Ease Reading-Find Your Next Favorite Book

Hot Search

The Black Mass of Brother Springer

charles willeford james sallis

... Show More
"No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford" Elmore Leonard THE BLACK MASS OF BROTHER SPRINGER tells the story of Sam Springer, a drifter novelist who meets Jack Dover, the retiring Abbot of the Church of God's Flock. Dover's final official act is to ordain Springer and send him off to serve as pastor of an all-Black church in Jacksonville, Florida. Springer soon becomes entangled in the city's growing civil rights movement . . . and with the church deacon's earthy young wife, Merita. The Washington post calls this darkly humorous novel by Charles Willeford, one of the great crime writers of the 20th century, "his masterpiece." This new edition is introduced by James Sallis and contains Willeford's previously unpublished play based on the novel.

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1958

This edition

Format
208 pages, Paperback
Published
December 1, 2003 by Wit's End Books
ISBN
9781930997356
ASIN
1930997353
Language
English

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for charles willeford

charles willeford

... Show More
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.

Readers also enjoyed

Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 43 votes)
5 stars
16(37%)
4 stars
16(37%)
3 stars
11(26%)
2 stars
0(0%)
1 stars
0(0%)
43 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
F1rstAegis
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
10/2021

Published in 1958 as Honey Gal
Put out in the 1980s as this, its original title.
This must have been shocking in the 50s.
Hilariously tears down religion. Psychotic, but makes its point. But then it gets deeply into segregation. Yet continues to be psychotic.
Like often with Willeford... nothing is obvious.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
eliseee
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
An interesting little novel, originally published in the late 50's, which helps to explain the nature of the writing and story. If you're sensitive to language (especially the derogatory "N" word), perhaps skip this one.

Essentially, I viewed this story as an exploration of a narcissistic, Machiavellian character that has elected to pursue whatever his ego needs / desires at the moment, thinks on his feet, improvises, and of course, will ultimately not find fulfillment from his actions. Nevertheless, Willeford's writing is entertaining and, despite the implausibility of the entire book, the story moves along briskly. Aside from a social commentary on race relations and prejudice, especially in the South, there's not much of serious consequence here. Just a story that will help pass time for some, enrage others, and stimulate others to read more from this author.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Bvnni1
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
Not one of his most interesting narratives, but perhaps his funniest. Brother Springer himself belongs somewhere between Uncle Buck and Jim Jones as a character. An odd, quick read full of all the Willeford calling cards.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
duckyzzz
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
Humorous tale of a psychopath who stumbles upon religion as a means to enrich himself in many ways.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Supson
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
If I had any black friends I probably wouldn't lend them this book.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
October22_
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
Widely praised as Willeford's masterpiece, I have to disagree. The Burnt Orange Heresy is a much stronger book, not least for its characterization: Reverend Springer feels like a more watered down version of that book's protagonist.

It's still an interesting, profoundly cynical book. Willeford captures racism, white privilege, and white contempt quite sharply as a sociopath ditches his wife, stumbles over a job preaching, and then stumbles into the bus boycott movement. The book is most interesting when Willeford dissects casual, day-to-day racism, not least in his own protagonist.

Still, it's more a curiosity than anything else, and probably only interesting for Willeford completists and crime novel fans.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
Ademiski
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
Honey Gal is the first Willeford novel that I ever read. How did I discover Willeford? An Australian warehouse security guard who reported illegal immigrants to authorities recommended this book to me on a movie forum. I have since lost touch with him. Serves me right, because I clearly want to discover dangerous literature over meeting real people or keeping in touch with them. But I narrated this brief online tryst to show that great art is often consumed by people who are not writing pompous reviews on Goodreads. Willeford is the greatest author recommendation that I have received in my life. The expensive copy I ordered was a bad reprint of the original publication with a crappy black cover that had at its center, the original cover in a small square box. An amateur could have done a better job of the font and spacing in the text inside. The whole thing was unattractive. But there was nothing wrong with the stuff on the pages. It hooked me in allright. A dangerous book like this does not deserve a normie review. I do not expect too many likes for this one.

Other reviewers say Willeford is taking down race relations and religion. But is he? I believe Sam Springer, an accountant, is out to have an adventure. The book was quite descriptive about the food that Sam ate. And his animal passions for a woman of another race. Willeford understood that ultimately every man simply wanted to land a hot piece of ass. And eat good food. How is this satire? It is just reality. Deep in his heart, every man longs to escape his present quarters which includes his lawfully wedded wife.

I remember the leaked videos of Hindu godman Swami Nithyananda, furiously changing TV channels and later rolling around on a bed with the actress Ranjitha. Hahahahha! Swami Nithyananda is still around delivering glorious gibberish. Come on o book reader, you are not as decent as you pretend to be. That is all that Willeford is trying to point out. The joke is not on religion or race relations. The joke is on you, you morally superior Goodreads reader and review writing prick.
0 0 Reply
Profile Image for Kimberly .
shoujoelitist
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
March 26,2025
... Show More
I can't get enough of Charles Willeford. His books defy genre, defy expectation, and go places such books are not supposed to go. It would be limiting to call him a crime novelist or pulp novelist, but what else to call him? In any case, this wild, wooly little book follows a third-rate white author who comes upon an opportunity to be a preacher in an all-black church in Civil Rights Era Florida. He's not a believer by any means, but he figures that he can collect a good salary, cough up two sermons every Sunday, and spend the rest of the time working on his second book. When he gets there, however, he enters into flimflammery of another kind, using a Rosa Parks-like incident to unite other parishes in a bus boycott, all while funneling donations to the cause into an account in Atlanta. He also looks to steal a worshiper's hot-to-trot wife while he's at it. This whole crazy scenario starts with our hero opening his first sermon by talking about the life of Franz Kafka, and it gets more fevered from there. Good stuff.
0 0 Reply
Leave a Review
You must be logged in to rate and post a review. Register an account to get started.