Harry Crews Books

I was only recently introduced to Harry Crews, but this memoir should be required prior to reading any of his compelling fiction. One does not need to know about Mr. Crews to enjoy his fiction, but to read this book first is to build an affinity for the author. His memories of southern Georgia during the great depression and war years are the most accurate in tone of any non-fiction that has come out of the South. He has been linked to Flannery O'Connor, but to me he seems to be a more existential William Faulkner.

Although this book is not a typical work by the literate master of the hard South, it is a testament to his talent. This book made me see and feel the life of a 6 year old dirt farmer in Bacon Co, Georgia, and also give some insight into the basis of characters in Crews' fictional works. This is one of the best quasi-memoirs ever written, and even has a slight belief in human goodness not seen in his other work. Mr. Crews' more typical works (such as Feast of Snakes or All We Need of Hell) are very good novels in their own right, yet Childhood stands apart and above all of his other books combined. If you read nothing else by Harry Crews (which is not a good idea--you should read many of his books), this is the one to choose.

I would suggest this book to anyone who has ever read anything published by Harry Crews; specifically to those who haven't read anything by him, but who are interested in this magnificent author. After reading it, I found myself wondering how Crews was able to escape childhood, much less become of the the greatest Southern authors since Faulkner. Truly a fantastic book that will stand the test of time and inevitably cast Crews as one of the greatest authors of the 20th century!

Several associations, as I was born in Bacon County in the unincorporated community of ScuffleTown.I have never written A review of a book before. I really enjoyed the book because of all the associations of the area of my birth. My qeestion in my review would be. "How does one get from Bacon County to becoming A Professor at the UF?"

I was assigned this book in a tutorial class on the "mind of the south" by a professor during my senior year of college. I was immediately drawn to the author's experiences with tenant farming; being the son of a mother whose own father was a farmer that oversaw several tenents to his own farming operation prior to, and shortly after WWII. Crew's accurate depection of tenant farmer life was valididated, to this reader at least, by his portrayal of an agricultural system that was difficult to not only rural agricultural African Americans, but their white supervisors. Crews has done a wonderful job of incorporating the distinctly southern phrases and dialogue of the rural, agrarian south. I though my own mother was the only person who pronounced "hurricane" as "harrakin". Charachters such as Willalee Bookatee and his family were strikingly similar to those poor blacks, and whites, described in my mother's stories of working in the tobacco fields of rural NC. This book will shed some much needed light on the fact that the hard-core, rural south is not so far removed from the remodeled "New South".

This is a unique book on human factors in multi-crew flight operations. I come from a region where a significant number of middle aged pilots leave airlines for greener pastures elsewhere leaving a lot of young first officers flying with relatively elderly captains. Also the culture in many countries tends to be hierarchical and worship seniority (the Captain is God syndrome). This book provides valuable lessons on how to enhance communication, deal with cultural issues, and highlight human limitations and errors, the operating environment, among several other critical subjects.

The subject is treated very well in a reader-friendly manner. The importance of CRM is highlighted and the need to work as a team. Since most airplane accidents worldwide are as a result of human factors, the importance of this subject to pilots cannot be underestimated. Hence this is a useful and handy book to read and refer to often and keep on your bookshelf as a ready reference manual.

"HUMAN FACTORS IN MULTI-CREW FLIGHT OPERATIONS" co-written by Harry and Linda Orlady - Ashgate ISBN 0-291-39839-1 - Published in 1999

A father and daughter team! It is rare enough to have a flying father and a flying daughter in the real world, but sharing the same passion so intensely and to write a book together on an all-encompassing aviation Bible, (yes, this book is a Bible for aviators!) is truly unprecedented!

When I said this book covers virtually all topics concerning flight operations related topics, I meant just that. The most important thing is; this book is highly readable, rich in reference materials and data and yet "gripping" to read! A rare gem in terms of human factor topics. I have read other CRM or human factors books by other more renowned and authoritative people but none as good as the Orladys, probably with the exception of Tony Kern, who is also just as good a writer on aviation safety.

