I don't think any more bitter satire of academic art
criticism is possible than the one Willeford presents in this
novel.
SPOILER An entire "oeuvre" is shown to be the invention of
critics eager to be considered experts in an arcane segment
of dadaist-impresionist art. The protagonist, James, is
another of Willeford's mechanically predatory, although
highly intelligent, protagonists. The novel is noir, for
sure, but in certain aspects (the venerable French painter's
love of orange juice and silly movies) hilarious in a way
which jars with the tragic results of James' cold
heartedness. His most pathetic victim is the girl who gives
herself entirely to him, Berenice, whom he uses in almost
every way possible. He thinks he can regard what he has done
with no passion or guilt, and at the end he says he does just
that. Yet near the beginning, just before the flashback which
makes up the bulk of the novel, he says he feels an
"ache" about what he has done. So which is it? It's
confusing, as is the statement he makes on the next to last
page: "In America you have to pay for your success." Then he
visits the police station. I do not know what he means by the
statement. I thought he did what he did at the end because he
knew he could not top himself as a Satanic artist in evil.
Satan does not feel an "ache," and certainly not guilt. Can
anyone familiar with this novel explain James' motives?
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