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The muddy fork & other things : short fiction and nonfiction
Gathers six magazine articles, eight short stories, an interview with the author, and the beginnings of two novels
239 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1991
74 people want to read
About the author
James Crumley
61 books316 followersJames Arthur Crumley was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays. He has been described as "one of modern crime writing's best practitioners", who was "a patron saint of the post-Vietnam private eye novel"and a cross between Raymond Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson.His book The Last Good Kiss has been described as "the most influential crime novel of the last 50 years."
Crumley, who was born in Three Rivers, Texas, grew up in south Texas, where his father was an oil-field supervisor and his mother was a waitress.
Crumley was a grade-A student and a football player, an offensive lineman, in high school. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology on a Navy ROTC scholarship, but left to serve in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1961 in the Philippines. He then attended the Texas College of Arts and Industries on a football scholarship, where he received his B.A. degree with a major in history in 1964. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Iowa in 1966. His master's thesis was later published as the Vietnam War novel One to Count Cadence in 1969.
Crumley had not read any detective fiction until prompted to by Montana poet Richard Hugo, who recommended the work of Raymond Chandler for the quality of his sentences. Crumley finally picked up a copy of one of Chandler's books in Guadalajara, Mexico. Impressed by Chandler's writing, and that of Ross Macdonald, Crumley began writing his first detective novel, The Wrong Case, which was published in 1975.
Crumley served on the English faculty of the University of Montana at Missoula, and as a visiting professor at a number of other colleges, including the University of Arkansas, Colorado State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
From the mid-80s on he lived in Missoula, Montana, where he found inspiration for his novels at Charlie B's bar. A regular there, he had many longstanding friends who have been portrayed as characters in his books.
Crumley died at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana on September 17, 2008 of complications from kidney and pulmonary diseases after many years of health problems. He was survived by his wife of 16 years, Martha Elizabeth, a poet and artist who was his fifth wife. He had five children – three from his second marriage and two from his fourth – eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Crumley, who was born in Three Rivers, Texas, grew up in south Texas, where his father was an oil-field supervisor and his mother was a waitress.
Crumley was a grade-A student and a football player, an offensive lineman, in high school. He attended the Georgia Institute of Technology on a Navy ROTC scholarship, but left to serve in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1961 in the Philippines. He then attended the Texas College of Arts and Industries on a football scholarship, where he received his B.A. degree with a major in history in 1964. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Iowa in 1966. His master's thesis was later published as the Vietnam War novel One to Count Cadence in 1969.
Crumley had not read any detective fiction until prompted to by Montana poet Richard Hugo, who recommended the work of Raymond Chandler for the quality of his sentences. Crumley finally picked up a copy of one of Chandler's books in Guadalajara, Mexico. Impressed by Chandler's writing, and that of Ross Macdonald, Crumley began writing his first detective novel, The Wrong Case, which was published in 1975.
Crumley served on the English faculty of the University of Montana at Missoula, and as a visiting professor at a number of other colleges, including the University of Arkansas, Colorado State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
From the mid-80s on he lived in Missoula, Montana, where he found inspiration for his novels at Charlie B's bar. A regular there, he had many longstanding friends who have been portrayed as characters in his books.
Crumley died at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Montana on September 17, 2008 of complications from kidney and pulmonary diseases after many years of health problems. He was survived by his wife of 16 years, Martha Elizabeth, a poet and artist who was his fifth wife. He had five children – three from his second marriage and two from his fourth – eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 19, 2020
This is the hardcover version of the book and is signed by James Crumley. it is One of 125 produced.
Preface / ix
A Short but Interesting History of Orphans
Journalistic Lies Driving Around Houston The Way of the Road
The Heavy
Book 'Em, Debbie
The Great West
Anybody Can Write a Sad Song
Fictional Truths
An Ideal Son for the Jenkins family
Three Cheers for Thomas J. Rabb Cairn
Daddy's Gone A-Hunting
The Philanderer
Good-bye Cruel World
Whores
The Things She Cannot Write About, The Reasons Why
III The Real Story
Interview
Novel Beginnings:
The Muddy Fork
The Mexican Tree Duck
James Crumley was born in Three Rivers, Texas, on October 12, 1939 and spent most of his childhood in south Texas. he passed away September 17, 2008.
Preface / ix
A Short but Interesting History of Orphans
Journalistic Lies Driving Around Houston The Way of the Road
The Heavy
Book 'Em, Debbie
The Great West
Anybody Can Write a Sad Song
Fictional Truths
An Ideal Son for the Jenkins family
Three Cheers for Thomas J. Rabb Cairn
Daddy's Gone A-Hunting
The Philanderer
Good-bye Cruel World
Whores
The Things She Cannot Write About, The Reasons Why
III The Real Story
Interview
Novel Beginnings:
The Muddy Fork
The Mexican Tree Duck
James Crumley was born in Three Rivers, Texas, on October 12, 1939 and spent most of his childhood in south Texas. he passed away September 17, 2008.
