“This is what I learned about a story at Mammoth Studios: A likeable and sympathetic hero, one who affords a good measure of viewer-identification, and around whom the story revolves, is faced with the necessity of solving a serious and urgent problem which affects his vital interests. The hero makes an effort to solve his problem, but this only succeeds in making matters worse. (This is me all right). The hero’s efforts all lead to a series of increasingly harder complications. Each new complication is related to the original problem. (This isn’t me, or is it?) Anyway, there is an integrated series of complications which build up in intensity until a definite point or crisis is reached. It is here that the reader cannot possibly understand how the hero can possibly succeed. But now the hero makes one last and heroic attempt to resolve his difficulties, and in every case it must be his own individual efforts that solve the dilemma (s). Under no circumstances can he accept any form of outside aid to make things easier for him.”

It’s a long quote, I know, but a great dissection of a type of story-writing. This comes from the narrator of our story, a successful car salesman called Richard Hudson.

The opening has Hudson watching a used Los Angeles car lot that he intends to buy. He analyses the pros and cons of the place with ruthless application and proceeds with his purchase for the business. It’s a classy, beautifully written beginning that really sucked me in completely. Like the quote above says, we have our sympathetic hero with whom we can identify.

From there, we’re transported into an analysis of the art of story-telling in the film world. It’s a little unsettling, but it’s not long before the thread of the narrative is resumed.
Essentially we have a tale being told in flashback. It’s a great way of grabbing attention and sows the seeds of tension because we know we’re heading for some kind of fall.

Hudson moves back in with his eccentric mother and family. He spends a lot of time with his step-father, a genius of cinema who has lost his way. As they hang around together, Hudson realises that he needs something to fill the emptiness of his life and the creation of a film seems to be the obvious thing for him to do. He has an amazing knowledge of cinema and his step-father allows him an insight that many script-writers might die for.

The creation of the film and the obsession of the writer are gripping. There are many occasions when I wanted to leap in and offer advice - after all, I know already that things aren’t set to end well.
A huge amount of the book is absolutely brilliant.

What lets it down a little is Hudson’s determination to do things his own way. He wants to do something that is out of the ordinary and he can’t bear the interference of the man at the top who wants control of the piece. His obsession turns into a kind of madness and in this madness lies his downfall. The problem for me here is that the book also works to its own calamity of an ending and for me Hudson had become so despicable that I didn’t care a hoot for him anymore. He was no longer my slightly flawed hero, but had turned himself into the villain of the piece. While I’m sure that was deliberate, there was something about it that felt a little disappointing. Maybe if I’d realised earlier what a toe-rag the man was (and there were plenty of serious clues, believe me), I might have read in a different way.

Willeford certainly tells an incredible story with great flair and skill. The voice and the whole situation are brilliantly done. Because of that, I’m slightly disappointed in myself for not loving the entirety of the book to pieces. This one’s definitely worth a read and I’m sure will ignite a whole batch of questions for you as a reader.

Pulp cinema?

The modern audience may think Tarantino got there first (at least on film, 1994), but Willeford bookended "Pulp Fiction" with his script, 1960, that made it to the silver screen, 1999, with few, if any, changes.

Pulp cinematic hero? Consider this description:

"Two hundred pounds, the beginnings of a paunch, big size-eleven feet, more enormous yet in red-yellow-and-blue cashmere argyles, thick, hairy arms and basket-ball-player hands, a mat of blue-black chest hair; a sunburned grinning face, and a headful of dark unruly hair, badly in need of cutting. Some dancer! I laughed wildly. In the face of all maternal arguments I had quit taking ballet lessons when I turned fourteen and fell in love with baseball. The hell with it! I assumed an attitude and met Mother’s charming pas de Bourree with outstretched arms and fingers."

Possibly Willeford's most heinous protagonist, yet you get caught up in his logic and worldview while still repulsed. The detail and logic of how the narrator goes about making his first film without any previous experience or outside education is pure Willeford. A few truly inspired moments of grotesqueness and a few just truly grotesque moments.

Definitely hard boiled page turning story telling.
I enjoyed the 60's LA scene too.

Willeford writes the most bleak, depressing, soul crushing parodies of the American dream and blankets them in slick armchair psychology, tawdry sex scenes and shockingly desperate acts of violence. There is nothing beautiful or tragic, in fact anything approaching that is quickly turned absurd via misplaced sentimentality. It's as if Willeford knew that in order to get published he had to include certain elements and purposely makes them distasteful. If element A is sex, it's lightly dismissed incest. If there is anger inspired violence it's followed immediately by the donning of a Santa Clause suit. I get the feeling he is laughing at the characters, at the readers and at himself.

