High Priest of California (1953)

Not pinned down by Alyce.

http://manybooks.net/titles/willefordcother09high_priest_of_california.html

http://freesf.strandedinoz.com/wordpress/2013/01/high-priest-of-california-charl... ( )

I'm beginning to see a pattern as I read more Willeford. His male protagonists act with total disregard for what would be considered normal behavior, and they stop at nothing to get what they want. In this case, our used car dealer "hero" (though his name is different, I think he is really the same one who reappears in the even weirder "The Woman Chaser") has his eye on a girl - unfortunately she has a husband suffering from the latter stages of syphilis that he needs to get out of the way before he can bed her. And that's really the story. It's not a detective story or a murder mystery; just the story of a single amoral individual. No subplots to speak of. Willeford continued writing about this type of character almost to the end of his career, when he created one of his most memorable characters, Freddy Frenger, in Miami Blues.

Of course, along the way, we get all sorts of things thrown in. In his spare time at home, Haxby, the protagonist, is re-writing James Joyce's Ulysses page by page, substituting words in common use for Joyce's archaisms with the goal of turning it into something that anyone can read.

While not exactly scintillating, the story holds a strange fascination as we see a whole bunch of characters dealing in their own ways with the cards life has dealt them. All in all, probably more insight into real human nature than you would find in a dozen mainstream novels. ( )

An early pulp novel by Willeford, originally published in 1953. Russell Haxby, a callous used car salesman in San Francisco, seduces a naive younger woman with a complicated life. Willeford's straight ahead and hard-nosed style is in force as Haxby closes what appears to be another deal with the vulnerable Alyce Vitale. ( )