September 7, 2020
Anyone who's delved into the world of Crumley's masterpiece The Last Good Kiss will not find many surprises here. This seemed so clearly to be an odds-n-sods collection of an author after his death that I was shocked to find out that he was very much alive when it came out. Some of the pieces in it were well worth reading, but this hodgepodge of short journalism pieces, some short stories, an interview of the author and the opening chapter of two as-yet-unfinished novels (one of which was eventually completed) makes sense only in financial terms.
The nonfiction pieces were, for me, the most rewarding part, and they confirm for us that Shugrue's world in The Last Good Kiss is only a very lightly fictionalized version of the world that Crumley has built for himself. In talking about cowboys, we learn that Crumley himself has "sat saddle for folding cash," a nice phrase. We learn about his fondness for country music in a profile of Clint Black that falls just short of fawning. His take on Hollywood is (as we would expect) a portrait of a hard-bitten stunt man. Shockingly, they get drunk together during the interview. We get a dipped-in-acid portrait of Houston. My favorite part of the book was a ride-along with a park ranger in Yellowstone.
I've never understood the mystique surrounding liquor -- all these old wives tales about mixing brown and clear liquors, or the concept of 'chasers' or 'backs'. I'm going to veer away from the topic of book reviews here for a moment for a public service announcement:
The fermentation process used to create alcoholic drinks for human consumption is primarily the yeast-driven conversion of simple sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide. As an inevitable byproduct of this process, a small amount of methanol is also produced. Methanol is quite toxic. Because virtually all alcoholic drinks are tainted with small amounts of methanol, drinking too much of anything will result in vomiting, headaches, and all the other joys we think of as hangovers.
Clear, brown, purple, with or without ice, the order in which you imbibe your drinks -- none of that makes a shit bit of difference. It is the cumulative effects of methanol poisoning that gives you a hangover, full stop.
I only mention this because there's an entire vocabulary around drinking in Crumley's world, and if you don't understand what he's talking about, don't worry about it -- it's all boozy BS anyway.
The nonfiction pieces were, for me, the most rewarding part, and they confirm for us that Shugrue's world in The Last Good Kiss is only a very lightly fictionalized version of the world that Crumley has built for himself. In talking about cowboys, we learn that Crumley himself has "sat saddle for folding cash," a nice phrase. We learn about his fondness for country music in a profile of Clint Black that falls just short of fawning. His take on Hollywood is (as we would expect) a portrait of a hard-bitten stunt man. Shockingly, they get drunk together during the interview. We get a dipped-in-acid portrait of Houston. My favorite part of the book was a ride-along with a park ranger in Yellowstone.
I've never understood the mystique surrounding liquor -- all these old wives tales about mixing brown and clear liquors, or the concept of 'chasers' or 'backs'. I'm going to veer away from the topic of book reviews here for a moment for a public service announcement:
The fermentation process used to create alcoholic drinks for human consumption is primarily the yeast-driven conversion of simple sugars to ethanol and carbon dioxide. As an inevitable byproduct of this process, a small amount of methanol is also produced. Methanol is quite toxic. Because virtually all alcoholic drinks are tainted with small amounts of methanol, drinking too much of anything will result in vomiting, headaches, and all the other joys we think of as hangovers.
Clear, brown, purple, with or without ice, the order in which you imbibe your drinks -- none of that makes a shit bit of difference. It is the cumulative effects of methanol poisoning that gives you a hangover, full stop.
I only mention this because there's an entire vocabulary around drinking in Crumley's world, and if you don't understand what he's talking about, don't worry about it -- it's all boozy BS anyway.
September 16, 2016
This collection of short stories, non-fiction essays, and interview and novel extracts is itself a quarter-century old – and several of the stories in it are even older. Yet they’re every bit as relevant as any contemporary crime stories. Few full-length novels pack the punch of ‘An Ideal Son For The Jenkins Family’, which queasily conveys the irreconcilable situation of a square-peg younger generation that no longer fits into a round-hole conventional family. And just when you think you’ve grasped the generation-gap morality message, Crumley butchers every expectation with unashamed brutality.
Then in ‘Three Cheers For Thomas J Rabb’, Crumley rips into the grim business of parental expectation and how it can warp a child’s character in cataclysmic fashion. You think pushy parents are a 21st century phenomena? This one was written in 1964 and you can still feel young Tom Rabb’s rage boiling off every page.
