Continuing the Willeford theme, I've recently reread THE
SHARK-INFESTED CUSTARD THE BURNT-ORANGE HERESY
COCKFIGHTER
Right now I'm rereading THE BLACK MASS OF BROTHER SPRINGER
with PICK-UP the last in the bunch. That leaves me with only
HIGH PRIEST OF CALIFORNIA/WILD WIVES, the two volumes of
autobiography (I had heard the recent editions of these were
poorly edited and typeset, is that true?) and, if I can ever
find it, THE HOMBRE FROM SONORA.
It's striking to me how many Willeford novels are not crime
novels, which goes to show "hardboiled" is an approach, not a
description of a subgenre. ORANGE isn't even a hardboiled
novel, maybe at best you might squeeze it into a noirish
Highsmith-style thriller, but what it seems to me most of all
is a parable, an explication of Willeford's oddball, mordant
world view. (It's a very "literary" book, in many respects,
and I'm surprised that the highbrow set haven't taken to it
more than they have.) I think it's one of Willeford's best
books -- Block's description of it as a "shaggy dog" story
isn't too far off the mark, but Willeford seems to have
viewed life itself as sort of a shaggy dog story, so it
manages to be profound and pointless at the same time, no
little trick.
In ORANGE there's an exchange about Hemingway's DEATH IN THE
AFTERNOON, where the protagonist says it's about
bullfighting, but also Hemingway himself. Seen in that light,
COCKFIGHTER feels like Willeford's try at a DEATH IN THE
AFTERNOON book, with cockfighting substituting for
bullfighting. Sort of the companion piece to ORANGE, a more
optimistic take on many of the same themes, I think it
ultimately chokes on too many cockfighting details to be
entirely successful, but it does manage to be curiously
life-affirming despite it all. Individual instances of
cockfighting in the book are pretty fascinating.
THE SHARK-INFESTED CUSTARD is a more straightforward crime
book. It's not a novel, though, so much as a loosely linked
series of short crime stories, all centering around four of
the typical Willeford affectless psychos who live in a
singles community. There are people who apparently really
like this book, but it's always struck me as minor Willeford.
The best story is probably the third one, which ends pretty
devastatingly.
I wonder if Willeford every wore jumpsuits -- he certainly
sings their praises enough, both in CUSTARD and the Moseley
books.
doug
===== Doug Bassett
dj_bassett@yahoo.com
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 08 Oct 2004 EDT