The Mulching of America

Book #32 of my reading list was Harry Crews' The Mulching of America.

A sort of modern update on Willy Loman, Crews' The Mulching of America is a novel about Hickum Looney a door-to-door soap salesman working his way up the corporate ladder. Crews brings in a cast of crazy characters including a guest appearance by Russell Muscle of Body fame. Not my favorite Crews novel, but a beauty nonetheless.

"Everybody that speaks the truth that's close to the bone is pretty nearly always talking po'try" - Hickum Looney

Scar Lover

Book #36 on my list this year was good ol' Harry Crews' Scar Lover.


Southern Gothic, Faulknerian...call it what you want Crews is the shizzle. This one sorta reminded me a bit of Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion which about a good a compliment as they come. Highly recommended.

A Feast of Snakes

Book #28 of my '07 reading list was Harry Crews' A Feast of Snakes

One word: classic. Oddly timely too since it involves dogfighting and football players in Georgia (pretty eerie huh?).

"A Feast of Snakes reads like a Flannery O’Connor crossed with Bukowski, and if that description doesn’t interest you, then I don’t know what will. " -- Suicide Girls review

Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus

Film #23 on my '07 watch list was Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus.

My NetFlix rating: 4 stars
Jamie says: As accurate a depiction as you'll ever get of the back-woods Dirty South. Should give this one 5 stars just for having Harry Crews in it.
RIYL: Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, Jim White

Official Site
Rotten Tomatoes reviews

An American Family

Book #3 on my reading list this year was Harry Crews' An American Family: The Baby With the Curious Markings.

A twisted shocker of a book, Crews' new novel reads like Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne on steriods. It's a book that pops you between the eyes, kicks you in the stomach and then cruises off into the night. But then what else would you expect from Crews?

Though it's listed as a novel, An American Family is really more like a short story clocking in at a mere 103 pages, double-spaced with large margins and plenty of blank pages between chapters. If you tried to turn this in for Novel Writing 101 you'd probably get an "incomplete" based solely on length alone. Then again the short novel seems to be all the rage these days (see Roth, Philip), so what do I know?

Florida Frenzy

Books #53 on my reading list this year was Harry Crews' Florida Frenzy, a 1982 collection of his previously published essays and fiction.

I loved every page of this one. Florida Frenzy easily vaults into my short list of best books I've read this year. Crews flair for gritty storytelling is astounding. The essays cover a wide range of intriguing topics such as why Crews teaches, why he lives in Gainesville, dog fighting, poaching gators in the Everglades, bar fights, falconry, and the Gatornationals.

The essays were even more interesting to me as they ooze of the North Central Florida in which I grew up. For several years Crews even lived near Putnam Hall, a one gas station town just North of Interlachen (which looks like a compartive metropolis with its one stop light) where I grew up.

Highly recommended.

"Mustard is allowed in a good bar, but there is never any mayonaisse. Mayonaisse won't do. And it cannot be explained. Either you know right off that mayonaisse doesn't belong in a bar or you can never know." -- Harry Crews "Tuesday Night"