, a mark. He has fallen for every con or scam that's been tried on him all his life. He knows this about himself, and usually realizes about fifteen minutes too late that the plausible story that separated him from his money was another con job.
But Fred does learn, albeit slowly, so he's extremely suspicious when he gets a call show more informing him that a long-lost uncle has left him something in his will. Alerting his friend Jack from the Bunco Squad, he shows up at the attorney's office only to find that this time, it's not a con. He really is an heir to $300,000 . But of course, his troubles are just beginning.
How Fred deals with his new-found wealth and those who are out to get it -- and him -- makes for a story that's both thrilling and humorous. (He also solves the uncle's murder.) I found myself laughing out loud several times (usually only Bill Bryson makes me do that, or those two Jersey boys, Jeff Cohen and Chris Grabenstein.) I could see that I've missed a lot by not reading Westlake before now -- when this book came out I was in college and still working my way through Christie, Marsh, Stout and Allingham. show less

Cute story and very evocative of the 60's. The protagonist reminded me of the lead character in "Three Men on a Horse," a nebish that finds a backbone, very naive at first but finally holding his own. Also, blowsy females and other 60's stock characters, but somehow it all works without becoming a caricature.

God Save the Mark

by Donald E. Westlake

Forge, 268 pages, Paperback, 2004; reissue of a book
originally published in 1967, with a new introduction by Otto
Penzler



One in Forge's "Otto Penzler Presents . . ." series of
reissues, complete with a new introduction by Penzler himself,
this publication sees the welcome reappearance of Donald
Westlake's 1967 comic delight God Save the Mark. It's not
among the very best of Westlake's deliriously inventive capers,
but it's close to that leading group — and certainly it's
good enough that on first publication it received an Edgar Allen
Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

The premise here is that Fred Fitch has what is almost a
psychic talent or superpower for attracting confidence tricksters
and show more associated fraudsters: he can barely walk to the local
newsstand without someone smoothly conning him out of his wallet.
This characteristic, while naturally irritating for poor Fred,
makes him quite useful to the police: if there's a new scam on
the street, within seconds Fred will have fallen victim to it,
and through his friendship with the cop Jack Reilly the details
will shortly be in the hands of the Bunco Squad.

But now Fred's troubles are about to enter a new and
altogether more serious phase. His Uncle Matt, a fabled
confidence trickster, has been murdered, and has left Fred an
inheritance of three hundred thousand dollars as well as his
deliciously earthy ex-"showgirl" Gertie Divine. With that amount
of loot on its way, Fred obviously becomes an absolute magnet for
every conman and conwoman on the Eastern Seaboard — among
the latter, he strongly suspects, being the domineering Gertie,
who has promptly moved herself into his apartment and more or
less taken it over. But then there's also his dead uncle's
shyster lawyer Goodkind, who would give weasels a bad name. Even
Fred's eccentric wannabe-writer neighbor Wilkins is trying to
persuade Fred to dedicate some of his hard-inherited cash to
publishing Wilkins's unpublishable novel.

Of course, Fred's blood pressure isn't helped by hearing from
Gertie that whoever killed Uncle Matt is out to get Fred next
. . .

All the elements are here for one of Westlake's classic
romps, and he doesn't fail to deliver. Here's a sample, as
Wilkins describes his historical novel Veni Vidi Vici Through
Air Power:

I've kept the historical facts, kept them all. The names of
the barbarian tribes, strength of armies, the actual battles,
kept everything. All I've added is air power. Through a fluke of
fate, the [ancient] Romans have aircraft, at about World War I
level. So we see the sort of difference air power makes by
putting it in a historical setting where it wasn't there. [. . .]
Well, it doesn't change history that much. [. . .] After all,
Caesar won almost all the battles he was in anyway.

This reader confesses he was filled with a powerful yen to
get hold of a copy of Veni Vidi Vici Through Air Power,
but, that aside, God Save the Mark satisfies on all
counts.

Now, if only Forge will see fit to rerelease Westlake's I
Gave at the Office . . .



This review, first published by Crescent Blues, is
excerpted from my ebook Warm Words and Otherwise: A Blizzard
of Book Reviews, to be published on September 19 by Infinity
Plus Ebooks. show less

The main character, the “mark” of the title, is constantly being conned and never learning—until miraculously midway through this novel he starts to catch on. While there might be some merit to that premise, having that apply to the main character was more annoying that amusing. Thankfully, that annoying naivete falls away fast enough to let the rest of the novel shine through. My second Westlake after reading and thoroughly enjoying THE HOT ROCK. Humor is quite sly in parts and the female characters are particularly vivid and funny creations amidst the amusing mayhem and smart plotting. The ending was abrupt and a bit of a last minute information dump. I enjoyed the ending of THE HOT ROCK so much that I may be tad harsh show more concerning this work but that’s where we find ourselves. show less