Martha:
<< the willeford book i recently bought (for my
first) is the burnt orange heresy, which no one
has mentioned as a good one-- have i made a
horrible
choice? >> Teri:
<>
A few quick thoughts. I am a big fan of the Hoke Moseleys and
many here have directed readers to them. They are great books
and probably more accessible
(for lack of a better word) crime novels than Willeford's
other writing. They have good guys and bad, and crimes are
solved. As Teri saw in Shark, crime plays a part, but
(re)solution (or a clean balance of justice/morality) does
not. Without Moseley, however, we might not be reading much
Willeford--everything was out of print when Miami Blues came
out. Willeford shopped Shark in the 70s and got nowhere; the
book was published posthumously.
Most of the non-Hoke are quite strong. Burnt Orange was,
incidentally, his first hardback and it garnered reviews in
The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harpers, etc. It is very
good, though some readers may tire at moments. My favorite is
The Woman Chaser (which was also called his masterpiece by
Richard Gehr in the Village Voice); look for the new movie if
it gets a distributor (or at your local film fest). In the
Washington Post, Barry Gifford, sometime acquiring editor at
Black Lizard when it was run by Creative Arts in Berkeley,
and writer in his own right of course, called The Black Mass
of Brother Springer Willeford's masterpiece. The Library of
America made Pick-Up its Willeford choice.
Doug
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