Okay, the book covers the brief history of air transport, the industry and its safety record,, a brief history of human factor and its development in aviation,, the physical environment and the physiology of flight, as well as those magnificent flying machines and their internal environment - sort of like a trip down to aviation memory lane.

It also discussed the social environment, basic communication, documentation - including checklists and information management. It went on to discuss on the Man's limitations, human errors, and information processing. Nothing is left unturned, the Orladys went on to talk about workload, automation, situation awareness and operating in today's environment. Of course, they did not miss out on crew resource management and the team approach.

Fatigue and stress were covered in depth, plus fitness to fly, even selection and training of pilots! Most interestingly is the coverage on the challenging roles of the flight attendants, this shift in focus of our cabin colleagues was most insightful.

I loved the chapter on non-punitive incident reporting.. the CHIRP and ASRS were great success stories in UK and USA respectively, I fervently hope that SIA will follow suit in our pursuit of excellence in aviation flight safety.

Another eye-opener chapter is "some ramifications of accident analysis", this is the first time I heard of the "Stop Rule" phenomenon in flight safety investigation - find it out yourself what it means.

In the last few chapters, the Orladys talked about the worldwide safety challenge in the near future, the current safety problems and the future of air transport too.

This is not a book to be missed by any pilot who wish to enrich himself, you may get this book from AMAZON dot com. Hardcover costs US$109.95! and papaerback costs US$44.95!

Credits:

Capt Harry W Orlady was a B747 captain for United Airlines, he has contributed a lot in the CRM research works with NASA's AMES Research Centre in California.

Linda M Orlady, a GA instructor pilot and an expert in organizational behaviour.

Eddie Foo

A father and daughter team! It is rare enough to have a flying father and a flying daughter in the real world, but sharing the same passion so intensely and to write a book together on an all-encompassing aviation Bible, (yes, this book is a Bible for aviators!) is truly unprecedented!

When I said this book covers virtually all topics concerning flight operations, I meant just that. The most important thing is; this book is highly readable, rich in reference materials and data and yet "gripping" to read! A rare gem in terms of human factor topics. I have read other CRM or human factors books by other more renowned and authoritative people but none as good as the Orladys, probably with the exception of Tony Kern, who is also just as good a writer on aviation safety.

Okay, the book covers the brief history of air transport, the industry and its safety record,, a brief history of human factor and its development in aviation,, the physical environment and the physiology of flight, as well as those magnificent flying machines and their internal environment - sort of like a trip down to aviation memory lane.

It also discussed the social environment, basic communication, documentation - including checklists and information management. It went on to discuss on the Man's limitations, human errors, and information processing. Nothing is left unturned, the Orladys went on to talk about workload, automation, situation awareness and operating in today's environment. Of course, they did not miss out on crew resource management and the team approach.

Fatigue and stress were covered in depth, plus fitness to fly, even selection and training of pilots! Most interestingly is the coverage on the challenging roles of the flight attendants, this shift in focus of our cabin colleagues was most insightful.

I loved the chapter on non-punitive incident reporting.. the CHIRP and ASRS were great success stories in UK and USA respectively, I fervently hope that SIA will follow suit in our pursuit of excellence in aviation flight safety.

Another eye-opener chapter is "some ramifications of accident analysis", this is the first time I heard of the "Stop Rule" phenomenon in flight safety investigation - find it out yourself what it means.

In the last few chapters, the Orladys talked about the worldwide safety challenge in the near future, the current safety problems and the future of air transport too.

This is not a book to be missed by any pilot who wish to enrich himself. In fact, I recommend that every single commercial pilot should own a copy for reference purposes as well.

A wonderful read....
I could see the charaters in this novel..and smell the sells, be they ever so foul..
A better southern writer..??..Not in my generation...
He is the master of southern dirt roots..
He has lived it, breathed it, and lived totell the tales..
That, in itself, is a miracle..
Loved it and all of the rest of his works..

