RARA-AVIS: Burnt Orange Heresy (spoiler)

ejm duggan (ejmd@mcmail.com)
Mon, 13 Jul 1998 10:40:20 -0700 I'm approaching the end of this novel and've read enough to post a few
thoughts.

SPOILER ALERT

skip this post if you haven't yet read B O H and don't want the story
spoiled

My first thoughts on this are that it's a straight down-the-line
misogynist text. Why the hell would Berenice persist in a relationship
with a shit like Figueras?

I don't know if misogyny is a theme maintained throughout Willeford's
writing as this is the first I've read. I have a library copy of the
omnibus, so I'll flick through one of the other two stories---probably
Pick Up---to see how Willeford comes off.

As far as BOH goes though, the text doesn't really persuade me with the
story of art-critic turned hoaxer. (Though it is a really interesting
plot.)
I'm not really convinced by Figueras's actions---the only plausible line
the plot can take after Figueras torches the studio is for him to write
a speculative piece on *why* D---[name?] 'does a Hammett' and stops
producing. The twist *ought to be* presenting the engineer of the theft
with the blank canvas. If Figueras is a hot as he tells us he is, the
blank canvas should allow him to go beyond his
'structuralism'---whatever that is meant to mean here---to wax
poststructurally about D- producing the ultimate readerly (painterly?)
text, the blank canvas.

FWIW, the low-point is surely that ludicrous line about not allowing for
the thickness of Berenice's hair when striking the first blow with the
tyre-lever.

Still, it's pulled me back on to the reading list.

ED

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