Second or third read.Previous review stands. Started this last night.This is a must read but requires patience.It's hilarious and occasionally violent ...a couple of scary close-calls for our suddenly main character who suddenly finds himself leading a 1957 era Civil-Rights-era protest and engaging in Civil Rights activism.Very bizarre, comical, potentially offensive as the "N" word is tossed around freely.That Charles Willeford- what a cut-up! This evening, after finishing the novel, I read Don...

Originally published in 1958 as Honey Gal of all names, this casual existential tale of the white Brother Springer escaping his wife, failed career as a writer and his past in Columbus, Ohio by accepting ordainment in a church he doesn't believe in and preaching to an all black congregation in Florida in the days of the Civil Rights Movement is a truly enjoyable piece of entertainment featuring some of those trademark Willefordisms any casual reader of the man will have come to notice.Sam Spring...

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.

Best black comedy ever written.

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. Neverthe...

#9 from willeford for me...give or take...i liked the description: lurid tale of a preacher saving an entire congregation. he saves every one except one...good enough for me...onward & upward.ha ha ha ha!...the cover is great...kindle version...but they use what must have been the cover of a paperback, yay ago...a man in white shirt/tie...a woman, barefoot, dress...a haystack behind them. yay! boy howdy!this at the top: he was white. she was beautiful--and bad.this at the bottom: a starkly naked...

A lot of Willeford fans like this one but I thought it was crap. Once you get past the short punch line (phony white minister takes over a black church and leads them) there's nothing much going on here. No big payoff, no character development to speak of. I'm surprised Willeford wanted this one published. He's a great writer but this wasn't funny or involving. It was the equivalent to sitting through a bad movie just waiting for it to end so you could say you saw it all the way through. I think...

Come for the Pot, Stay for the KettleIt was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking 13%.

What a crazy crime novel this is! The Washington Post supposedly called this Charles Willeford's masterpiece, but it's not (that's "Miami Blues" or "The Burnt Orange Heresy" or maybe "Cockfighter"). What it is, though, is a fairly unhinged look at religion, viewed through the lens of pulp fiction.The narrator is a scoundrel named Sam Springer who had a job as an accountaint and hated it with a passion. He writes a pulp novel that brings in a little money so he convinces his Midwestern wife to le...

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 ser...

First-person noir about a phony preacher who's in it because he thinks it will be an easy gig. (Turns out he's wrong.) He's also a classic "writer who never writes" and is always "looking for time to write." The crimes are small time, making his descent into the abyss slow and easy. The ending fits perfectly. Now I'm off to read more Willeford.

If I had any black friends I probably wouldn't lend them this book.

Undecided on whether to rate a 2* or 3*. Half stars would be perfect…I have enjoyed all of the other Willeford novels I have read so far, but unfortunately didn’t enjoy this one as much as I would have liked. Of course the writing was good but unfortunately the story didn’t grasp me. Next up by Charles ‘Pick-Up’

A year ago, Sam Springer left his stable (if uninspiring) job as an accountant to become a novelist. Now, he has left his wife in order to become an ordained minister of a small black church in Jax, Florida. It's not that he believes in God (he doesn't!), it's just that he figures the pay is good and the work easy:"Most ministers are smarter than ordinary people, and the only real difference is, they are a lot lazier. The stuff they put out in the pulpit is entirely different from what they beli...

The Black Mass of Brother Springer is a tough book to classify…or even recommend. A biting satire of organized religion, a send up of civil rights through the white gaze, a testimony on the consequences of fragile masculinity. There’s a lot going on here for such a short book.The book’s writer Charles Willeford is one of my favorites. He writes crime novels with a unique voice that’s tough to compare. No less than Quentin Tarantino has said that Willeford is the biggest literary inspiration for

I don't have the energy to write a review, so here's a few thoughts on the novel:* As Springer is searching, somewhat unconsciously, I feel like the book is searching as well. It flirts with many ideas but ultimately abandons almost all of them. Was that intentional? * Was the book trying to make a point? I often felt it was trying to comment on race-relations, but the stance the novel takes ended up indifferent. * Surprisingly light on violence, but that's a good thing here - When the violence

