Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader [Paperback]

Harry Crews (Author)

Book Description

Release 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: 1.1 x 6 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #276,790 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 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

Format: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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

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

By S. H. Wells VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

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

By Matt coppens

Format: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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars these new instant copies of this book are really poor quality, better to buy a used original, easier to read December 10, 2012

By James M. Arms

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

apparently this book is printed digitally on demand to fill orders now, but the quality of the whole book is pretty bad. badly scanned cover, out of focus, and not color corrected show the cheapness of the product. the type inside is so heavy that it make it slightly hard to read. the book itself is amazing, i recommend this book to everyone, but you are better off buying a used copy that was printed as books should be rather than this awful distorted instant copy. i'm glad i didn't pay full price. i bought them to give as gifts to friends to introduce them to harry crews, but the quality is so bad i'm a bit embarrassed by the overall cheapness of quality. i won't make that mistake again.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reason to Read July 24, 2006

By J. Newberry

Format:Paperback

Harry Crews: the name and reputation often precede the writing. Many know of his youthful and not-so-youthful exploits. Many have seen the "How do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mr. Death" tattoo. Some may remember the mohawk on the Dennis Miller show.

Doubtless, Harry Crews the man is a force of nature.

In contrast, Harry Crews the writer is a man of unadorned style with a nearly minimalist approach to fiction. His tightly-constructed sentences move along with machine-like precision. His eye is attuned to the smallest of details. And in his hands, plot is an extension of character.

The *Harry Crews Reader* is a reason to read this masterful southern writer. With grit and wit, Crews unfolds story after story of loser and scoundrel, from the unlikely tale of man who eats a car to the heart-breaking tale of Crews' own childhood. Crews depicts images that will scar the sense, tearing into a reader's subconscious and nestling there. I can't get the image of young Harry losing the skin off of his entire body after being accidentally immersed in a tub of scalding water.

Harry Crews' stories are bizarre, true--but they often teach important lessons about consumerism and the dangers of being cut off from the land. Yes--I said "teaches lessons." Our culture has conditioned us to think that stories with a point are to be dismissed as "moralizing." Nothing could be further from the truth. Harry Crews shows us that fiction can matter, even fiction from a south Georgia hell raiser.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars DELIRIOUSLY ABSURD AND DEPRAVED June 12, 2008

By Nelson H. Wu

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

In Harry Crews's disturbing and achingly funny novel "Car," Herman Mack sets out to eat a 1971 Ford Maverick from bumper to bumper (excluding the spare tire and jack). Herman soon becomes a small-town hero and everyone in his backwater Florida town wants a piece of the action. The ensuing racket reaches delirious heights of absurdity and depravity. When it was originally published in 1972, "Car" worked best as a biting commentary on our national obsession with the automobile. But today, Crews's novel can also be read as a prescient look at how anyone, anywhere can become an instant celebrity for doing something incredibly stupid. An otherwise undistinguished Herman sets out to eat that fine Ford because he "felt himself special, felt himself being saved by a force bigger than himself and outside himself, saved to do some fantastic and special thing." What modern-day millennial won't identify with that vague but compelling urge? If you aren't a movie star or a singer or a top model, at least you can star in your own reality TV show or sex tape. As you can probably imagine, Harry Crews is an acquired taste. And if you think "Car" is hard to stomach, try Crews's wacked-out memoir, "A Childhood: The Biography of a Place," also collected in the indispensable "Classic Crews."