Books: Kahawa By Donald E. Westlake (1982/1995)

“In Uganda in 1977, a particular trainload of coffee, mostly belonging to Dictator Idi Amin, is worth six million dollars. As a group of scoundrels and international financiers hijack the train, the double and triple crosses pile up and the comic tension escalates in a brawling brew of buffoons, bumblers, beans and boxcars.” 

 

For one reason or another, I’ve put off reading this book for a while. Part of the reason was the length – as I’ve gotten older, books longer than 475 to 500 plus pages are not worth my time (with a few exceptions), as I have so books in my TBR pile (and add to it monthly). In addition, Westlake was known for lean plots with little to none extraneous plots and characters to keep track of. The other was that some Westlake scholars, for lack of a better word, have mixed feelings about the narrative, the people, and the fact that it’s only a handful of novels he set outside his beloved New York City (those always seemed to be seen in a negative light).

 

As I noted in a Part One, the heist idea was supposedly based on a true story, but while it’s certainly possible some smuggling went on in Uganda during Idi Aimn’s dictatorship, it’s probable not as elaborate as the one described here (as a matter of fact, in his Afterword, Westlake notes that “something similar did take place”, his description and all the characters -with a few exemptions of real-life ones- is all made up by him (then again, in the prologue, which is unconnected to the rest of the plot, is a reference to the real-life event on which the novel is based).

 

I would say I liked this book, even if it’s different than anything he usually did. There is a lot more geo-political stuff, along with some racial and sexual commentary. As matter of fact, he surprised me (and probably a lot of his longtime reader), by having some extremely explicit sex scenes in this book. Probably far more than in all those paperback ‘porn’ titles he wrote under multiple pseudonyms in the 1950s to support his family before he became a success in later decades. In some ways, while this is a heist novel, filled with real life death and violence, it’s also, strangely a relationship book, with Lew Brady seemly dealing with a trio of women who want to have sex with in. And Lew, who likes having these affairs, also loves Ellen (even if sex is seemly the only thing that connects them). But in being this way, both Lew and Ellen are not that very interesting characters.

 

Anyways, there are a lot plot elements in this book than I can't possibly synopsize here, and I have no desire to extend this review to a third part. What I can say is the book is good, not great, it carries a lot of violence, commentary on the Amin regime (which came about due a coup backed by the British and the Israelis in 1971, and who odiously came to regret it. But even as Westlake unflinchingly describes a number of killings, including those of two major characters, it is not a nasty book like some of his darker thrillers; only Amin and his regime are portrayed as nasty).

 

It’s worth the read, even if a tips into being a bit overlong. But I would also agree with most Westlake scholars, this is not the book to start reading his oeuvre. It’s too complex and you don’t really get what he was doing here until you’ve read a few of his thrillers, a handful of Parker tales, and some of more humorous tales. 

Books: Kahawa By Donald E. Westlake, Part One

I just started my first Westlake novel of 2025 and decided to do some research after reading the Introduction to this hardcover edition. 

This is part one of two (which I’ll post after finishing the book). 

So, in the introduction to the 1995 reissue hardcover, Donald E. Westlake writes about this caper tale that was so different from what he written before, that when it was originally released in 1982, it was not a bestseller for him. 

The genesis of the novel is based on true story (though there is no evidence that can confirm this actually did happen in reality) about “a group of white mercenaries, in Uganda, while it was under Idi Amin, stole a railroad train a mile long, full of coffee, and made it disappear.” As Westlake writes, he was known for both serious (the Parker tales under his pseudonym of Richard Stark) and comic (the Dortmunder series) capers. The more outrageous the theft, the more interesting the idea was to him. He writes “Once, for instance, before the government started paying by check, Parker stole the entire payroll from a United States Air Force Base (The Green Eagle Score). Dortmunder, not to be outdone, has made off with a complete bank, temporarily housed in a mobile home (Bank Shot). And what could be more outrageous than to steal a mile-long train from the dread Idi Amin, and make it disappear?” 

But then he began his research and it sent him down a dark hole (“Research is my own personal Sargasso Sea”) and discovered that there was much more to tell than stealing a train that he would need to incorporate into the tale. One was the fact that under Amin’s years in power, his primary goal was to rid Uganda of Christians. But in a country made up at the time of some sixteen million people, where seventy-five percent identified as Christians, it meant including parts about how roughly five hundred thousand men, women, and children were slaughtered not because they were political, or rebellious, or dangerous, but because they were Christians. 