Although strong on the usual Willeford formula that I know involving scarily capable sociopaths achieving goals on whims and ruining everything around them in the process, the plot is pretty bold as it deals with the protagonist becoming the white leader of an all black congregation in 60's Jacksonville, Florida. He then spearheads a charge to boycott the segregated bus lines raising hundreds of dollars a day. He then also discovers the young, impetuous and anti-religious young wife of one of hi...

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 interesti...

I've read a fair amount of Willeford, and was thrilled to find a title I didn't know in my library. I guess there's a reason this one didn't get reprinted much- it's just so-so. The "Black Mass" of the title refers to a white preacher in the 1950s stationed at a "Negro church" (get it? Black mass? haw haw) and the slang of the characters in the book will probably make most modern readers uncomfortable. If you're new to Willeford, read the Hoke Mosely books instead.

Another winner from Willeford, this one taking down preachers and religion and racists, told with Willeford's typically straightforward, observant style by another of his typically unsavory, amoral narrators. Good times.

Totally relevant today. The American condition examined closely.

If you dig Willeford—he's my fave—you'll have fun with this one.His political incorrectness is so aspirational in breadth that it makes me jealous!

This book is so racist. I loved it.

Who would believe Pulp Religion?Sam Springer has been ordained and called to a small church in the Negro (late 50s) part of Jax Florida. The Right Reverend "Deuteronomy" Springer was an ex-accountant and ex-novelist who had writer's block when he became a civil-rights leader in a bus boycott. Too soon, he becomes the focus of Klan activity, a lot of donation money, and a parishioner's wife. He arrived at this impasse of identity because in his respectable life he faced:"My monthly payment of $78...

I'm re-reading this book on my Kindle (It's a bargain at $3.99), having read the paperback 11 years ago. It's amazing how it sprang into life from the first page and took me back to that state of amazement I felt the first time I read it. I was especially moved by the introduction from Donald Westlake, which is not in the earlier editions. Westlake really nails it. Willeford earned the ultimate reward--honor and respect from the best-selling writers in the noir genre.In 1958, when this book was

Willeford creates a vivid story in a few amount of words. This is more of a novella, or a long short story, than a book. But it's very engaging and engrossing. It's only 192 pages, but the characters are interesting, and the story keeps you on your toes. The main character, known throughout most of the book, is the Right Reverend Deuteronomy Springer, and he essentially has no redeeming qualities about him. The only reason I give this book 4 stars is that it's a but dated, as it was published in...

Originally published as "The Black Mass of Brother Springer" and with original 1960s cover art that looks eerily like George W. Bush trying to make some girl in a haystack, this is a must read for any Willeford fan.The book itself is a good read and a fun commentary on religion-as-theater that takes place during the beginning of the Civil Rights Era as told be an almost sociopathic ex-accountant who inherits a phony title as a preacher (The Right Reverend Deuteronomy Springer) and an all-black c...

Not everyone can be knocked out of the park. This is the one Willeford book (of the ones published during his lifetime) that left me completely ennervated. Nowhere near the same league as The Pickup or Burnt-Orange Heresy, but those are tough highwater marks to have to always shoot for. Maybe if I read it in the original pulp publication the time machine element would help, but otherwise I will not be going back to it.

First off, this tells a story of how easy it used to be to just walk away from your life, and start a new one. Such as the case with Sam Springer who becomes Deuteronomy Springer, a white reverend with an all black flock. He has the worst intentions, and lives up to them in an unapologetic tale of greed and lust and violence. Classic Willeford.

An amazing Ninteen-Fifites romp in which a sociopathic white writer escapes his wife and job as an accountant, and becomes the pastor of black church in Florida, and ends up involved with the wife on one of his parishioners, and early civil rights protests -- soon a cross is burned . . .