When it comes to sex-God-and-violence books, Harry Crews is one of the best contemporary southern gothic novelists that's still pumping out good books.

And after all, this is his first novel. No pretension, no inarticulate naivete, just a gradually and very-well developed plot that reminded me at times of book four of Vergil's Aeneid.

Perhaps the most intriguing element of the book was the complete lack of introduction; Crews assumes from the origin that you'll have a good idea what he's talking about (and enjoy it more) if he simply begins not with alot of character-developing tedium but rather launches into a self-explanatory dialogue that makes everything all the more real, dialectical spellings and all. Although Crews seems to "carve 'suk for honesty' on [his] chest," the entire atmosphere of the seting, Enigma, Georgia, is exaggerated to a squalid surreality of a seemingly ordinary impoverished deep-South town. Crews' sparse yet vibrant depictions of southern life ensure decades prior that, well, he's not gonna stop writing anytime soon.

i didnt know what to expect from this book.at first i thought it would be a thriller/horror novel.i was half right/wrong.it was very thrilling.i felt bad laughing at some(MOST)of it.Mr Crews has an excellent flair with the trappings of southern culture,a very unique way of creating charactors.if the right director ever got his hands on this it would be the forrest gump on acid.maybe david lynch should read this.since i read this ive read all his other books and although they dont compare,they are still great reads.ok,''what the heck is this book about?'' you ask?im glad you did.its about.......hhhmmmmm,you can say its a love story of sorts.a group of people with 1 or more handicaps try and find a way to cope.the lead charactor has the gift of doing amazing stunts on his hands.he had to learn this because he has no use of his legs.he was born with non functioning legs and is a deaf mute.his parents leave him infront of a gym when he was 5 with a note attatched saying ''we caint take it''.and so if goes.i must reiterate that the other charactors in this novel are as involving as the main and that is where alot of the charm comes from.while the subject matter may not be humerous,Mr Crews leaves no choice but to laff dispite ourselves.

Obsession. I did not put it down, and still have not let it go. If you look you might catch an open space. Within is a chance meeting of masked insanity. Inside every person there is an edge where they tell no tales to anyone. There can be possible acceptance. This book holds a chamber into your own edge. Our prided, freakshow main character, who is the narrator, tells his accounts of the ignorances, hopes, and down fallings in a bright wasted world. Love historically continues to be the end of man. What can you do with a confession like this book? Find what you've been hiding behind stability.

Joey Acott
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, Harry Crews
A Childhood: The Biography of a Place is about Harry Crews' life growing up in rural Bacon County, Georgia during the depression when from when he was ages five and six.
The main theme that really sticks out when reading this book is how tightly knit the people of Bacon county were at that time. He starts the book by saying, "My first memory is of a time ten years before I was born, and the memory takes place where I have never been and involves my daddy who I never knew." His life doesn't even enter the book until page 47, but he leads up to it by describing his father's, mothers and general history of the county in great detail. He still considers the events before his birth as parts of his life because the community was so tightly knit he knew his fathers life through stories friends and relatives told him when he was growing up. He emphasizes the clannishness of the area when people first meet each other they talk about their families and how even though they have never met each other they are still related in a way. At one point in the book he is in Jacksonville and he meets a man who is killing himself, "'You from Bacon county?' I asked. It was the only thing I could think of to say." Him and the man talk about their they know each others families until the man dies. Throughout the book no matter what is happening to him or to his family or other families there is always ties between all the people of the county. He sums all of this up in the beginning of the book when he says, "If I think of where I come from, I think of the entire county. I think of all its people and its customs and all its loveliness and all its ugliness."
What I like about Crews' style of writing is that he tells things like they were. He does not cover up the bad things with poetic words or excuses, just as he does not down play the good things that happened. He looks at his life completely growing up completely objectively, other than the few parts he interjects to say how he felt looking back, which I think is really hard to do given the events that happened to him over the years. The book reads almost like a documentary because he looks at his life so honestly. He talks freely and without shame of things that would embarrass most men. After a bout with paralysis he talks about how he wasn't able to stop crying, "... I had been crying more and more as the winter deepened, crying as I had never done before, over anything or nothing. Sometimes when I was right by myself, tears would burst from my eyes." I think the fact that he mentions things like this even though they didn't change his life, but just sort of happened on the side make him a much more likable character because we get a whole picture of him and he doesn't try to cover his real life up.
His writing style through the whole book is basic. He writes as though he was talking to you. There are no complex sentences and he doesn't use elaborate words that would seem out of place. His style of writing adds more to the feel that he is straight shooting you.

