High Priest of California

De: Charles Willeford

Narrado por: Chris Andrew Ciulla

Duración: 2 h y 46 m

Resumen del Editor

She was leaning against the door. Her smile was a sickly twisted grimace; the sort a prisoner gives a judge when he's asked if he has anything to say before he's sentenced. Russell Haxby is a ruthless used-car salesman obsessed with manipulating and cavorting with married women. In this classic of hard-boiled fiction, Charles Willeford crafts a wry, sardonic tale of hypocrisy, intrigue, and lust set in San Francisco in the early '50s. In High Priest of California every sentence masks innuendo, every detail hides a clue, and every used-car sale is as outrageous as every seduction. First published 1953.

©2011 Indo-European Publishing (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

thoroughly unpleasant classic willeford

To me, willeford shines as perhaps the single most cynical noir writer of his kind. each of his books, wall to wall, is filled with deeply unpleasant, vile people and their desperate victims.

this is no exception, high priest of California is arguably the single most evil point of view character willeford has written despite the fact his crimes are relatively minor in relation to his larger body of work. Obviously this is a mixed bag for a lot of people. some will be instantly turned off of this sleazy worm clawing his way into a woman's life by any means necessary, but others, like me, will find this as compelling an observation on banal evil and vanity as Jim Thompsons classic "the killer inside me".

really breezy quick read, one of the funniest, cruelest punchline endings of Willeford's career. worth picking up on sale if you can get it