Re: RARA-AVIS: Willeford vs. Leonard
BaxDeal@aol.com
Thu, 12 Feb 1998 18:45:27 -0500 (EST)
>I was wondering if anyone could articulate
what
>they feel is the primary differences between Charles
>Willeford's
>work and Elmore Leonard?
I too have noticed a similarity in styles between these two
giants, mostly
from Willeford's Hoke Moseley series.
But I would say that Leonard seems much more bemused by the
amorality of his
characters, and more detached as well. Leonard never wrote
anything in the
first person, whereas the Hoke Moseley series aside, Willeford
often went
there and seemed to wallow in their dark natures. Having read
Grimhaven,
Willeford's unpublished Hoke, where Moseley murders his
daughters for
disturbing the tranquility of his retirement and then travels
crosscountry to
murder his ex-wife for taking up with a black baseball player,
I would have
to say Mr. Willeford was somewhat of a disturbed individual.
The ending of
this work is one of the most ironic things I have ever
read.
One of my biggest regrets is that I never got the pleasure of
meeting Charles
Willeford in person. I've had the pleasure of meeting Mr.
Leonard and found
him to be a cocky, old storyteller.
John Lau
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