Customer Reviews

Perspectives on Harry Crews

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I studied with Harry early in his career at the University of Florida. For anyone interested in digging into the works of Harry, this is the book. How I wish there were more.

For some reason, academia and Harry Crews do not quite mesh together. (I am being facetious.) Crews wore a mohawk to his instructor position at a college. He also got frustrated with his academic coworkers and slammed down an armful of his books onto the table when questioned on his merit. The best pieces in this collection are by non-academics (like Larry Brown). Maybe it's just me, but the academics contributing just over-analyze and use big words and really kill the spirit of Crews' writing. I'm sure they appreciate Crews, but Crews' work is understood on another level, a non-academic, human, primal, dark, honest level. Though sometimes and somewhat interesting, I can't see Crews himself going much for these academic dissections of his work. The best thing is probably to read Crews firsthand and avoid the endless, jargon-laden, subjective analyses by academics.