First my two or three cents on Willeford. As some of you
know, I wrote
the Willeford entry for the Dictionary of Literary Biography
(those big
sky blue volumes in public and academic libraries) volume on
hard-boiled
writers (there are other contributors on rara-avis as well);
thus--and
some of you may cringe--my two cents vaguely becomes the
word, at least
as far as DLB goes. I didn't make the magical realist
comparison and it
is not one that comes to mind for me. I do, however, think
that
"realism" as a criterion for judgement is problematic in
general and
tough with Willeford (I like to think more in terms of
internal
consistency, or true unto itself). In my piece, I make one
passing
comparison to Nathanael West (which is echoed here and there
in the
works--certainly the end of Woman Chaser has affinities with
the end of
Day of the Locust), and another to Flanney O'Connor (though
not the
religious/redemption thing; and of course I place him
within
genre/publishing history). Willeford himself drew
self-comparisons with
the French existentialists. Thus, he says at some point that
Black Mass
of Brother Springer (aka Honey Gal) is better than anything
the French
existentialists wrote (I'm working from memory--maybe he
referred just
to Camus). While Willeford did publish pulpy paperback
originals, he
was always aesthetically ambitious. Incidentally, when he was
on a game
show in the late 50s (hosted by Mike Wallace), his topic was
The Modern
Novel. I don't want to debate too much on canonicity and
endurance.
One should note that The Library of America as a recent
publishing
institution may set a sort of benchmark. In any event, the
books are
durable and they have been widely purchased by public and
academic
libraries. They did two volumes on American crime writing,
and the
second (40s and 50s, I think) features four authors: Himes,
Highsmith,
Thompson, and Willeford (Pick-Up). I'd probably say that
Woman Chaser
is my favorite.
Briefly (or at least less long-winded, I hope) on other
matters. Mario
made a couple observations in which I agree with his
judgements, but not
entirely with his readings. I think he called Whitfield's
Green Ice a
top noir book. I like the book a lot, but as I recall the
protagonist
has this vague ambition to clean things up--seems a little
utopian.
Mario also said similar things about Highsmith. I like
Highsmith a lot,
but think her edginess (at least in the two Ripley books)
comes from her
writing's light exuberance. Tom has a grand time, we see
lovely sights,
and, well, some people have to die for the loveliness to
continue, but
oh well. Like Willeford, Highsmith has a great original
voice. I read
some more Constantine (Joey's Case), but think he is too
serious and
real (to invoke a term I just derided) for my tastes just
now--a very
fine writer though. Mario--you named another Constantine
title in which
corruption in the town is rife--which one is this again? I'm
now
reading another John Evans (Howard Browne) Paul Pine book
(the first,
Halo in Blood)--great, great stuff. Not as a good, but a fun
taste was
my first Talmage Powell--Start Screaming Murder. Any other
words on
Powell?
Someone asked about Pirandello. I think Dover has two
one-dollar books
by Pirandello, including one collection of stories.
I enjoyed the posts about con-game books. Maybe we could
convince one
of our website managers--Kevin Smith or Bill Denton--to do
some
bibliographies based on subgenres (e.g., con games, capers,
carney
novels).
Finally, could someone post the Boucheron website again and
people who
know say something about the event. What goes on? To whom
does it
appeal? Is it worth the cost? Who's planning on going?
Doug
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