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A Childhood: The Biography of a Place

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Although this book is not a typical work by the literate master of the hard South, it is a testament to his talent. This book made me see and feel the life of a 6 year old dirt farmer in Bacon Co, Georgia, and also give some insight into the basis of characters in Crews' fictional works. This is one of the best quasi-memoirs ever written, and even has a slight belief in human goodness not seen in his other work. Mr. Crews' more typical works (such as Feast of Snakes or All We Need of Hell) are very good novels in their own right, yet Childhood stands apart and above all of his other books combined. If you read nothing else by Harry Crews (which is not a good idea--you should read many of his books), this is the one to choose.

Crew's A Childhood: Biography of a Place is not a novel, nor is it a history, biography, autobiography, or memoir in any traditional sense, rather it seems to be all these quilted together. A Childhood recounts the author's earliest memories of his upbringing in rural Georgia, as well as a fictionalized account of his father who died before the author's birth. This book is a testament to his childhood playmates and the folks that were kind to his poverty stricken family, as well as to the first fictional characters he conjured up out of the Sears and Roebuck Catalog. The book recounts a great many firsts, from the first time he ate grapefruit, to the first time he "started and nearly finished a detective novel, although at the time I had never seen a novel, detective or otherwise," to the first personal encounter with death. The "place" made mention of in the subtitle is the author's home of Bacon County, which has become a mythic landscape for me; I think of it in the same way many think

I was assigned this book in a tutorial class on the "mind of the south" by a professor during my senior year of college. I was immediately drawn to the author's experiences with tenant farming; being the son of a mother whose own father was a farmer that oversaw several tenents to his own farming operation prior to, and shortly after WWII. Crew's accurate depection of tenant farmer life was valididated, to this reader at least, by his portrayal of an agricultural system that was difficult to not only rural agricultural African Americans, but their white supervisors. Crews has done a wonderful job of incorporating the distinctly southern phrases and dialogue of the rural, agrarian south. I though my own mother was the only person who pronounced "hurricane" as "harrakin". Charachters such as Willalee Bookatee and his family were strikingly similar to those poor blacks, and whites, described in my mother's stories of working in the tobacco fields of rural NC. This book will shed some much needed light on the fact that the hard-core, rural south is not so far removed from the remodeled "New South".

I would suggest this book to anyone who has ever read anything published by Harry Crews; specifically to those who haven't read anything by him, but who are interested in this magnificent author. After reading it, I found myself wondering how Crews was able to escape childhood, much less become of the the greatest Southern authors since Faulkner. Truly a fantastic book that will stand the test of time and inevitably cast Crews as one of the greatest authors of the 20th century!

I received an excellent recommendation on this book, from Annie Dillard. I had written her to express my admiration for her moving memoir An American Childhood, concerning her upbringing in Pittsburgh during the Eisenhower `50's. She responded, with thanks, and made a singular recommendation: another memoir of childhood, this one, by Harry Crews. In terms of childhood experiences, they are poles apart. Crews' was raised, dirt poor as the expression has it, in Bacon County, deep rural southeast Georgia, during the Depression. Dillard's was a middle class upbringing, during the post-World War II prosperity years.

Crews is still with us, so the events that he so evocatively describes, have occurred in the span of one lifetime. He grew up in a one room sharecropper's cabin. In the era where agriculture is dominated by multinationals, it is useful to recall that "sharecropping," that is, farming someone else's land for a percentage of the take, was one of the most fundamental principles that permitted grave inequalities in income. Crews prose is earthy and unpretentious, and he has a keen ear for the patois of rural Georgia. Despite, or is rather because of the poverty, there was a strong sense of family and the community which he aptly depicts.

The scene that I most vividly recall is when the children were playing "crack the whip." In this era of endless electronic distractions for kids, does the game still exist? Each child hold hands, the leader makes a sudden turn, and the centripetal force throws the last child off. In Crews' case, it was a bright, cold February, 1941, when there was much joy since they were slaughtering hogs, and knew lots of meat would be available. In the process, a large trough of scalding water is set up, to facilitate the removal of the hair and bristles. "Crack the whip" threw Crews into the trough, one of those childhood accidents that are too often fatal. The author obviously survived. He describes how burns were treated, ultimately at home, long before the worries of will the health insurance pay.

"Did you git your commodity?" Crews explains that he has subsequently learned several other definitions for the word "commodity": "...but in my secret heart I'll always know what commodity means: `free food that comes on a truck.'" Crews was in the Marines during the Korean War, and returned to Bacon County in 1956. He looked up, and cursed the sun. He writes: "And in Bacon County you don't curse the sun or the rain or the land or God. They are all the same thing. To curse any of them is an ultimate blasphemy."

The University of Georgia Press did an outstanding job in publishing this work, utilizing the service of Michael McCurdy, a renowned illustrator and designer who provided drawings not only for the cover, but another around 20 throughout the text. Aspiring writers should take heart: he applied, and was denied a place as a student in the University of Florida's Creative Writing program. After the publication of some of his work, he was invited back as a professor for the program. 5-stars for this work.

As mentioned by another reviewer, if you're not familiar with Harry Crews, this is a good place to start. Then read his novel _Scar Lover_, and you'll see the connections.

This is simply the most evocative and beautiful memoir I have ever read. The man is amazing.

I know that his novels tend to shock some people. But reading this book helps us understand where he's coming from--both literally and figuratively.

I spent a day at Harry's house this summer (July 2011), and he was gracious and hospitable--and tons of fun. He cussed up a storm, but he just exuded wisdom. He's 76. He can't use his legs, and he has all kinds of health problems. But he still has that gleam in his eye, and he's working on his 18th book. He gets up at 4 a.m. every morning and writes 500 words. Long may he live.

I was only recently introduced to Harry Crews, but this memoir should be required prior to reading any of his compelling fiction. One does not need to know about Mr. Crews to enjoy his fiction, but to read this book first is to build an affinity for the author. His memories of southern Georgia during the great depression and war years are the most accurate in tone of any non-fiction that has come out of the South. He has been linked to Flannery O'Connor, but to me he seems to be a more existential William Faulkner.

Gib: A Contemporary Western The Blind Corral (Contemporary American fiction)I bought this book at the recommendation of a writer friend of mine, Ralph Beer, who wrote the western classic The Blind Corral. Crewes' book, about growing up in the rural South, takes a stance astride provocative pride and self-consciousness about his poor childhood. A brilliant writer, the man's writing style is suffused with an irony based on redneck swagger and the memories of a sensitive child born into a very tough world.

As a rural Georgia native and someone who has traveled all around South Georgia, I was very excited when I came across this book;Crews exceeded my expectations. In the tradition of the Southern storyteller, Crews does an outstanding job of sharing the stories of his Depression era childhood in South Georgia. Many of his stories remind me of my own grandfather, who would have been a contemporary of Crews. For me, the familiarity of the types of characters, dialects, and places brought this work closer to home and endeared the author to me. At times hilarious, at times appalling, this wonderful collection of memories is honest yet has just the slightest hint of embellishment that is of course required in the telling of any good Southern story.

I own and have read this fellow Bacon County, Georgia writer's work. Not only is it well written, but he portrays the Bacon County and its people lovingly and wonderfully. Harry Crews is a gifted writer and deserves many accolades from not only his birth place, but the state and country as well. Joan Bryant Quijano