"Francis Xavier Meehan is in federal prison for hijacking a mail truck he thought contained computer chips. A presidential reelection official offers him a pardon with a Watergate-type scheme: Meehan must steal a video that, if made public, may prevent the president's reelection. Meehan's court-appointed lawyer cuts the best deal she can for him, and we're off on the caper as Meehan assembles his heist crew, figures the logistics and cases the estate of the elderly, right-wing gun collector who has the video. Egyptian and Israeli spies, plus a plethora of presidential aides provide intermittent interference. By the time Meehan learns the video involves national security and he's superfluous, we've also learned that he's a lot smarter and more savvy than the better-educated president's men"
As one who appreciates Westlake’s comic
capers, with sometimes silly, often cartoonish anti-heroes, Put a Lid on It
does feature another of his luckless crooks. While I felt this novel sort of
plays out like a little more serious John Dortmunder book, if things in his
life went differently, it still has some of the writer’s trademark humor.
Still, like Dortmunder, Meehan abhors violence and does not believe in carrying
a gun. Anyways, the plot is pretty ridiculous
(and I think we’ve seen a variation on this story many times before), but under
Westlake’s deft hand, he succeeds in many ways, as the book also plays out as a
political satire with caper aspect always hanging around.
Still, it’s clear that Westlake had little liking for either political parties –he lays out the fact that both Republicans and Democrats play dirty tricks. And while neither party is actually mentioned here, there are two sides here – those who want to re-elect the POTUS and those on the Other Side. Westlake does take pot shots at some of the more extreme folks, in particular 80 year-old Clendon Burnstone IV, who is an unabashed racist.
“To watch a mind like that at work,” Jeffords said, and shook his head in admiration. “He processes the same information from the world that you and I do, and turns it into something from another universe. It’s like listening to some from the Flat Earth Society, or those people who believe the moon landings were faked on soundstages in Hollywood.
Meehan said, “It almost sounds as though you admire the guy.”
“I admire the effect,” Jeffords said. “If I could tap into the subtext of fears and prejudices and prides and misunderstood history the way he can, only with a little more self-awareness, bring it out a little smoother, a little blander, I wouldn’t be a groundling in the CC, I’d be running for president myself.”
The novel ends with a typical twist, but
all-in-all, this is a very focused tale, even somewhat economical, because this
was a stand-alone novel, meaning Westlake could say what he needed to say and
then moved on back to Parker and Dortmunder.
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