I had the same take as you for the first third of the book or so. Goodis
spends the good part of a chapter describing how Clara trys to match her
mood to a color for the day and then proceeds to explain how she works that
color into her day from bath soap and towels to her clothing. I couldn't see
how it served the narrative other than to show how self-indulgent a person
she was.
Even half way through the book I was wondering if it was even a crime novel.
But with the introduction of the character of Clard (only one character
different from Clara--interesting) fairly late in the novel, the story
started to fascinate me. Goodis teases you with this mysterious character
until the very end.
Jeff
> Interesting to hear such a positive response, Jeff. I had the opposite
> reaction. It's the only one of Goodis's books I struggled to finish.
> Possibly because his career-long technique of associating characters with
> colours is so invasive. At one point a character is described as having 'a
> yellow day' (I think it's yellow). Colour coding is an effective technique
> when done well (as in a great scene in Night Squad where the protag is
> conflicted about which tie to wear, one green and the other yellow, the
> colours having been set up throughout to represent the two women in his
> life), but it cripples the narrative here. Check any random couple of
> pages
> and I bet you find a colour reference. The melodrama in Behold This Woman
> may be a good one, I couldn't say. I find it hard to believe in the big
> picture when the details don't work. But maybe I'm just having a yellow
> day.
>
> Al
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