This book is nothing short of amazing. It is clearly an example of what this publisher has become known for - quality, originality and collectibility. This collection of essays, all with authentic signatures of the authors, coupled with dozens of genuine autographs of Hollywood legends, is a work of art. A film fan's dream.

i was very satisfied with my purchase and the mirror like reflection between the product and the distributors description of the product..

This book was my introduction to Harry Crews. What a wonderful surprise! I read this book after someone online in a book forum I participate in at http://www.bookandreader.com suggested that as a Southerner, I might enjoy the work of Southern authors. I purchased Flannery O'Connor and Harry Crews. Wow... What an eye opening experience. This book by Harry Crews is a stark, rather dark look about rural Southern life. I knew the people in this book (or someone just like them). It is a story about the expectations we have about life. It puts a human face on the struggle to become what we showed promise to become in our youth. The people are raw, stark, complex... An excellent story. If you like Harry Crews, you will enjoy the work of Flannery O'Connor. The Complete Stories She wrote about the same South as Crews. One full of flawed, real people leading complicated lives. Another Harry Crews book I recommend is Classic Crews: A Harry Crews Reader. It is a great collection of some of the best by Harry Crews and another excellent read.

The characters in this book are vile and despicable - abusive to women, bullies to weaker men, and terribly cruel to animals. Several characters are murderers and rapists. A book with characters like this could still be excellent. Unfortunately, this one wasn't.

I do have a great deal of respect for the author Harry Crews. The Knockout Artist, which he also wrote, is one of my favorite books. Its language is powerful and clean. Crews doesn't back down from looking humanity in the face, and the lead character, who has real depth, deals with powerful moral dilemmas. Harry Crews drew me into "The Knockout Artist," wouldn't let me put it down, and everything came together in such a remarkable way at its conclusion

In "A Feast of Snakes," however, the language, while good, is not nearly as strong. Further, its characters and their struggles lacked the power, depth, and interest of "The Knockout Artist."

In addition, many of immoral things that happen in "A Feast of Snakes" seemed cliche. For instance, if you were told to imagine a stereotypical, vile, small-town sheriff, you might come up with someone like Crews' character, Buddy, who takes advantage of the women he brings to jail. When imagining a cliche sheriff, you might also imagine that he has a defining deformity - some physical defect that goes along with his flawed character. In fact, Buddy has a fake leg, because doctors cut his real leg off after he "gone straight to Veet Nam" and "stepped on a pungy stick" (15). Many of the immoral and terrible things in the book seemed like this - terrible but unimaginative and trite. Did Crews do this intentionally?

I still like Crews' use of language, even if this book isn't his strongest. I was still amazed by how well everything in the book comes together. Crews writes intense books, in which the characters push forward, and the writing drives onward, and because Crews doesn't back down, everything reaches surprising conclusions that, in retrospect, seem almost inevitable. It's incredible.

So I'm not entirely denouncing this book; it deserves the three stars I'm giving it in this review.

Note, too, "A Feast of Snakes" is not for everyone. It is not for people who are faint of heart, or for people who don't like reading about despicable people. All of the characters are lousy individuals.

This book is definitely not for the faint-of-heart. That being said, it is an excellent study of human nature with its own twisted comedy. Features dog-fights, racism, alcoholism, and much more. All around a very good book and worth the read.

this book in one sitting easting chunky chicken and listening to art farmer.

