The Knockout Artist: A Novel [Hardcover]

Harry Crews (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Crews, one of the most inventive practitioners in modern American letters, returns to a milieu that has long fascinated him: the seedy world of fighters and musclemen. Eugene Talmadge Biggs, ex-farmboy and ex-boxer (he won 13 fights and lost the next four by knockouts), knows an amazing trickhe can knock himself out with one punch to the jaw. Abandoned by his manager, Crews's glass-jawed hero has to support himself by exhibiting his trick at parties. After 73 self-inflicted KO's, the routine gets a little wearing. Meanwhile, Eugene is taken up by Charity, a rich, all-but-the-dissertation Ph.D. candidate bent on constructing a thesis that relates every fact in the world to every other fact. She thinks Eugene and his prizefighting friends are a gold mine of information for this dubious project. A brilliant specialist in black humor, Crews delivers the goods once again. His deadpan prose style is uncannily effective in meshing the surreal and everyday life. While the characters are mainly freaks, they come across so directly, often with an affecting sweetness, that they acquire extraordinary vibrancy. Crews is a modernist all right, but he isn't a facile one. The moral here and elsewhere in his work is old-fashioned: to thine own self be true.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A superbly crafted novel of deceptions and darkness, this look at the underside of a strange group in New Orleans moves inexorably toward a stunning climax. Eugene Gibbs, a failed boxer, becomes popular on the kinky circuit and is taken in hand by Charity, a wealthy girl who beds him. Eugene is drawn into the circle of another boxer, his addict girlfriend, a hooker/lesbian, and a wealthy businessman who gets his kicks by controlling people by day and being led about with a leash by night. Basically decent, Eugene is tormented because he is deceived and let down by everyone, except a young boxer he is training. Characterization, incidents, and tone are all beautifully sustained in this unusual book. R. H. Donahugh, Youngstown and Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (April 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006015893X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060158934
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,091,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars freaks, fighters, and moral struggles to survive, September 23, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Knockout Artist (Paperback)

when all you have is one occupation, one talent, one desire and your denied the "glory" of being at the top you settle for what pays your bills. talents big and small can be made into a capital gaining venture but when you lose some bit of respect for yourself what is that you really have left

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the best work of the great Harry Crews., March 9, 2005

By 

trainreader (Montclair, N.J.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Knockout Artist (Paperback)

I am a huge Harry Crews fan. No one writes quite like this hyperrealistic gothic southern writer, and no one can create such bizarre characters in so few pages. Indeed, I have read "The Knockout Artist" several times, and always get something different out of it. As always, Crews concerns himself with the larger questions in life, especially how to maintain one's moral compass in a surreal amoral world (here its New Orleans), but he also creates characters as compelling as one can find in late 20th century fiction. You will root for the main character and never forget those that he meets along the way.

To address one of the other reviews, in Crews' world, it is hardly surprising that there are people who would pay handsomely to see someone knock himself unconscious. I am sure that in the underbelly of any major city, (which certainly would include New Orleans!) there are those who have desires far stranger than this.

I urge you to read this book. If you like it, run out and buy "A Feast of Snakes," which is just as good.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Over the top, yes, but for good reason., January 3, 2003

By 

Kyle (home) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Knockout Artist (Paperback)

Sometimes to satirize one must approach the extreme, venture into the unbelievable or explore the ridiculous. I'm sorry one of the reviewers failed to grasp this. The Knockout Artist is one of the finest pieces of fiction ever written by a contemporary American author. It grabs at the heartstrings and yanks them out of tune, then proceeds to play Mariachi in dropped D tuning.
I laughed, I cried,....
In seriousness, Harry Crews is going to be one of those authors who will be taught in college courses fifty years from now, well after he's dead and gone. We are fortunate to be living at the same time as a legend.