Ray Sawhill

As our Book Club selection for November 2009, Polly and I read Charles Willeford's Miami-set crime novel about four not-very-admirable swinger/bachelor buddies. Yes yes yes, we've fallen a little behind schedule. Wanna make something of it? Willeford wrote the book sometime in the 1970s; editors at the time found it "too depressing." It was finally published, five years after Willeford's death, in 1993.

Polly: "Wicked-smart and cynical -- I loved it!"

Ray: "A willful, oddball, sleazy joy."

Bonus Links

• Wikipedia's very informative entry on Willeford
• Dennis McMillan has created an excellent Charles Willeford website
• I haven't yet caught up with Monte Hellman's "Cockfighter," which is based on a Willeford script, but I did enjoy George Armitage's "Miami Blues," an adaptation of one of Willeford's Hoke Mosley novels.