Retro Review: The Burnt Orange Heresy by Charles Willeford

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Keywords: art, art criticism, crime fiction, noir

The two books I'm currently reading (The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg and Early Riser by Jasper Fforde) are good reads but slow going. For a change of pace, I picked up Willeford's The Burnt Orange Heresy (1971) which had been lying around on my TBR shelf. Prior to this book, I only knew Williford from Miami Blues (1984),which featured the cold-blooded killer Junior Fenger who, in the first chapter, snaps the finger of a Hare Krishna who accosts him in the Miami airport. I expected a similar sort of story and characters in The Burnt Orange Heresy but boy was I wrong. For all that it has a style and plot I wasn't expecting, I love this book.

James Figueras is a young art critic devoted to his profession. His reputation as a critic is more important to him than money. He scrupulously avoids anything that might bring his impartiality as a critic into question and won't even purchase art much less accept any as a gift because it might introduce the appearance of bias.

The story is mostly set in Florida around Palm Beach and told in first person from the viewpoint of Figueras. As the story begins, he is avoiding thinking about a gallery exhibit opening he doesn't want to attend by pondering a problem named Berenice Hollis. Benenice is a high school English teacher from Duluth, Minnesota who came down to Florida for a minor operation and refuses to go back to Duluth. It  should have been a short and pleasurable interlude for both of them but now James can't make her go away. She'll have an important role later.

Wealthy art collector, Joesph Cassidy, arranges a meeting with Figueras  after the exhibit opening but not for the expected reasons, ie to catalog his collection or evaluate a potential purchase. Rather, Cassidy knows that the reclusive French artist, Jacques Debierue, is living several hours away from Palm Beach. Debierue is the greatest artist in the world and originator of the Nihilistic Surrealism movement which is a bridge between Dada and Surrealism. He never exhibits or shows his work and if Figueras can get an interview and see his Florida work it will be an incredible coup and move the young critic into the top tier of his profession. Cassidy will provide the address if Figueras does just one little favor for him. With Berenice in tow, James is off to meet his hero but will his hero meet his expectations and what will be the consequences.

I've always heard about Willeford as a writer of hardboiled crime novels and The Burnt Orange Heresy is described as his best noir novel which is why is caught me off guard when I started reading. A large part of the book is Figueras expounding on art and the role of the art critic. For a third or more of the book, Berenice serves to ask naive questions and give James an excuse to explain art and why she isn't qualified to have an opinion. This makes Figueras very unlikable and puts the reader's sympathy with Berenice. She asks the question that came to me as well: How do you know Debierue is the world's greatest painter when no one has seen his paintings? I was solidly in Berenice's corner when she tries to express that art should be accessible to people and James holding forth that art has a higher purpose. I don't know this for sure but I suspect that Willeford is poking a bit of fun at people who take art too seriously. Wait until you read James' description of Debierue's work, No. One, that launched Debierue's reputation as an artist. Besides being an audience for James' pontifications, Berenice also acts, unsuccessfully, as James' conscience in the events that occur.

You might be wondering why you would want to read a book that is essentially an art lecture. I think it is carefully constructed to develop Figueras as a noir figure who will meet the inevitable end of a noir figure. I was expecting the fall but not how the story actually wrapped up in the last eight paragraphs. This is an engrossing story that kept my interest until the end and confirmed that I want to read everything Willeford wrote.