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Plumbs the pulpy depths of artistry and the artistry of cockfighting. Slips into the consciousness like a mickey.
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Charles Willeford Omnibus: Pick Up/Burnt Orange Heresy/Cockfighter
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A collection of three Charles Willeford thrillers. Cockfighter is set in the seamy underbelly of southern rural life in the USA; The Burnt Orange Heresy features an evil and complicated art-dealer; and Pick-Up tells the story of an alcoholic woman's attempts to avoid destroying herself.
602 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1995
This edition
- Format
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602 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 1995 by No Exit Press
- ISBN
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9781874061397
- ASIN
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1874061394
- Language
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English
About the author
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Charles Willeford was a remarkably fine, talented and prolific writer who wrote everything from poetry to crime fiction to literary criticism throughout the course of his impressively long and diverse career. His crime novels are distinguished by a mean'n'lean sense of narrative economy and an admirable dearth of sentimentality. He was born as Charles Ray Willeford III on January 2, 1919 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Willeford's parents both died of tuberculosis when he was a little boy and he subsequently lived either with his grandmother or at boarding schools. Charles became a hobo in his early teens. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps at age sixteen and was stationed in the Philippines. Willeford served as a tank commander with the 10th Armored Division in Europe during World War II. He won several medals for his military service: the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Luxembourg Croix de Guerre. Charles retired from the army as a Master Sergeant. Willeford's first novel "High Priest of California" was published in 1953. This solid debut was followed by such equally excellent novels as "Pick-Up" (this book won a Beacon Fiction Award), "Wild Wives," "The Woman Chaser," "Cockfighter" (this particular book won the Mark Twain Award), and "The Burnt Orange Heresy." Charles achieved his greatest commercial and critical success with four outstanding novels about hapless Florida homicide detective Hoke Moseley: "Miami Blues," "New Hope for the Dead," "Sideswipe," and "The Way We Die Now." Outside of his novels, he also wrote the short story anthology "The Machine in Ward Eleven," the poetry collections "The Outcast Poets" and "Proletarian Laughter," and the nonfiction book "Something About A Soldier." Willeford attended both Palm Beach Junior College and the University of Miami. He taught a course in humanities at the University of Miami and was an associate professor who taught classes in both philosophy and English at Miami Dade Junior College. Charles was married three times and was an associate editor for "Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine." Three of Willeford's novels have been adapted into movies: Monte Hellman delivered a bleakly fascinating character study with "Cockfighter" (Charles wrote the script and has a sizable supporting role as the referee of a cockfighting tournament which climaxes the picture), George Armitage hit one out of the ballpark with the wonderfully quirky "Miami Blues," and Robinson Devor scored a bull's eye with the offbeat "The Woman Chaser." Charles popped up in a small part as a bartender in the fun redneck car chase romp "Thunder and Lightning." Charles Willeford died of a heart attack at age 69 on March 27, 1988.
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Willeford's writing is American and then seem. These earlier novels of his are nicely collected into a set here. "Cockfighter" will appeal to lovers of gritty realism, and was turned into a fascinating, and grim, film. Far off the big highways and before the mega-mall towns of America is another world, one that Willeford explores with a steady hand and observant eye.
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What a discovery! the three novels are so well-worth your time. I particularly love Cockfighter and found it an insider's view to a by-gone world. The Burnt Orange Heresy is one of my favorite suspense novels...
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Pick-Up is a cheerful novel of two alcoholics that turns into a nihilist’s fever dream. A 20 minute hard-boiled egg.
Burnt Orange Heresy is one of the finest novels about art a person could read.
Cockfighter is a fucking triumph about, uh, cockfighting. It’s meandering, convincing, and excellent.
Willeford remains a completely idiosyncratic writer, and it is a delight to read this stuff.
Burnt Orange Heresy is one of the finest novels about art a person could read.
Cockfighter is a fucking triumph about, uh, cockfighting. It’s meandering, convincing, and excellent.
Willeford remains a completely idiosyncratic writer, and it is a delight to read this stuff.
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