The Ax

Rating:
Summary: For those who gave a 1(one) rating
Review: If you could hang on and didn't lose your dignity and anger after you've lost your job at middle age, you'd never understand what Westlake's trying to deliver. Ask those victims who were kicked out of their jobs just because the downsizing trend, or remember what I said and keep this book on you mind or on your shelf until you come to the middle age and lose your job and become desparate, then you'd better re-read this book. I think at that moment you might understand what the book is talking about. Or better yet, when you find your middle-aged parents suddenly got the pink slips and lost their jobs, income, insurance, and so on. You'd find out that guy in this book is the guy who you have to face every day, sitting in the den or some lucked up room so quietly all day long. When you unluckily find out that your father becomes THAT man, then you'd understand what Westlake tried to deliver to you in this book. No hard feelings, folks; especially to the ones who haven't lost long-term jobs yet, or too young to

Rating:
Summary: blackest of black comedy
Review: I can't say I completely enjoyed reading this novel; it was actually rather difficult to finish. It is a commentary on corporate america, as is noted in other reviews, but even more, I think, a commentary on the middle-class life style and mind-set. Devore is so firmly fixed on maintaining exactly the life he had, the same job in the same field, that he is driven to murder seven men. One criticism I have is that the number of his competitors could have been trimmed (I found it difficult to finish also because it dragged a little toward the end. If there were fewer murders, it still would have made the same statement). From the very first shocking pages describing his first murder, through his lies to his wife and the removal of evidence of his son's crime, Devore coldly and dispassionately plans his new life exactly in the mold of his old. It is his refusal to accept any solution (he hates that his wife gets a job, he is embarassed for his victims who have taken jobs he considers 'beneath' them) other than the right job and life that he knew that drives him to murder. Before I started reading, I thought this novel would be like "The Dinosaur Club", but that book is much lighter in tone and has more obvious good guys and bad guys. A better comparison is the movie "Shock to the System", where an executive kills off his rivals. This novel is definitely worth your time if you are a young, or not so young professional, who has 'made it', because it will, I think, make you reexamine what you think about yourself, and what you define as 'success'.

Rating:
Summary: The First.. and The Last
Review: This is the first Donald E. Westlake book I've read and I'm glad to say it was my last. I read the first six or seven chapters and said forget it. The book didn't have an exciting plot, in my opinion; the idea of a pathetic middle-aged man going around killing people just because they know what he knows in the paper world is pointless. Another thing that ticked me off was the lack of dialogue. As you read the book the only person you get to know is the boringand pathetic Burke Devore. The reason I picked the book up and read it was the art on the front of the cover, it looked cool and interresting. I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover.

Rating:
Summary: Empty novel, hanging on a gimmick
Review: Donald Westlake has always been one of my favorites, but this book is absolute garbage. Missing are all of the hallmarks of his standouts -- wit, narrative tension, and an affection for the flawed protagonist. This novel is supposed to be a topical twist on the tired notion that in American society, the end has come to justify the means. All Westlake does with it is invest an angry Babbitt with homicidal rage, have him repeat the same modus operandi over and over again, then cheapen this flaccid plot even further with an ending so contrived that it insults the intelligent reader. The social problem Westlake hopes to address acquires no resonance because his writing is so disaffected and his characterization of our dilemma so offensively simpleminded. THE AX appears to be an earnest literary experiment gone badly wrong. Don't bother with it.

Rating:
Summary: This book was great.
Review: I think this book ought to be required reading for anyone who has lost his job due to downsizing. It could be sort of a handbook. Westlakes satire is unsurpassed. When you start reading any of Westlakes books you want to read more. I have read eight of them so far and look forward to reading all of them. What an imagination.

Rating:
Summary: USA Today
Review: A magnificent idea, although somewhat overdone, Could have worked just as well with fewer fellows to eliminate. But it is right up there with today's fashionable "road rage", billionaires who need to make that extra buck, and the very rich who sportingly cheat on their taxes. Unfortunately, the story is not entirely unbelievable.

Rating:
Summary: A Lagging Indicator of the American Zeitgeist
Review: Burke Devore is the Willy Loman of the new economy -- with a few critical distinctions that reveal as much about our times as they do about the two protagonists. Where Willy aspires to be "well-liked," Burke just wants a damn job. Where Willy dresses up his son's accomplishments, Burke destroys evidence of his son's larceny. And where Willy's sense of failure leads him to kill himself, Burke's leads him to murder others. This book is chilly in its moral ambiguity. But -- offering further proof of our accelerating cultural cycle times -- the novel seems slightly, just slightly, out of date now that the economy has strengthened. An otherwise excellent piece of writing, The Ax misses the Zeitgeist bullseye by about fourteen months.

Rating:
Summary: If you are looking for a good read, forget this one.
Review: I read most of the reviews before I ordered this book.That was my mistake. I gave more credit to the 10s' than I did to the 1. Never again. I agree with the reader from Mass. This is almost the worst book I have ever read. So bad, I couldn't finish it after reading the first three or four murders. Ugh!!!

Rating:
Summary: No more Mr. Nice Guy
Review: Westlake echoes an earlier Herman Kahn's "thinking the unthinkable". This gristly chiller has a middle aged, middle management victim of corporate downsizing decide to ignore the rational norms of civilized society to resolve his dilemma. Burke Devore (devour?) methodically eliminates his perceived job competition by murdering each possible candiate for the job he wants. Devore, who has led the most conventional of standard American life, is completely frustrated in his attempts to continue that life through fair play. From a frightening analysis he comes to realize that only a brutal rejection of the accepted ethic will restore a semblance of what he has lost. This story is a jarring read, and unpleasantly suggests that even in peace we can be victims as much as we could be in war, when individuals are sacrificed in the determination to win at all costs. Devore's actions are an extension of modern corporate will.

Rating:
Summary: Westlake's near best comes to a bad end.
Review: A disappointing end deflates the high expectations which the author sustains almost to the end. Almost any other ending would have been superior to Westlake's conclusion. Was he rushing to an early deadline? Did he get another book idea and give up on this one before he was done? When you get to the last chapter or so, put the book down and write your own (probably superior)conclusion.