I'm a little late for Willeford month, but a couple of weeks
ago I found brand new copies of his THE WOMAN CHASER and THE
HIGH PRIEST OF CALIFORNIA / WILD WIVES remaindered at the
local half price store. I've finished CHASER and I'm halfway
through HIGH PRIEST and I can't help but notice some
similarities between the narrators of each:
One is named Russell Haxby, the other is named Richard
Hudson.
Both are used car salesmen.
Each have a mother married to a Hollywood producer.
Haxby lives in San Francisco; Hudson just moved from
there.
I can't help wondering if Willeford had some more ideas
involving the character from HIGH PRIEST but couldn't use the
same person.
And of course I've left out the biggest similarity: despite
the fact that both men are intelligent and cultured, with
interests in art, literature, and music, neither feels
constrained by the normal taboos of society.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Haxby sets out to seduce a married woman, mostly for fun. He
beats people up with little provocation (in one case, just to
make himself feel better). Hudson sleeps with his teenage
stepsister and is rather brutal to her, and gets his
secretary pregnant, then beats her when she wants an
abortion.
Normally people like Haxby and Hudson would seem like real
go-getters, men on their way up, etc., and I think Willeford
was trying to show that violence and irrationality can live
inside of anyone.
Graham
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