Stamp Collecting with GS

Lawrence Block's Stamp Collector

John Paul Keller is addicted to the unruly passion of stamp collecting. It's the thing that forms a bond with his past and helps him forget his troubles. Keller visits stamp shops around the country on his travels, and sometimes drops into some of the tonier Manhattan auction houses Lawrence Block author of Hit Man and Hit List

At home Keller reads "Linn's," works on his albums, and sorts through approvals from his favorite dealer in Maine. He spends days hinging stamps because he can. He's unattached and he takes long vacations between jobs, not because he wants to but because contract killers have to be careful.

Lawrence Block

Keller is writer Lawrence Block's protagonist from the books "Hit Man" and "Hit List," both currently in bookstores, which trace the travels and changes of a character as troubling as he is troubled.

But what I found most troubling is how easy Block made it for me to like J.P. Keller. The books wind through episode after episode exposing Keller's lonely tale, where death is deserved without sentimentality or brutality, and what emerges is a good-natured guy who's greater than his parts, though I have to admit I sense Keller's doing a delicate balancing act and holding something back.

Keller's story takes sudden turns, and nothing is predictable other than that he'll complete his work and return to his albums.

Keller on screen

In previous newsletters and articles I've said the stamp collecting hobby needed something to attract attention to the good things stamp collecting has to offer to young, inquisitive minds.

I thought a "good 5¢ stamp" might do the trick, but Keller just might cast philately in a whole new light for the books and the character will eventually be coming to a theatre near you. Actor Jeff Bridges has bought the rights to, and will probably star in the title role of "Keller."

Bridges as Keller

Jeff Bridges was "The Dude" in "The Big Lebowski," the title character in "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" back in 1988, and one of the "Fabulous Baker Boys," though his portrayal of Duane Jackson in "The Last Picture Show" may still be one of his best.

How Bridges will portray Keller's philatelic obsession on film is anyone's guess, and though it's possible that the "stamp collecting" angle may have to be dropped to a mere reference to tighten the on screen action, it'll be hard to overlook the stamp collecting's role in Keller's life.

Keller's a person who ruminates about the dearth of young collectors, new issues and related notions before he heads out to perform his particular line of work.

Good for the soul

Some people collect for investment. Some for pleasure. Others want to learn about the people and things on the stamps, and some people "save things" because it fills a void or calms their fear. They're passionate about their stamps because their ordered collection protects them from the fear and anxiety of a chaotic and dangerous world.

Keller seems to collect to maintain a lifeline to a sane and orderly, if mundane world, but Block's too good a writer to lay out his character's life like a mechanical formula. Instead, hints and possibilities are strewn around like red herrings on Baker Street.

Still, stamp collecting's good for Keller's soul, like some magical cloak of invisibility that does everything the wearer wants it to do, except perform its stated purpose, which in Keller's case might mean those little papers are talismans for something still to be discovered.

Lawrence Block's J.P. Keller is a complicated person, and though straight forward and matter-of-fact on the surface, somewhat whimsical and perplexingly erratic below the surface, which not only makes for an interesting person but for an enjoyable story.

In the meantime

New Amsterdam Entertainment has the film in pre-production, and Bridges and Block have very entertaining and informative Web sites where you can keep up-to-date on developments.

In February 2001, Block announced that a new writer had been assigned to re-write the "Keller" script: Lawrence Block. Seems the producers wanted someone who really knew J.P., and who better than Lawrence Block.

If all goes well, it looks like this is a 2002 movie release so in the meantime, read the whole story. Read the books. And be sure to read between the lines.