But hey, I read a lot of garbage, what do I know?

Wow!! Very interesting

Edgy. Liked the Santa outfits. Also, love that he kissed his mother. Excellent climax.

Another compelling portrait of a sociopathic bastard from Willeford. Damn, he's good at these! The Woman Chaser follows an utterly self-absorbed, amoral used car salesman. He's bored by his success cheating rubes so pursues his dream of becoming a movie writer/director, bent on creating a film depicting the corruption of the American way of life resulting from the soul crushing rat race that has hollowed out American workers and families. However, his own childish stubbornness to compromise his vision in any way invites bitter failure. What starts out as an upbeat, yet thoroughly creepy story with a cast of oddball characters descends into bitterness, pure cynicism and madness while remaining more than just a bit absurd and amusing.

Part pulp-crime, part exploration of the artistic impulse and its relationship with the society. The prose is so loose that the book feels tossed-off at moments, and judging from Willeford's bibliography, it very well may have been. Willeford never loses control, however: the story remains tightly plotted. The tendency to drop narrative bombshells--many of these through the less-important, woman-chasing subplots--felt inserted to titillate a wide readership, almost as if someone were afraid the primary plot line was too slow in the build-up. Throughout, though, the voice is clear, authoritative, and never gives up its hold over the reader's attention.

dunno what # willeford this is for me...#7 or higher i believe. kindle. heh! the kindle version has the man/woman in the convertible..."the chase was furious--the capture was rapacious--the prize was luscious!"

aaaargh!

hoooo-rah!

".50" up at the top. heh! fifty-cents! now here, on the kindle, i dunno what i am ashamed to say i paid for a version that cost little, certainly less, than it cost to print that paperback version, yay, all those years ago. petition congress. or better yet...begin some civil disobedience...read...it was against the law! oh what the momma saw! it was against the law!

story begins:

start here
using the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, get a little slack and pull the film through this little thingama-jig. clamp here. leave a small loop so it won't flutter, and then go up over this, down under this, around this, and then tight around the big one. [sounds like he's tying a bow-line] (it has to fit tight on the sound drum). then under this, over this, under this again, around this, and down.
[or knitting a sweater?]



onward and upward!


heh!
this story is hilarious! i've laughed out loud a number of times...although i dunno if that's because the sun has not shined here for a day or three and there's this s.a.d. business that may or may not be at work and play...not much of either, alas.

the narrative starts out...quirky..see above...seems to be headed toward a kind of 3rd-person...and then converts to an eye-narrator who has just stuck his tongue in his step-sister's mouth, between the pearly whites. completely unexpected...the result, a laugh. isn't there some smarmy term used for stories like this?...does meta-fiction fit?...an eye-narrator aware of himself, telling the story...likening the telling to the making of a movie

time & place
may, los angeles...either the 1940s...perhaps the 1950s...there's mention of a 1940 automobile...houses cost...what was it? $6,000. (i paid that for my house...alas...)
crenshaw boulevard...873 cars one way and 927 cars the other every 15 minutes
the redstone building
222 club
the house of lumpy grits...home of alexandra
parkman towers in san francisco...where honest hal resides
toastmasters meeting
basement rehearsal room
exposition park...los angeles museum
"for several months in 1953..." ...so, the story takes place after 1953...
driving down vermont
mammoth studios
laguna...where laura and richard spend a day at the beach
hangover house...restaurant where the above go
hollywood hills...where richard takes laura after it all..but nope...
biltmore hotel...downtown l.a.
hill street bars on the other side of pershing square
dragon's mouth entrance of the hong king club
quiet saloon on normandie
bimmi baths...where richard met frances
white cabin...where richard wanted to take above for cokes,burgers
the office of the man, mammoth studios, culver city, california
the tiny producer's theatre next to sound stage a
sound stage f
santa barbara, burbank, san fran
van nuys...where the shantz clan resides
lobero theatre
an orange grove in okai
a beer joint