So Kahawa (the Swahili word for coffee) had to be an exciting caper tale, but also needed to include the horrors of Amin’s dictatorship (which is why, in some sense, the book’s title is so different as well. Westlake’s original was Coffee to Go, but that eventually “slunk off in embarrassment”).

He sold the book to Viking, but the publishing house “was in the midst of an upheaval” and his original editor was let go and the replacement one, what he called an “oil painting of an editor”, couldn’t figure out how to help market the book and felt no one would really want to read a caper novel with such dark and terrible parts to it (this event in his publishing life was the genesis of his 1984 comic novel that took on the publishing industry, A Likely Story). 

When Westalke moved to Warner Books, who through their Mysterious Press imprint, began reissuing a lot of older Westlake titles, as well as new ones, Kahawa was given a second chance at life. In the thirty years since that re-release, it’s probably still one Westlake’s less popular titles. But even as prolific as the man was, he could, on occasion, throw a left curve and surprise readers, both long-time ones and new. 

TO BE CONTINUED…

Books: I Gave at the Office By Donald E. Westlake (1971)

According to The Westlake Review, “Jay Fisher is a news announcer, working for an unnamed network.  He is, as he will tell us many times in the book, a company man, undyingly loyal to the network, defending it even when it refuses to defend him.  He has never been one of its top talents, and in fact is best known for going to a fancy Italian restaurant called The Three Mafiosi. This restaurant is located in a corporate office tower, and there he tapes lunchtime interviews with various minor celebrities–their answers to his questions will then be edited together with the same questions Jay asked them being asked by a more famous TV news personality, who doesn’t have the time to come to the restaurant himself. Jay has achieved success as a company man, but he’s also a full adult, nearing middle age, with two children and a failed marriage to his credit.   He’s not some young slacker who hasn’t found himself–he’s a grown-up who intends to go on hiding from himself for as long as possible. Jay gets conned by some shady acquaintances into pitching an idea to the network–that they film gun-runners supplying Cuban Anti-Castro rebels with arms that will be used to overthrow the government of Ilha Pombo Island, a fictional Caribbean country, inhabited by former slaves, and run by a fat brutal dictator named Mungu, who bears a startling resemblance to Idi Amin.”

This novel is told text is a transcript of his testimony recounting how his “on the scene” documentation of a CIA-esque takeover of a Caribbean dictatorship resulted in an international scandal. The gist of the story is your basic plot to overthrow Mungu and install a new leader. But it becomes clear that these the Cubans being recruited for ‘Operation Torch of Liberty’ are not brightest bulbs on the Christmas Tree.

Towards the end, I was skimming over the book. It’s probably not the worse book Westlake wrote, but clearly there is something missing here. It feels rushed in some way, which is probably why I had such a difficult time with it. The thing with Westlake and his tendency to be so prolific is that as a reader, you get used to his books being good and when you come across a lesser one, like this, it’s disappointing. Still, because it’s seemly inspired by true events, it contains all the elements of a great Westlake novel.

There are a few funny bits, plus a rather cold and brutal “interview” Jay has with the arms dealer of this band of fools, who talks about the morality of the gun: 

A: The gun is power, that’s obvious.  It is the raw material of power, and power is ultimately the only civilizing influence in the world.  It was the handgun that brought civilization to the American West, for instance.  The gun is the primary tool in situations of mob control, which is to say, in the formation of societies.  The gun determines territorial claims, which is to say national boundaries.  The gun determined that you and I would speak English now, rather than French or Spanish or Portuguese.  The gun determined that we would be here at all, and that the Indian would not be.

Q: The Indian is still here, though isn’t he?

A: Herded into reservations, by men with guns.  If there were no guns, men would not be able to build cities, because all the bricks would be stolen the first night.  If there were no guns, estates like this would be overrun by the scruffy mob.  And as population gets more and more out of hand, the gun will be increasingly the only determinant of which of us will live which sort of life.

Q: You credit guns with the sort of power that most people give to money.

