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Dear Wolf
190 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1967
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November 28, 2019
What a romp this is! This book is pretty rare and nearly impossible to obtain at any sane price. You're unlikely to find a copy for reading anytime soon, even if you wanted to. So I'll give a bit of a plot run-down here. (Note: I couldn't even find a blurb about the plot of this one, and I had to add it myself to the GR database.) It's another Sully book I heard about through the Neglected Books blog. It took me months to find a copy, and almost as long for the copy to wend its way from Australia to California.
The protagonist, Norbert Caldar (called "Nob") is something of a mild train-wreck—rather an unkempt, hairy, middle-aged slob, incidentally a laborer—who lives in a dilapidated, messy caravan (i.e., think of it as a small single-wide) outside the village. He's been carrying on, hopping from bed to bed with just about every wedded or widowed woman of the village for years. Somewhere he has three kids by different women, and much of his extra monthly cash goes out in tiny support payments. Nowhere near as refined as a legendary (stereotyped) Casanova, Nob is the kind of barely passable bad-boy who somehow, despite glaring faults, gets every female to fall for him, repeatedly, no matter how outlandish his behavior. He knows how to mightily please women in at least one way, which is made very obvious through the book.
Near the opening of the story, Nob pops in on Mabel nearby so he can get her to wash some of his ever-dirty shirts, and he more or less offers her (another) romp in the bedroom, as if she would be lucky to pay him to sleep with her. But for all that, he's also a good-natured sort, not terribly smart, who tries rather calculatingly to be nice, and thinks quite a lot about who to sleep with next, in the way one might consider which of several nearby familiar restaurants to visit for dinner, several nights a week. He performs similarly, bouncing around, for a hundred pages or so.
Then, as things progress, young Bessy finds herself in the family way after sleeping with several young men of the area. She doesn't know which is the father, and she can't even name any of the potential fathers. But after a chance encounter with Nob, who comes into her place of work looking to buy a new shirt, she concocts a plan, knowing his reputation. She finagles her way into his life, visits him at home, allowing herself to be seen in his company, more than once. So Bessy's mother of course soon thinks he must be the father, which the young woman vehemently denies.
The village men soon get a little fed up with Nob, especially about the rumored liaison with Bessy; and they all know he's been fornicating around. Bessy is the last straw: now, comparing notes, they believe Nob responsible for six current pregnancies. They meet to discuss a plan for punishing him. (Of course, as Nob hastens to prove to Bessy, he is always very careful with his condoms by the drawerful, and definitely hasn't got anyone pregnant.)
I'll just say, without much spoiling, that the half-dozen village men do come up with a rollicking plan to humiliate poor old Nob. He has a last run-in with Mabel, and all's well that ends well.
The whole situation is farcical, slapstick, humorous, and impossible to put down. Something about it frankly reminded me a little of Molière. It's not a long book, and I read it basically in a bit over two sittings. In the last year and a half I've read five books by Sully, and I think this one and The Fractured Smile, are the two I liked best because of their humorous elements.
The protagonist, Norbert Caldar (called "Nob") is something of a mild train-wreck—rather an unkempt, hairy, middle-aged slob, incidentally a laborer—who lives in a dilapidated, messy caravan (i.e., think of it as a small single-wide) outside the village. He's been carrying on, hopping from bed to bed with just about every wedded or widowed woman of the village for years. Somewhere he has three kids by different women, and much of his extra monthly cash goes out in tiny support payments. Nowhere near as refined as a legendary (stereotyped) Casanova, Nob is the kind of barely passable bad-boy who somehow, despite glaring faults, gets every female to fall for him, repeatedly, no matter how outlandish his behavior. He knows how to mightily please women in at least one way, which is made very obvious through the book.
Near the opening of the story, Nob pops in on Mabel nearby so he can get her to wash some of his ever-dirty shirts, and he more or less offers her (another) romp in the bedroom, as if she would be lucky to pay him to sleep with her. But for all that, he's also a good-natured sort, not terribly smart, who tries rather calculatingly to be nice, and thinks quite a lot about who to sleep with next, in the way one might consider which of several nearby familiar restaurants to visit for dinner, several nights a week. He performs similarly, bouncing around, for a hundred pages or so.
Then, as things progress, young Bessy finds herself in the family way after sleeping with several young men of the area. She doesn't know which is the father, and she can't even name any of the potential fathers. But after a chance encounter with Nob, who comes into her place of work looking to buy a new shirt, she concocts a plan, knowing his reputation. She finagles her way into his life, visits him at home, allowing herself to be seen in his company, more than once. So Bessy's mother of course soon thinks he must be the father, which the young woman vehemently denies.
The village men soon get a little fed up with Nob, especially about the rumored liaison with Bessy; and they all know he's been fornicating around. Bessy is the last straw: now, comparing notes, they believe Nob responsible for six current pregnancies. They meet to discuss a plan for punishing him. (Of course, as Nob hastens to prove to Bessy, he is always very careful with his condoms by the drawerful, and definitely hasn't got anyone pregnant.)
I'll just say, without much spoiling, that the half-dozen village men do come up with a rollicking plan to humiliate poor old Nob. He has a last run-in with Mabel, and all's well that ends well.
The whole situation is farcical, slapstick, humorous, and impossible to put down. Something about it frankly reminded me a little of Molière. It's not a long book, and I read it basically in a bit over two sittings. In the last year and a half I've read five books by Sully, and I think this one and The Fractured Smile, are the two I liked best because of their humorous elements.
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