characters
richard hudson, chief representative of honest hal parker, san francisco, for ten years the star used car salesman for honest hal parker...is 30 yrs old
the used car dealer across the street, mr. george ehlers
o'keefe and cullinan, hudson's (parker's?) lawyers
hudson's mother: alexandra horotsoff hudson blake steinberg...has the body of a 25-yr-old...ballerina...is possibly 51...or 53...or who knows?
hudson's father, divorced from above, an instructor of romance languages at the university of chicago
harry blake...hudson's 1st stepfather...he committed suicide
lupe runoz...a calypso singer employed by top ten tunes...did a rendition of "lumpy grits" that harry 'wrote' and labored over
becky steinberg...hudson's stepsister
new stepfather, leo steinberg, an ex-movie director, 37 yrs of age
don...someone honest hal could send down for a couple of weeks
leona...maid of hudson's mother...cook...etc..she married again and lives w/her new husband down on 39th street...is from anniston, alabama..and is...a negro (fdr is a cripple, may it do ya fine)
mr raymond moore...ass't manager of triple a finance company...for richard's purchase for honest hal of the car lot owned/run by george ehlers
on-the-premises negro mechanic hired called graphite sam
richard hires william (bill) conan harris, master sergeant u.s. army retired...to manage the car lot...38-yr-old...married, father of two children, owned his own home in fullerton
bill hires a kid to run a grill on the lot...hot dogs...once a week
bill hires an old lady who typed about 80 words a minute
bill hired and fired salesman until he had three of the best
friend of the girl...hollywood high girl friend who had been attending too many drive-in (passion pit) movies
dr. rums featherstone, a gynecologist...imaginary...who testifies against richard in his hypothetical courtroom of the mind
a woman, blowy, engulfed in a snotgreen housecoat...
...gathered a play of children about her...
the toastmasters...where richard is a member...the man who is unable to talk to his fellow-american today is unable to eat.
twenty members present and 3 guests including richard
sergeant-at-arms of a telephone company toastmaster's club
the bored guard
piomkin...a possible director..."one of the few artists we have"...but nope, not him.
the man...all caps...at mammoth studios
elgee productions...richard and leo...a variation on lumpy grits...or...s'posed to be
laura harmon...tall, heavily-breasted young woman of 24 or 6...secretary to richard for a time
mr. knowles, the pesonal manager...who sent laura to richard
miss hartwell...richard's high school english teacher
tone in fullerton...a wholesale car dealer...or something
barefoot pete in santa monica, ditto
fred mccullers in pasadena...ditto
the man's (all caps), secretary, an old white-haired man of about 65
milo linder...helps richard w/casting
a salvation army captain, louise, 47-yr-old
elevator operator...busboy...waiters...bartenders...waitresses
two very young, importuning private soldiers
a blonde and a chief petty officer, u.s. navy
frances...a girl swimmer richard knew as a 14-yr-old
flaps heartwell, negro guitar player, music, for movie
six superfluous musicians (how the industry works...union, verily, hallelujah and amen, now and forevermore)
tom ruggerio, film editor for the movie
zelda, a stripper from the trinidad club, provokes the appropriate audience reaction...a kind of unholy glee
tommy allison, the director of photography for movie
cameramen, grips, sound technicians, make-up men, sweepers, painters
frank shantz, a man of about 40, van nuys
a tired old gentleman in a white smock
mrs mildred curry shantz, plays trucker's housewife in movie
mrs larson...owns orange grove where chet worked
chet wilson, an out-of-work actor hired to play the truck driver






a note on the narration
willeford has headings, fadeout...montage...ripple...background...go to black...wipe...more background...dissolve to...snyopsis...as if the entire story is a movie script? i take it? no idea, me, not having read an actual script prior...but that's what i suspect. meh...okay.

story
richard is bored. this period of [his] life should have been a happy one... he has the time to worry about the plight of the american worker, laboring and so forth...so...he decides to make a movie to awaken the worker. aaaargh...hoo-rah! "one thing!...one creative accomplishment could wipe away the useless days" ...so...a movie, "the man who got away"...about a truck driver drives 12 on 12 off between between l.a. and san fran...hits a child...and will not stop..."the message was important! it had to be brought to the attention of the public!"

a quote or two
it may be fun to know, but it's even more fun to be fooled.

update, finished, 18 dec 12, 9:45 p.m. e.s.t. tuesday evening
...grrrrrr!! had this typed out last night and hit save but the fecking system had crashed...or something.

anyway...

i liked the telling of this one...that quirky start...the way willeford set it up as if the reader is viewing a movie...sorta...the change from 3rd to 1st...and feck it! i wish i could recall my thoughts from last night...when i actually finished the fecking story.
..okay...just went to my "notes and marks" on the...was not going to try to recall as it slipped...was rather going to simply complete the character list above.

...but there is a swift and sudden mood change in the 4th-5th act of this one...the bottom dropped out...richard had the rug pulled out from under him....and there's a santa claus outfit involved. heh! thought the timing of that could not have been much better...

i think i'm marking this one as a favorite...as much for the way the story is told as for how the temperature changes to that brutal freeze at the end.

The A.V. Club's Wrapped Up In Books selection for July.

A very unusual book. It was written in 1960, but there were times when you thought it was totally modern.