The Woman-Chaser

About This Book

Published in 1960, The Woman Chaser is a darkly comic noir novel by Charles Willeford (1919–1988). The narrator is Richard Hudson, a wildly successful used-car salesman in 1950s Los Angeles whose supreme confidence in his own brilliance leads him to abandon his lucrative career and attempt to make a serious art film. As his movie project collapses under the weight of studio politics, family dysfunction, and his own sociopathic tendencies, Hudson's response escalates from frustration to calculated revenge.

The novel blends savage satire of the Hollywood film industry with a chilling character study of a man incapable of distinguishing between talent and delusion. Its structural self-consciousness and unreliable narration have led critics to identify it as a forerunner of postmodern crime fiction. The Woman Chaser was adapted into an acclaimed independent film in 1999. Willeford, a career Army sergeant and World War II tank commander, wrote over a dozen novels and is best known for his Hoke Moseley detective series.

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