Crum: The Novel [Paperback]

LEE MAYNARD (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2001

The appearance of this novel in 1988 stirred deep feelings, and this second edition will no doubt do the same. Maynard, a native of Crum (Wayne County), West Virginia, spins a shocking, often outrageous, always irreverent tale of a young man's rebellion against the people and the place which have surrounded his life. Part Huckleberry Finn and part The Red and the Black, the story is ultimately not about the town of Crum, but about the need to reject the comfort and familiarity of home and find a place in the larger world. At the same time, Crum is a touching and humorous look at small-town life, and at the peculiar rituals of male adolescence. Since its highly successful first publication, this novel has become something of an underground classic, with used copies now scarce and costly. Maynard adds a brief epilogue to this new edition, and West Virginia writer Meredith Sue Willis provides an introduction.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its preoccupation with adolescent sex, and a plethora of obscene and scatological language, silly pranks and fisticuffs, this inaugural novel in the Washington Square Press original fiction line will only appeal to readers with sophomoric tastes. Maynard, 51, sets his first effort, a 1950s coming-of-age story, in his native Crum, W. Va., "located deep in the bowels of the Appalachians, on the bank of the Tug River, the urinary tract of the mountains." The nameless narrator repetitiously cites his desire to leave this mining town, which was "a zero. A blank. Nothing"rife with poverty and ignorance and bereft of indoor toilets. "We would try anything to relieve the monotony of living in Crum," he says, and the novel details his antics during his final year in the dump, which he flees after completing high school. He and his buddies dynamite outhouses, rob delivery trucks, expose themselves, witness pig butcherings and pick fights with Kentucky teens. There is much potential material here in the plight of the narrator, a lonely orphan who lives in a shed tacked onto the back of a cousin's shack. But Maynard's characters are inscrutable to themselves ("Don't ask me why I did it, I just did," says the hero when he insults a friend) and, ultimately, to the reader.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The first couple of pages, I'm cringing. I'm tempted to put it down. I imagine a schoolteacher somewhere in the Midwest having all of these awful stereotypes about us confirmed. Yet, despite myself, I continue to read, and I am moved. It is literaure. Its voice is true. It's a wonderful portrait of rural America. The book wins me over." John O'Brien, author of At Home in the Heart of Appalachia

"Maynard is a Gonzo Mountaineer..." Pops Walker, musician and writer

"Crum is great. Lee Maynard is a genius. No writing has captured rural America this well since Mark Twain. A masterpiece." Stephen Coonts, author Flight of the Intruder

"It's a tale of growing up in and moving away from Crum, a jumble of shacks on the Tug River in the state's God-forsaken southern coal fields. As tales about coming of age in rural America go, Crum isn't that much out of place on a shelf next to Mark Twain and Harper Lee." David Bean,  The Charleston Gazette

"Maynard presents a portrait of a young man's psyche which ranks just a small notch below great American portrayals of adolescence - Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye." Michael Shannon Friedman, The Charleston Gazette

"Whatever you do, don't read Crum." Jack Cawthon, Hur Herald

"For all its faults, Crum creates a hilarious, poignant, recognizable picture of a place and time, and of people I've known." Rodger Cunningham, Journal of Appalachian Studies

"Each time I read Lee Maynard’s Crum, I ask myself why this foul-mouthed, sexist, scatological, hillbilly-stereotyping novel is one of my all-time favorites." Meredith Sue Willis, author Oradell at Sea

"[Maynard] writes like Jean Shepherd on acid...Crum is one twisted little novel." Robert Beveridge, Critic

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: West Virginia University Press; 2 Revised edition (September 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937058599
• ISBN-13: 978-0937058596
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,443 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, bittersweet, hardcore West Virginia, May 13, 1999

By 

[e-mail] or Marjorie (Charleston, WV) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CRUM (Paperback)

A hilarious, bittersweet saga of growing up in hardcore West Virginia. Crum isn't in the gentle mountains those of us who live here love, but a played-out, bleak wasteland locked in the heart of what used to be productive coal country. It is the dark West Virginia whose existence we like to deny. In Lee Maynard's Crum, the high school is the single bastion of hope and the single hope for living well is to get out of Crum. I first visited Crum a few weeks ago and began longing for my longlost copy of the book, first read, then read aloud to friends, then loaned away. The meatwagon chapter ranks as great American literature and I can't think why I've never seen it in an anthology. Would that another printing came about...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the funniest books I've ever read, January 2, 2003

By 

T. Bratz "gwfeds0" (Beaverton, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crum: The Novel (Paperback)

It's a shame more people don't know about this book. It's one of the funniest books I've ever read. I would definitely not recommend it to any female friends, because it is a book for guys. The book follows a young boy through his final year in the little town of Crum, West Virginia. It's full of pranks and small adventures. In a town without excitement, this guy and his friends were determined to create some. They do a pretty good job.

For a few years it was out of print, and I was glad to see it come back last year. My copy is worn out from rereading it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only book that I absolutely could not put down., October 26, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Smyrna TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: CRUM (Paperback)

The first time I read this book I was 14 yrs. old and I was living in Logan WV., about 30 miles from Crum, WV. That was in 1985. I fell in love with the book immediately and read it all the way through. There were times when I cried and times I laughed so hard I couldn't stand it and much of the time I felt like he was telling my story and talking about my feelings and experiences. I have let about half a dozen people read my copy and it's getting pretty ragged. Lee Maynard, I don't know how you did it but you have written the best book I have ever read, next to the bible of course. Man, you're up there with Twain. Thank you so much.