Rating: 
Summary: More relevant than ever, given the present economic climate.
Review: A year after being "downsized", former paper mill worker Burke Devore is unemployed and desperate. Reading of a dream job in a trade journal, Burke conceives a plan. Running ads in "The Paperman", he solicits resumes for a position with a fictitious paper company located in his region. Using the resumes he receives in response to the ad, Burke identifies his rivals for the real job. Then, working his way along "the learning curve of murder", Burke methodically hunts and executes them, in hopes of reducing his competition. Westlake walks a fine line, but manages to make Burke a sympathetic character--it's hard not to feel for Burke, a killer who weeps for his victims and rejoices when a potential target finds a job. But it's also hard not to be scared by his methodical ways, his casual brutality, and his rationalizations for murder. Relentless and oh so very plausible, this book should shake even the most jaded reader.
Rating:
Summary: Darkly comic
Review: In this time of economic 'downsizing', whats a person to do if they lose their job and can't find new employment? If you are Burke Devore in The Ax, you simply kill off the competition. Devore's 'simple' plan is to locate a job that he would be perfectly qualified for, determine possible competition through a scam advertising false employment, then murder the competitors before finally killing off the incumbent employee and taking his job. Devore comes to the morally skewed conclusion that these people are the problem coming between him and his old life, and feels that he is justified killing them in "self-defense" Adding to Devores problems is his wifes confession of infidelity, and his sons arrest for burglary. Westlake does such a good job depicting the misery and the intangible factors corresponding to losing ones job that you feel for Devore, while not condoning his actions. Will he get away with his plan or will he bail out or be caught? My only quibble is the prose style which is very top heavy on narrative and light on dialogue, which makes it somewhat slow at a few points. Overall, a gripping, well written, satirical look at life in today's economic climate that is made that much more chilling because of its plausibility.
Rating: 
Summary: Creative and unexpected!
Review: I really enjoyed this book! It's unlike anything I've ever read before. I found it intruiging to hear the story as though I was in the mind of this killer. Interesting to hear how he justifies the decisions he makes, as well as his own fears. Unique story line, easy to read, impossible not to enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Gives New Meaning to the Phrase "Eliminates the Competition"
Review: Donald Westlake writes straight from the heart. Only "the Ax" is from the darker rivers of the heart. Anyone who has ever been "downsized" or stood on an unemployment line can relate to the feelings of one Burke Devore, a downsized project manager at a paper mill plant, who, by placing a phony ad in a trade journal, acquires all the resumes of those potential competitors who might apply for the same job as him. He simply "eliminates the competition". We might all think about it in our darker fantasies, but Burke goes ahead and does it. I read this book because it was constantly referenced in the Amazon.com reviews of another Westlake book ("The Hook"). Both books have similarities and differences that abound. The secondary charcters are stronger in "The Hook" than here. We really don't dwell all that much on Burke's wife and even less so on his kids. Yet, like in "The Hook", there is a sense of desperation on the part of the main characters. In both cases, the action is fast paced and we find ourselves hungrily turning the pages. So, why not 5 stars? A couple of reasons: When Burke's son is brought up on charges of breaking into a software store and the police search his house, they come across the resumes he has collected. The police are already investigating a few of the deaths by this time, yet they fail to make the connection. I wanted to shake Detective Burton because he can't seem to put 2+2 together. He ends up, like the detective in "The Hook", as being almost a wasted character. Some of the murders committed by Burke are committed in a public venue, especially the first one where he shoots a man at his own mailbox and one of the later ones where a person is bludegeoned to death in a parking lot. Yet, no one sees anything. Still, this book has a certain quality, if that is the right word, where we find ourselves rooting for this dark underdog and that, on its own, is reason enough to read "The Ax" and enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, though macabre story. Satiric social commentary.
Review: This is a disturbing book, and it's haunted me for the two or three days since I first read it. I'm a veteran fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, murder & suspense reader, so there isn't much that'll make me put a book down in the middle of a page, take a deep breath, exhale and close my eyes. This book did. Burke Devore is a desperate, angry man, deeply frightened at the prospect of personal and professional worthlessness now that he's been handed the pink slip and "chopped" from middle management at the plant he dedicated over twenty years of his life to. I've always imagined life is a series of identity crises punctuated by moments of boredom now and then. Any major change can precipitate that crisis: birthdays, breakups, graduation, accidents, college, marriage, the loss of loved ones, new jobs and the loss of old jobs. Devore has a major identity crisis on his hands. He lost this job, and decides to manage his crisis rather... aggressively. After a dozen fruitless interviews, rather than take unemployment sitting down, Devore decides to thin the ranks of his competitors with his own two hands. The scheme and plot Westlake builds out of this angst seemed all-too-real for me. I recognize, in Devore, a portrait of my next door neighbor, my boss, maybe even myself--if I were pushed farther than I could cope. After 329 pages of forced identification with a protagonist whose actions I found repugnant, author Donald Westlake finally reveals his hand. In three deft paragraphs Westlake outlines the premise for his story that, if true and if accepted, lead to the logical moral outcome the preceding 328 pages painfully described. Briefly put: if ends justify means, then there is no action so violent, no moral code so abhorrent and no transgression so felonious that it cannot be endured or even embraced. Indeed if ends justify means then self preservation (whatever than means to you) is justification enough for even the most inhumane act you can imagine. In the end I realized this book is! a satire, in the tradition of Jonathan Swift. The book is a joke, a dark, macabre joke, and despite the "billboards" hung out before even page one, I very nearly didn't "get" it. Don't leave this book laying around for your children to read, Avoid it if you are on a prescription for seratonin-reuptake-inhibitors, and don't read it if your stomach can't handle a large cup of dark-roasted satire. But if you like to think about stories after you read them, then this book's for you.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, bizarre and disturbing
