Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader

I haven't finished the "Classic Crews" anthology (best of Harry Crews). But the memoir it contains (Childhood: The Biography of a Place) is worth the purchase price all by itself. Some gothic sh*t happens to Crews before the age of 10, but there's a lot of writing about subsistence rural GA living that's quietly powerful.

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."

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.

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.

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.

This collection is a perfect introduction to Harry Crews. "A Childhood" - Crews' account of his home life in rural Georgia from birth to age six - is a touching, honest work and considered one of Crews' best. "The Gypsy's Curse," while not Crews' best work, is a solid novel that will prepare the casual reader for some of the recurring themes in his other books. "Car," the earliest of Crews' novels included here, reads in 2001 not so much as a condemnation of America's obsession with the automobile as it does an honest, painful look at human ambition and the desire for recognition. The accompanying essays complement the novels nicely.