Review: Understudy for Death by Charles Willeford

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At the first, I want to say that I enjoyed this book, a lot. Willeford was a wonderful writer and this is a good example of his abilities. Very satisfying. The book was published 1961 and I grew up in the 60s. I related to some of the descriptions of homelife described by Willeford.

I didn't know what I was getting with this book. Like a lot of you, I know Willeford's work from his crime novels, the Hoke Mosely series, for example. If you look at the title and cover, you would be justified to think you'd be getting a crime story. Not so. On the cover, the only element that directly relates to the story is the typewriter. The woman in a bikini with a gun, not so much.

In the small South Florida city of Lake Springs, a woman kills her son and daughter then herself. The Managing Editor of the Lake Springs Morning News and Evening Press assigns reporter Richard Hudson to find out what drove the woman, Marion Huneker, to commit murder and suicide. Hudson thinks it is worthless assignment, but, with the suggestion that perhaps he doesn't want his job anymore, reluctantly agrees.  You know he doesn't plan to put much effort into it.

Hudson, who sees himself as a playwright first, is lazy, cynical, rude, and abrasive, doing a job beneath him while he works on his play. He becomes emotionally and verbally abusive toward his wife if she dares ask him to do anything around the house; a man's a loser to make his own breakfast. For Hudson, nothing is more important than work on his play which, despite years of effort, hasn't progressed beyond the first act. 

Really, this is a snapshot of life in South Florida, the daily routine of a reporter on a minor newspaper, and  an examination of marriage. Marriage is always a presence in the story even if it isn't at the forefront. This is more like the marriages in Mad Men than those of Father Knows Best or Leave it to Beaver. Along the way we begin to see inside the soul of Richard Hudson as he talks to people who knew the deceased woman and react to his own marriage.

With Hudson driving around town doing his reporter interviews, Willeford is able to write in several interesting passages that, while not directly related to Hudson's reporting, work toward the atmosphere, sense of place, state of mind. 

The heat of Southern Florida in the summer is every bit as oppressive as Willeford describes. I have personal experience here and I can't imagine what it was like before everything was air conditioned. 

In one scene Hudson is approaching the residence of someone he wants to interview. He pauses and muses about Florida home construction and how there isn't much difference between a $10,000 house and one that costs $20,000. This may seen boring and out-of-place but is interesting and contributes the snapshot of Florida life I mentioned earlier. It also reminded me a little of John D. Macdonald who frequently inserted discussion about development and ecology into his novels.

Willeford also works in observations about the life of the freelance pulp writer. I expect it was a subject that Willeford knew more than a little about and meant a lot to him. It also has an affect on Hudson and allows an uncharacteristic bit of emotion toward a fellow human.

The story doesn't really resolve the "why" of the suicide. The note left Marion left behind gives the feeling that Marion slipped into an existential despair, the feeling that she and her children didn't belong in the world anymore. Being very devout, Marion felt she was sending her children to a better place and she was willing to sacrifice he place in eternity to ensure theirs.  She wrote that Television is more important than we are. Everything is nothing. If you do read this book — and I hope you do — note that television comes up more than once. But this doesn't really solve the riddle, what was missing in her existence.

I don't want to give a lot of detail about the ending bit I will say that the title, Understudy for Death has allegorical underpinnings. Actually, so would the original title, Understudy for Love. I wonder if the change was made to make it seem more like a crime novel.

Keywords: Florida fiction. newspaper reporters, suicide in fiction