Review: I'm a big fan of Donald Westlake. I love his comic crime novels where I find myself rooting for the slightly inept bad guys to get away with their crimes. When I decided to read The Ax, it never ocurred to me that I'd end up rooting for Burke Devore to get away with multiple murders. This is a book about one man, written entirely in the first person. A man who believes he can rely on no one but himself. In that vein all the other characers are merely shadows, or stick figures. They exist only through Burke's eyes. He IS the book. Burke is a former production line manager in a paper mill who was laid off in the mid-nineties and has been unemployed for two years at the time of the novel (1997). He is at end of his rope -- his unemployment has run out and so, it seems, have his job prospects. Burke decides to take matters into his own hands. He places an ad in a trade journal to evaluate the competition. Then, he decides to just get rid of them. He selects the job that he wants and then he kills off the competition AND the incumbent. Burke goes on a killing spree through New York, Conn., and Mass. He kills the competition in broad daylight by the side of the road and in a crowded parking lot. He kills in a deserted mall parking lot and he even blows up a house. The fact that Burke gets away with all these murders is completely implausable. The fact that the cops don't catch him and that he even manages to get rid of the evidence of his son's (unrelated) breaking and entering is unlikely. The fact that the search of the house that follows his son's crime raises no questions in the minds of the police is ridiculous. But it doesn't really matter. The fact that it is so unlikely that he'll get away with it all makes us identify with Burke all the more. As the book progressed, I found myself disturbed by how much I could identify with Burke. I've never been laid off -- I work for one of those places that used to provide 'lifetime employment.' Not anymore. I can imagine myself laid off, desperate, looking for a job, as my family loses more and more opportunity and my retirement plans slip away. Can't most all of us? Most of us can't imagine taking Burke's reasoning to the final end -- that the end of providing for his family (at one point in the book, Burke bristles when the judge says that Burke's son "comes from poverty.") justifies any means, even murder. But, many of us can identify with his desperation. This is satire at its finest -- dark, disturbing and with an edge of truth. This book could certainly be read simply as a book about a serial killer, but it is truly much more than that. It is a book about Every Man for the age of downsizing, much as Death of a Salesman was about the Every Man of its time. You might find it disturbing, but do read this book. Donald Westlake has outdone himself this time.
Rating:
Summary: A classic, do not miss
Review: Westlake creates great suspense through one of the creepiest narratives ever written. Great structure and a justfied ending give this book some real punch. The real thrust of Westlake's talent is shown through his ability to make the reader empathize and even root for a very sick man. Well done and towards the very top of my list.
Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone, this is dark, satirical horror at its best
Review: Donald Westlake's THE AX is not the kind of novel I usually read. I picked it up second-hand because I've heard horror fans rave about its dark and chilling narrative. Burke Devore, a middle-aged, middle-class, middle management family man has been downsized out of his position in an East Coast paper mill. Months of unemployment lead him to devise the horrifying plan of quite literally eliminating the competition, murdering those, like him, who have been laid off and might apply for his coveted dream job. A strain of dark and surprising humor runs throughout Westlake's narrative. This humor is apparent in the bland similarities of the resumés collected by Burke as he targets his victims, in the increasingly grisly nature of the murders he commits as he travels through Connecticut and Massachusetts and New York, in his insightful commentary and observations as he stalks his prey. "We were fired," Burke ruminates of himself and his fellow job seekers, "because the computer made us unnecessary and made mergers possible and our absence makes the company even stronger, and the dividends even larger, the return on investment even more generous." Were he not bent on his murderous solution to unemployment, Burke Devore might have proved a trenchant critic of America's new economy. Burke makes for an engaging narrator, seducing the reader with his stark and unsettling logic. How many of today's unemployed must feel the kind of betrayed promise Burke does when he writes, "We were supposed to be protected and safe, here in the middle, and something's gone wrong." What makes THE AX so chilling is exactly what makes it so plausible.
Rating:
Summary: Read This if You Have a Few Hours to Kill!
Review: Burke Devore was a paper company manager for twenty-five years until the day he loses his job through corporate downsizing. For two years he is unemployed, attending many interviews but losing out to other people in the same situation as him with slightly better skills or experience. His marriage is disintegrating and his son is in trouble with the law. He finally has had enough and comes up with a brilliant plan to become employed again by getting rid of his competition. He does have a lot of time to kill after all! This is a brilliant novel with an extremely interesting and unique idea. I will definitely think twice the next time I have to send in a resume. I will also read more books by Westlake in the future.
Rating:
Summary: A real page-turner
Review: The Ax is the kind of book that you could read in a single setting. It is not especially long(at just under 300 pages) and is written in an engaging first-person narrative. The story follows a middle-aged family man by the name of Burke Devore who loses his job to downsizing. After 2 long years of fruitless job searching, he comes to the conclusion that the only way for him to find work again in his field is to "eliminate" the competition. He vows to kill the manager of a paper mill plant who has the job he believes should be his. He also manages to gather up the resumes of other applicants who he feels would have a better chance than him of getting the job he wants and kills them off too! While I certainly did not agree with Burke's actions, I found his insights and social commentaries to be fascinating. All in all this is a very good read, it's just very disturbing in that "Brett Easton Ellis American Psycho" kind of way.
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