I have just read Mosely's first Easy Rawlings novel, _Devil
in a Blue Dress_. I have read that Daphne, the woman referred
to in the title, is associated with various colors, not only
blue but green, brown, white, etc. She is of mixed parentage,
and has powers of universal femininity. It is puzzling to
think about her as either a devil or a femme fatale. But
Mosley makes her a complex and probably archetypal character,
although I am not clear on all the implications. I notice
that many of the Rawlings novels have one color each in the
title. I wonder if Mosely's treatment, not so much of race
but of behavior patterns of Americans interacting with race
and class, is not an example of how flexible the noir crime
novel is (Charyn, Hendricks, Mailer, Paretsky,
Burroughs).
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