I disliked The Woman Chaser. I seem to remember it as boring.
On the other hand, The Cock Fighter was really good. It's the
only cockfighting novel I've ever read and probably the last,
although I recently read The Day of the Locust (Nathanael
West), which has cockfighting scenes in it that seemed
convincing because they were so similar to some in the
Willeford book.
Speaking of Day of the Locust--what a lot of well-written
scenes there were! Even the scenery was interesting.
Karin
At 04:37 PM 09/08/2006 +0000, Channing wrote:
>I too just recently read "The Difference" and I agree
it's not
>superior Willeford, but it does feature some of his
hallmark
>touches.
>
>In particular nobody writes casual psychopaths like
Willeford.
>Although the hero is introduced as a young innocent
wronged by
>greedy ranchers, there's something insidious going
on. The
>narrator's casual disregard for human life is
startling. He kills
>people in a way that suggests to him it's just an
annoyance. If
>someone wrongs him, he doesn't make a big deal about
killing
>them, but it's just a fact of nature that they have
to die. In fact, the
>narrator doesn't even need an excuse to kill someone
or any
>motivation. Their death is just part of his
self-preservation.
>
>I also recommend "The Woman Chaser" as one of
Willeford's
>best novels, which features a psychotic scumbag as a
hero.
>
>And "The Cock Fighter" is the best cockfighting novel
ever written.
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