Basically a character study in masculine excess, this is one of those nasty little books where everyone (especially the protagonist) is utterly horrid and ambitious and all productivity, even ostensibly artistic, goes down a lot like selling used cars. Deeply sexist, explicitly Oedipean and punch-a-pregnant-woman-in-the-stomach violent in its treatment of women, this reads a lot like a progenitor of American Psycho without the murders but with the same bizarre digressions into pop culture and equal sensitivity to its historical moment - this book is very much set in the 1960 in which it is written, and it's hard for me to tell how much of the stern, square-jawed stoicism is a parody of the 60's pulp hero and how much is more a requirement of the pulp novel itself.

Oh, there's very little actual woman chasing. They usually chase him, first of all, and the actual doin' it is usually more about the casual brutality than any joy he seems to get out of it. This is Man Writ Large - handsome, stubbled, obsessed, selfish, drunk, ultimately only interested in his mother.

No women were chased... A pregnant one was punched in the guts though

Richard Hudson ‘is not a nice person’. It was more fun (than it should’ve been) watching his slimey character spiral into inevitable self-destruction until the humiliating finale. The ending was perfect. Gritty, a little perverse and ultimately, a wild ride. Looking forward to more Willeford novels. Not for the faint of heart.

Originally titled The Director, a more apropos title than The Woman Chaser, but then again, it is a Willeford novel, and what matters it what lies beneath the covers of the book. Richard Hudson, a used car salesman decides he is bored and wants to write and direct a movie. He is an overly confident braggart, a womanizer, and a classical picaresque character.

He does some bad things. Some worse than others. Nevertheless, Willeford manages to create some empathy for him, much in the way of his passion for his film. A film I would love to see by the way. Like many good noir stories, things fall apart and go from bad to worse pretty fast. And it is a hell of a ride.

Willeford was ahead of his time. This is a fast, fascinating and thoughtful read. Hudson's transition from used car salesman to movie director back to salesman with minor but disturbing violence in between is shocking and insightful.

Second Time Thru

I'd have to say Richard Hudson is a worse SOB than even Russell Haxby.

A weird and pretty confusing book by Charles Willeford, a pretty creative novelist who began writing dark pulpy noir novels and later made it big with books made into movies. The Woman Chaser is very much like Willeford's The High Priest of California (a Life magazine article Willeford had read identified used car salesmen as the high priests of California), as if it were an earlier draft, and it may well have been. Both feature amoral used car salesmen who make a lot of money, and early on in the stories, they seem to be suave, sophisticated, good looking, successful businessmen, driving fast cars, and who "have a lot of success with the ladies" (i.e., they sleep with a lot of women). They are both "well read" in that they mention a lot of high literary authors. As with Patricia Highsmith, the worst and most amoral people are well-read and well-off. And ultimately shallow.

The story of The Woman Chaser begins with the best salesman in California's analysis of the way used car sales work, and how to manipulate mainstream people (feebs) and get rich, and this makes the story consistent with the noir anti-capitalist tradition of the disdain by the rich for the poor.

This period of my life should have been a happy one, and suppose it was, in a weird, unrealistic way. Wasn’t I making money hand over fist, as the saying goes? And isn’t the making of money the reason for existence? Isn’t it?”

I liked the book pretty much early on for that, but then the guy gets bored, decides money doesn't matter, and he wants to write a screenplay, and so does, as we meet his mom--who is gorgeous, youthful and the object of his Oedipal lust, and his step-sister, who he actually has sex with. Yes, he's amoral yes, he has no boundaries when it comes to sex, but what is the screenwriting about? Creativity, the guy claims. So the book turns into something else. Or maybe this is just dark comedic evidence of his vapidity and amorality?

So our anti-hero is a slimeball telling his story to us early on, convincing us that some men are amoral women chasers, ok. Point made. But then much of the book is about how he writes the screenplay, not about women chasing at all, and when he tries to negotiate a contract for his film, he sort of goes nuts and blows up his whole life, including his car dealership, his writing career, his family and his relationship with one women who comes back into the picture and is pregnant, not that he cares. The American Dream turned nightmare, and the story is consistent with one Willeford theme across most of his books, that most "successful" men are laughable, self-serving jerks. Sometimes that's funny, but not here.

I think the story is disjointed. Why does the car dealer suddenly care about film fame? It's not about money when he rejects the deal, it's that they wanted to cut his film that makes him crazy. Sometimes I think the point of the book--which is written as if it were a film treatment--is that it is a comedy about a self-obsessed guy loser, but this guy is nasty to women, it's just not funny. The title is false advertising, as it was for High Priest, with sexy covers and titles and blurbs, with the teaser that these guys are really into women, het, read this sexy book, but we hate them, which just may be the point. But I just found it disjointed, the character doesn't hold together, and it's also the worst proofread book I have ever read, literally hundreds of typos.

These two books by Willeford kind of remind me of Jim Thompson's two books about amoral killer sheriffs, The Killer Inside Me and Pop. 1280, where one seems like an earlier draft. I like a lot of Willeford, but he is no Jim Thompson here.

Dark comedy!

An excellent little book although hardly a crime novel (although a crime does take place). It's mostly about the making of a film, and given when this was written, a film a bit ahead of its time. The (awkward) title is not relevant to the story in any way I can see -- perhaps Willeford originally name it something else.

The Woman-Chaser has one of the most interesting plots ever for a crime thriller. Richard Hudson, a crooked, arrogant and vicious car salesman who is really good at his job panics at a meeting of aspiring young reps. He realizes that he is wasting his life in the 9 to 5 grind. It dawns on him that we are on this planet to be creative. So he writes a script with help from his step-father and decides to direct a film based on the script. But when his edited film fails to meet the six reel 90 minute length standard, the studio tries to interfere in the film's future. The crazed car salesman/movie director embarks on a rampage of destruction.

I think there is more to this book than a man trying to escape his mundane life. It is also about 20th century man's impulsive behavior without thinking about the consequences. It is about how a lot of our actions are driven by barely concealed madness. I found myself laughing and cheering on some of the actions of the main character. I could totally identify with him. Like Willeford himself said - "I had a hunch that madness was a predominant theme and a normal condition for Americans living in the second half of this century."

The book is quite similar to High Priest of California. The character Russell Haxby (also a car salesman) in that novel was quite similar to Richard Hudson. Both of them are street smart all American males who would go to any lengths including violence to get what they want. This is another captivating little novel from the cruelly underrated Charles Willeford.

Loved Pick-up, one of the great noirs. This one I couldn't finish. It just dragged and the protagonist kind of annoyed me.

Someone called this book Willeford's masterpiece -- and I would agree. A very funny, complex, brutal, strange book. The 1960 publisher gave it the name "The Woman Chaser." Willeford called it "The Director" and also considered titling it after the movie within the book, "The Man Who Got Away." The film adaptation is the best of the Willeford movies.