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RARA-AVIS: Willeford - The Shark Infested Custard
Bill Denton, in his message answering Bill Murray's:
> As to Willeford, I picked
>up _The Shark-Infested Custard_ the other day and finished it last
>night. Strange book. It's about four guys in their twenties in
>Miami, in the seventies. There are four interwoven novellas,
>centering on the different guys, usually involving murder, weird sex
>and some other illegal activities. It has an unsettling ending. <
Well, a coincidence: I red this novel jeust before Christmas!
As far as I know The Shark Infested Custardl is different from the typical
way Willeford elaborated style and construction (for the second part of his
writer's career -at least from what I red: the series with Hoke, his bluesy
cop)
To me this [ .... Custard ]one seems like a Jazz quartet playing a ballad
with a turn of solos from the players...
Seems also like all the 4 central characters shift to a parallel world of
their own where murder is a normal way to solve problems.
This novel leaves a taste of unfulfillment as IMO the reader feels
subjectively that everything is set for more development.
Not necessarily to get a "finale" but evrything is there to do more.
IMO not a great novel but certainly an interesting one.
Willeford is definitely hard-boiled, even if this novel is not 100% the
right stuff.
Cheers
E.Borgers
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384/
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