A: Without the gun, most people wouldn’t have their money.  Not for long. And with the gun, it is possible to get money, women, or whatever else you fancy in life.

Q: Excuse me, Mr. Grahame, your words could be misinterpreted there. I know you don’t mean to imply approval of armed robbery or rape or—

A: Why not?  I am hardly in a position to favor arms restrictions.  Once we accept the idea that society is valuable, that our civilization was worth the building and continues to be worth the saving, we must take the next step and agree that the tool which built our civilization is also valuable and, to use a moral term, good.  That tool is the gun, and no usage of the gun could be considered evil.   Now, if some dolt takes a pistol and holds up a bank, I would disapprove, but only of his tactics, not his choice of equipment.  His tactics will put him directly in opposition with a superior force of men armed with more guns; that is to say, he will be caught and perhaps shot.  The gun is power, true; it is the central tool of civilization, true; but as with any tool and any form of power, some intelligence must be employed by the operator.

Q: Well then, what should he do instead of robbing a bank?  He wants money, he wants a better life, and your prescription is that he go out and get a gun.  What should he do with it?

A: He should first learn military science, which is, after all, the science of the use of the gun.  And one of the first lessons in military science is, Never attack a superior force.

 It goes on a bit more, but it’s probably the best part of this book.

Books: Money For Nothing By Donald E. Westlake (2003)

"Josh Redmont was 27 when the first check arrived, and he had absolutely no idea what it was for. Issued by "United States Agent" through an unnamed bank with an indeterminate address in D.C., someone seemed to think Josh was owed $1,000. One month later, another check arrived, and then another, and another...and Josh cashed them all. Month after month, year after year, never a peep from the IRS, never an explanation for all this seemingly found money; the checks even followed Josh from one address to another as he moved through life. Now, after a full seven years, we find him on his way to meet the wife and kids for a summer vacation. Puzzled by the approach of a smiling stranger, Josh's stomach seizes with dread when the unwanted greeting begins with, "I am from United States Agent." Dumbstruck, Josh attempts to feign ignorance until he hears the words, "You are now active."

Money For Nothing would be Westlake’s final non-series novel released in his lifetime, five years before his passing on New Year’s Eve 2008. Also, certain Westlake scholars believe this book also “constitutes the tenth and final ‘Nephew’ book, though with so many variations on the basic formula as to render it almost unrecognizable.” As FredFitch at The Westlake Review further notes “To some extent it is an attempt to blend elements from the two of his weakest books–his first comic caper, Who Stole Sassi Manoon?, and his first major attempt at satire, I Gave At The Office (the seventh Nephew)”

I’ve only read Who Stole Sassi Manoon?, and still hunting down a reasonably priced version of I Gave At The Office, so we’ll see.

But yes, this book works for various reasons, but on the whole, it’s sort of flat with a storyline seen many times in both movies and TV. Also, I’m curious why this book was written in the third person, as it might’ve worked better in first person. Then is the novel suppose to serious or funny? Yes, there are some serious situations, especially towards the end, but there are other serious parts sprinkled out through the book. Then there are some situations by some of the characters that are very funny and often reminded me of the early John Dortmunder tales when the “villains” were non-Americans and had little grasp of idioms and social cues.

Surprisingly, since this was released in 2003, there is zero reference to 9/11, which was probably a conscious point on Westlake, because the gist of the book deals with Ukrainian terrorist (which seems odd today)  and a planned assassination at Yankee’s Stadium. There is also a sequence that takes place in LTP area of JFK that seemed out place –the area would’ve probably had some security coverage and CCTV cameras by 2003. So it’s possible this novel is set before 9/11 (and maybe written well before, as well, but that doesn’t explain why someone like Josh does not have a mobile phone, but they use the internet with a powerful search engine. Maybe these were things Westlake had little use of?)

There is one bit of brilliant satire here, when Josh is trying to piece everything together and ends up going to a book reading at (the real) Westsider Books in New York. The description of the writer of fantasy series (and his fans) now in its seventh volume sort of resembles George R.R. Martin. But Westlake’s snarky vibe of the whole thing is pretty spot on.  

Anyways, not a terrible Westlake crime novel but not all will like like due to its sometimes slow pacing, almost no action, with humor that does not hit all the marks.