This novelist came into my world via Larry Brown..I stumbled upon LB by way of Goodwill actually..as LBs self-proclaimed "mentor"...and by all means a fantastic one..If you are southern and have nor read both of these writers, I believe you are missing 2 modern-day giants...Harry Crews, In Feast of Snakes, took me back to the wiregrass area of my childhood and adolescense..two great writers of 'Faulkneresk' familiarness, y
et possessing their own creative styles..enrichment abounds!! will undoubtedly be inclined to purchase all of his works..at least I was and thankful to have read them..

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."

As a Southerner- I felt I had to like this book until I read it and then really loved it!!! Crews' voice is so funny and sometimes,downright bizarre that you can't help but be taken in by it. You can read the stories in order or out of order- it doesn't matter. But I definitely recommend this book and if you are a true Southerner you have no excuse but to read this!

beautiful and sad. Harry Crews tell stories that grip hold and touch. An immense weight still weighs on me after having read this book.
Honest and real.
Its a Fat 4 stars at that.

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.

This dude rocks! He is funny and tragic, beautiful prose but a gritty easy read. i can't believe i went 23 years without ever hearing of him. Plus, he lives in Gainseville. 'Nuff said.

This was my first Harry Crews book and I absolutely loved it. Although this story is set in the 1970's South the characters and settings are timeless. Aside from all the maddness the story is more about mundane and unfilfilled life than handball and smoothies. Deeter, the main character, fights tooth and nail to hold on to his youth while at the same time feels saddness for not accomplishing enough. His struggle to find and maintain perfection hits close to home for men in particular. Do yourself a favor and check out this book, you'll be glad you did.

I mean, it's fun and everything. Couldn't put it down. But it's like an exercise...in WHAT I'm not so sure...The first scene is odious in a really compelling way. Filmic, disorienting. But it goes on in this kind of self-consciously "wacky" way that leaves me feeling like I'm reading some kind of Kurt Vonnegut for adults. The dead goldfish, the dead cats. The stereotype of one Black character who functions as a way of getting White people to find their true selves...Ho hum.

As a huge Harry Crews fan, I was somewhat disappointed with "All We Need of Hell," which can easily be read in under four hours. Here, we are introduced to the main character, Duffy Deeter, a forty year old husband and father, who can best be described as an incredibly repulsive and self-centered human being. Everything about Duffy is about "bettering" himself, whether it be lifting more weight, running a faster mile, thrashing his opponent in handball or karate, or lasting longer sexually (by thinking of Hitler and concentration camps!).

Duffy is a cheating husband and absent father who basically has no regard for his wife and son, and spends most of his free time with his lover Marvella, a self-destructive cocaine addict, whom he seems to despise. Duffy forms an intense friendship with Jerome "Tump" Walker, after he intentionally kicks Tump in the head while playing handball. Tump, a cocaine addict, is a star pro football player, but seems to have a way to bring disparate people together, and improbably bonds with Duffy's son (and later, Duffy's lover, wife and mother). Running throughout the story is Duffy's dealings with his two-faced law partner, Jert MacPherson, who matches Duffy in repulsiveness.

Usually Crews offers the reader at least one character who tries to stand on higher ground. Perhaps Tump Walker is that person in this book. However, every character is addicted to one thing or another. By the end of the book, Duffy apparently trades his addiction of self-centeredness for whisky and vodka. Is the reader supposed to believe that this is an improvement? I just never accepted that any of the characters actually bettered themselves or really learned anything. Of course, the best Crews novels (e.g. "The Knockout Artist," "A Feast of Snakes," "Body," "The Scar Lover"), have many of the same elements. I just think these books are more compelling and provide a stronger and clearer moral message.

what can i say about it that isn't said below, i just wanted to add my four stars

The perfect book for beginners. If you've never read a Harry Crews novel before, read this first. At under 200 pgs. it is a quick read but no less taut, brutal, incisive and humorous as his earlier works. At 1st morose and tragic then oddly funny until at the last almost spiritually uplifting. I love this book. If you do as well, take the plunge into hardcore Crews and try A Feast of Snakes. After that, you will be hooked.