Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader [Paperback]

Harry Crews (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 8, 1993

Includes two of Crews' full-length novels, The Gypsy's Curse and Car, his autobiography, and three of his essays.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

"My compulsive need to look for the edge and live on it has marked me in more ways than I would want to know or try to explain. Never mind the marks it has left on my skin, let me go straight to the bone," Crews writes in the introduction to this collection. And, in each of the works, he is more than willing to open a few wounds. The book includes two of his full-length novels, The Gypsy's Curse and Car; his autobiography, A Childhood: The Biography of a Place; and three of his essays, "Fathers, Sons, Blood," "The Car," and "Climbing the Tower." Each piece is remarkable on its own, and the book takes special advantage of the illumination afforded by grouping the essays with the fiction in particular ways. For example, "The Car," an essay about Crews' youthful fixation with automobiles, precedes Car, a novel about a young man born to an auto-wrecker who takes such an obsession to a different realm. That character achieves fame and notoriety in Sarasota, Florida, by announcing his intention to eat a Ford Maverick in public view at a downtown hotel. The book promises to provide new insights to confirmed fans, as well as a valuable introduction for the uninitiated. Martha Schoolman

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; First Edition edition (October 8, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671865277
• ISBN-13: 978-0671865276
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Collections & Readers

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A new twist on an old tradition, October 1, 2000

By 

Kim Taylor (Charleston, SC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (Paperback)

If you like the bizarre "Southern Gothic" of Carson McCullers and Flannery O'Connor -- and if you appreciate thoughtful variations on established themes -- then Harry Crews is a novelist well worth your time. He'll probably never make it into the canon, but his work compares favorably with the best American postmodernists, and this is one time when it's best to forget what your English teacher tells you and form your own opinion. Unlike some of the postmodernists, Crews's startling originality is always rooted in palpably human experience; his characters, strange though they may be, never cease to function as PEOPLE, first and foremost. Highly recommended for readers who appreciate a vibrant style and a conscious twist on familiar literary traditions. One of the best American writers of the past 30 years.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Souther Renaissance continues, February 26, 2003

By 

S. H. Wells (Tulsa, OK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (Paperback)

Debates about the waning brilliance of Southern litterature can be silenced after reading Harry Crews (I recommend as much of his work as possible, but the Reader is a good place to start). There is none of the sentimental, 'local-color' work of, say, Fannie Flagg or Rebecca Wells in Harry Crews's work. Harry Crews's work is like a rabid pit bull that bites and won't let go. His brilliance and artistry as writer are coupled with a sharpness that cuts into institutions and beliefs, exposing them and questioning them. Few shibboleths of America can escape.

Find Harry Crews's work. Buy Harry Crews's work.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great friggin' writer., September 23, 2002

By 

Matt coppens (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader (Paperback)

This was the first book I read by Harry Crews. After reading this I went out and bought every other Crews book still in print. After buying all the Crews books still in print I hit up the used bookstores for any of Crews's out of print titles. Harry Crews is excellent, and this is the absolute best place to start reading his work. He's an extremely descriptive writer, and a most entertaining storyteller, the best of both worlds. How Crews is able to think up the sort of characters he writes about is beyond me. He'll write about something so screwed up and whacked out that you know it could never happen, but at the same time makes you believe that what's going on really could happen. Crews has an excellent way of getting in your head and staying there, whether it be his novels or his essays Harry Crews is a true original. Once you read this I'm sure you'll start out on a search for anything and everything he's done.