Crumley tackles stalking, suicide, the power of the passive-aggressive controlling partner (who mentioned The Archers? Hah!), and the crushing, monstrous weight of perceived failure which leaves fragile lives in tatters. Yet not every story ends in bitter disappointment, blood and dead bodies. ‘Cairn’ suggests that contentment can be attained, even if it takes a radical change in direction to get there.
Just one of the ‘fictional truths’ didn’t work for me, and it was the only one written from a woman’s perspective. It’s almost reassuring to know that Crumley’s talents weren’t beyond reproach.
These stories are definitely more energetic than his world-weary, cynical later novels. They seethe with suppressed energy and vitality of a younger man who can’t quite believe what he sees around him. All the anger which he would subsequently expand into the Sughrue and Milo novels is condensed here into eight episodes of full-on fury, wielded by a man learning just how much power his words could convey. They might have been penned in the decade after 1964, but these stories feel as fresh as any hard-boiled crime fiction written today.
Almost as a bonus, this anthology also contains half a dozen ‘journalistic lies’ in which Crumley skewers the America he discovers in Houston, on the road, and in the great west. The interview and excerpts which follow the stories are less interesting and feel like filler – but if you can lay hands on this collection then it’s worth adding to your shelf for the fiction alone.
Few writers capture lightning in a jar: this collection absolutely crackles with the energy it contains.
10/10
There's more details on this book over at
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress...
Then in ‘Three Cheers For Thomas J Rabb’, Crumley rips into the grim business of parental expectation and how it can warp a child’s character in cataclysmic fashion. You think pushy parents are a 21st century phenomena? This one was written in 1964 and you can still feel young Tom Rabb’s rage boiling off every page.
Crumley tackles stalking, suicide, the power of the passive-aggressive controlling partner (who mentioned The Archers? Hah!), and the crushing, monstrous weight of perceived failure which leaves fragile lives in tatters. Yet not every story ends in bitter disappointment, blood and dead bodies. ‘Cairn’ suggests that contentment can be attained, even if it takes a radical change in direction to get there.
Just one of the ‘fictional truths’ didn’t work for me, and it was the only one written from a woman’s perspective. It’s almost reassuring to know that Crumley’s talents weren’t beyond reproach.
These stories are definitely more energetic than his world-weary, cynical later novels. They seethe with suppressed energy and vitality of a younger man who can’t quite believe what he sees around him. All the anger which he would subsequently expand into the Sughrue and Milo novels is condensed here into eight episodes of full-on fury, wielded by a man learning just how much power his words could convey. They might have been penned in the decade after 1964, but these stories feel as fresh as any hard-boiled crime fiction written today.
Almost as a bonus, this anthology also contains half a dozen ‘journalistic lies’ in which Crumley skewers the America he discovers in Houston, on the road, and in the great west. The interview and excerpts which follow the stories are less interesting and feel like filler – but if you can lay hands on this collection then it’s worth adding to your shelf for the fiction alone.
Few writers capture lightning in a jar: this collection absolutely crackles with the energy it contains.
10/10
There's more details on this book over at
https://murdermayhemandmore.wordpress...
May 17, 2024
This is a tough one for me. I've written before that Crumley isn't the greatest crime fiction writer of all time, but he takes up a deep and indelible space in my heart. In finishing this volume, most of which I'd already read in the collection "Whores," there is no more new Crumley left for me to read. It's fair to say that the five stars are more a lifetime achievement award, but was legitimately surprised at how deep the new material cut. He's always gonna be there for me to reread, but there's a degree of grief involved. I also discovered that my copy of this is signed, so I have the dead man's autograph in my possession as well.
January 12, 2017
Crumley’s an original who doesn’t write enough. Like the characters of his books, he’s a hard drinker, and it unfortunately affects the output. But would he be the same writer if he wasn’t the same drinker? We’ll never know, so we’ll just have to enjoy what precious little escapes. In The Muddy Fork there’s a little bit of everything, most of it illuminating on Crumley, as well as on the slightly seamy side of the West. This is the modern Western, warts and all, as unlike John Wayne as cyberpunk is unlike Isaac Asimov. My favorite stuff here is the non-fiction, but the short fiction and the brief interview is worthwhile. The novel excerpts (from uncompleted novels) I could have missed, at least while Crumley is still alive and the possibility remains that he may finish one of these.
March 11, 2012
As everyone knows, Crumley was a master of his craft and the American idiom. Along with "One to Count Cadence"' many of these stories demonstrate that his talents went beyond his wonderful PI characters.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews