Scar Lover

by Harry Crews

Scar Lover is a miraculous, true-to-the-bone story of love and redemption, at once a classic southern novel and purely, unmistakably, Harry Crews.Running from a past that has scarred and blamed him, and a tragic accident that has destroyed his family, Pete Butcher avoids all personal contact. Then Sarah Leemer, the oddly beautiful girl next door, walks into his life. Slowly, sweetly, and with a determination almost Faulknerian in its ferocity, Sarah pulls Pete back into life and into the ever increasing complications of love, family, death, and deliverance. For Sarah has made Pete her own, and as she takes her claim, we see the miraculous power of love without boundaries or fear.

Genres: Fiction, Southern Gothic, American, Southern, Novels, Literature

284 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1992

About the author

Harry Eugene Crews was born during the Great Depression to sharecroppers in Bacon County, Georgia. His father died when he was an infant and his mother quickly remarried. His mother later moved her sons to Jacksonville, Florida. Crews is twice divorced and is the father of two sons. His eldest son drowned in 1964.

Crews served in the Korean War and, following the war, enrolled at the University of Florida under the G.I. Bill. After two years of school, Crews set out on an extended road trip. He returned to the University of Florida in 1958. Later, after graduating from the master's program, Crews was denied entrance to the graduate program for Creative Writing. He moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, where he taught English at Broward Community College. In 1968, Crews' first novel, The Gospel Singer, was published. Crews returned to the University of Florida as an English faculty member.

In spring of 1997, Crews retired from UF to devote himself fully to writing. Crews published continuously since his first novel, on average of one novel per year. He died in 2012, at the age of 78.

Reviews

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes, all a tortured man needs in his life is a good woman to fill him with hope and direction. This seems to be the essence of the last few novels Crews wrote in his life during the 1992-98 period. Soap salesman Hickum Looney, stripped of his clothes and thrown out of a conference, is helped by the foul mouthed and freckle breasted Gaye Nell in The Mulching of America. One handed alcoholic war veteran Stump is forced to confront changes at his old age home when Too Much, an armpit scratching libidinous yogini enters his life in Celebration.

Scar Lover also has a beautiful persuasive woman who imposes herself upon the bachelor in distress. Pete Butcher, a down on his luck young man, who unintentionally caused physical hurt to his family is on the run - both from himself and the world around him. It is not like anyone is chasing him. But Pete does not like people and works a hellish job in a boxcar at a paper company with George, a Rastafarian.

The novel begins with a beautiful neighbor Sarah, hitting on Pete and inviting him into her house for dinner. The first few pages filled with minute details of the tense encounter between Pete and Sarah really sucked me in as a reader. Pete is reluctant but accepts anyway. Soon, Pete is sucked into the drama of Sarah's family, involving an acrimonious mother in law with breast cancer, a devoted family man of a father in law who drops dead soon after Pete meets the family (burdening Pete with taking care of his funeral) and Sarah, who is intensely dedicated towards Pete. Max Winekoff, the nosy neighbor who likes to visit the zoo does the job of a Hindu marriage broker for Pete by telling his story to the family. Pete's relationship with him and their joint visit to the zoo are among the funniest bits in the novel. The Rastafarian couple - George and Linga were a bit of a bore for me. They just seemed added on to emphasize the novel's central theme that everyone is carrying some sort of scar or the other. Also, the rather long winded retrieval of Sarah's fathers body, to be given the disposal that he wanted was not as funny or shocking as Crews intended. That whole circus surrounding the funeral was inspired by Evelyn Waugh's The Loved One, I think.

The turn of events for Pete reminded me a bit of the entomologist in The Woman in the Dunes because society sort of intervenes/conspires to entrap both these directionless characters. Of course, in Pete's case Crews makes it clear that it is a turn for the better.

Even though it is not without the grossness and grotesqueness that are typical of a Crews novel, Scar Lover might be one of the most upbeat Crews novels that I have read so far. Crews descriptions of the yaks and crocodiles at the zoo frequented by Max Winekoff reeks of the desperation in Naked in Garden Hills. But the love story between Pete and Sarah and their dedication to each other is something I have not come across in another Crews novel. Maybe the fiery Harry Crews calmed down a little towards the end of his writing career.

[Ron Hefner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I spent the day with Harry Crews toward the end of his life, doing an interview for the University of South Florida literary journal _Saw Palm_. I brought several of his novels for him to sign. He flipped through them, making various comments like, "I wrote that one strictly for money" (_Celebration_). But when we got to _Scar Lover_, my wife read a passage from it, and Harry got this smile on his face. I could tell that he was personally vested in this book.

I think this book is a good introduction to Crews for the uninitiated. One critic here thought the ending was overly sentimental. I disagree. Why can't a Harry Crews book have a happy ending? Harry had a big heart, and it really showed through in this book.

I would add that our day with Harry was amazing. He was opinionated, rough, and all the stuff you would expect from him, but he was also soft, kind, and loving. He knew he was going to die soon. He treated us like royal guests. I'll never forget that day. And I sure miss him.

[Michela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've loved everything I've read by Crews until now. Really couldn't find it in me to like the main character after he mentions that another character is the type of woman who "needs to be raped". Also felt that after the whirlwind of tension, mysticism, and gritty insanity that was the first 3/4 of the book, the ending was and extreme shift in tone and pacing that threw the story off track in an unsatisfying way. As a Crews fan this definitely bummed me out.

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Likely the most overtly sweet of all Crews' many books. Damned funny, with a pure and guileless heart. Hey, kinda like Harry! Not revelatory, not trying to be. It does answer his famous ee cummings tattoo's proposition: "how do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mister Death?" I'd wager that even the Reaper felt like shit the whole day he had to escort Harry to his heavenly reward and, upon arriving home and hanging his scythe on the scythe rack, Mrs Reaper had to make him his favorite (breakfast for dinner) and start a tickle fight to get him to cheer up.

[Paco Serrano · Rating 4 out of 5]

El sur profundo de EEUU es quizás uno de los mejores escenarios para la creación de historias duras y lacerantes. A pesar de ser esta una historia de amor, tiene tal nivel de extravagancia y sordidez que el romance queda siempre en segundo plano.

[Gary Sites · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my second reading. Wow! Some critic once wrote that Crews writes like Flannery O'Conner on steroids. That's what this book reminded me of. I really like Crews' novels, but I love this one. The characters are outrageous, yes, but so oddly real. If you are looking to laugh and cry and think, read Crews.

[wally · Rating 4 out of 5]

great story! peter butcher living life, people getting in the way, telling him things he'd prefer not to hear. he unloads cellophane at the bay street paper company w/a colorful co-worker. jacksonville.

some funny happenings w/this old buck by the name of winekoff. great suitcase metaphor! i know people like that!

this girl, sarah, gets to pete. things happen. good things. bad things. they make do.

i like how crews will tell in the narrative, say something the character is thinking, and then the next time the character speaks, he mouths those words, "i respect you for this." i read that and say, nice, that's how it goes. looked for an example to post but no can do at the moment. he does it often enough that you notice.

a bunch of characters, pete, sarah, max winekoff, linga, mrs. leemer, george. yaks. heh heh!

update, 22 jun 13, saturday early evening, 6:15 p.m.
reading this one again...perhaps the 3rd or 4th read as i wait for a purchase or three to arrive in the mail.

story begins:
pete butcher had not meant to speak to her. and he probably would not have if she had not stared at him so directly as she stepped out of the shade of the oak tree in front of her house to stand in the sun on the sidewalk. the only place he had seen her before was in the yard, close to the trunk of the tree, dim as a ghost in the deep shade. but this morning he had to pass within a foot or two of her because she had come out to stand on the sidewalk. he could, of course, cross the street, but that wouldn't do now that she had her eyes locked directly on his.

scar lover, harry crews, 1992
dedicated: this book is dedicated to my main most man, sean penn

a quote: guilt is magic james dickey

onward and upward

time place scene settings
*the time is three years after the end of the korean war although i didn't really note this until this, the 3rd or 4th reading...there is little in the story to indicate a time...could be 1956 or it could be 2014
*place is jacksonville, florida
*bay street paper company where pete works unloading boxcars
*st johns river
*a diner where pete goes for cigarettes
*the boardinghouse where pete stays
*the leemers' residence, next door to the boardinghouse
*an ambulance parked out front the leemers' place
*main street
*a taxi
*memorial hospital...emergency room
*the jacksonville zoo...the yak cage...lion cage
*a store that sells harmonicas
*the trout river bridge
*the woodpile out back of the leemers'
*the mortuary of perpetual care
*this fugue state brick building where pete's younger brother is kept
*george's hudson hornet...29 coats of paint on it, give or take
*a flatbed truck
*cedar creek swamp
*a trailer surrounded by dogs where george/pete pick up a flatbed truck
*a purple double-wide trailer in cedar swamp where linga/george live and where they have the burning

characters, major minor scene setting so forth so on
*pete butcher...from south georgia, a place he is trying has been trying to shed, was in the u.s.m.c....tried to attend the university of florida but left after a short time, his folks dead in an accident w/a sunoco truck, his older brother not speaking to him, his younger brother in a place--crippled from pete hitting him between the eyes w/a hammer yay ago
*sarah leemer...the girl "who had brought pete home."
*a dirty little man passing blood (in san francisco where else)
*pete's mother father dead
*Jon...Jonathan, pete's crippled brother, is seven years old, damaged since the age of 4
*an older brother in the army
*max winekoff, 85-yr-old, walks and bends
*george, the burnt nigger, the burnt one, dickless one, linga's...pete's co-worker at the bay street paper company, rastafarian...george and linga will have been toether 10 years 3/4s-way into the story
*foreman at the paper company
*forklifts known by their numbers
*truck drivers
*two other men
*linga, rastafarian, obeah woman, bastard daughter of a wealthy white man, george and her from jamaica
*a black guy from georgia, usmc
*pete's landlady, mrs jackson
*a tutor (pete hired to shed his south georgia accent)
*everybody he knew back on the farm in south georgia
*3 jewish boys from miami beach
*his other blood kin
*a puffy, middle-aged drunk who snored w/his head down on the table (the cook's brother/ at the diner)
*a waitress stood near the grill reading a movie magazine
*the cook...and his old lady
*the boss (of the diner)
*construction workers (brdnghs)
*a small army of sullen black girls (brdnghse)
*henry sterns leemer, sarah's old man, cuts wood to sell to those who burn it winter
*two young men dressed in white
*gertrude leemer, sarah's mother, has had both breasts removed recently, been married to henry leemer for 43 years.
*cabby...taxi that pete/sarah use
*two men to wheel a bloody cot through
*whoever was on the cot groaned under the heavy gauze
*the man next to pete
*variously damaged people
*a nurse sat behind a desk
*a woman who held a screaming child
*somebody was wheeled in on an ambulance dolly
*a very small, yellow oriental
*a number of small children
*the parents of the children
*a pretty little girl w/a mouthful of silver braces
*a small group of men...first baptist's summer for christ's children...(as in the knockout artist...the teachers there in new orleans w/the pink tee-shirts)
*pete's mother's four brothers, his uncles, all dead before 40, hearts
*the young man behind the counter
*people turning on the sidewalk to stare at him
*uncles on his daddy's side of the family
*mr leemer's mama
*his grandparents' funerals
*a man w/a deeply sympathetic voice
*a nurse, a doctor
*a boy in the corps
*private tutoes...linga, england...so she speaks w/an english accent though she is jamaican
*a wealthy white man who is her father
*the funeral director, mortuary of perpetual care
*the mortician at the same place
*hundreds of guys in the corps smoke
*converts to linga's form of rastafarianism
*a prematurely balding young man (mortuary)
*two young black men stood on either side of a gurney (mortuary)
*a corpse
*a young lady back there (mortuary)
*men and women wearing gauze masks and rubber gloves
*corpses, men and women, were bedded down on shelves
*fugue state time passage, a man wearing khaki trousers and a sweater w/a red tie under it
*many men and women
*a long ward w/nothing but young children
*young black men
*daddy's laywer
*george's friend who has the flatbed...we never see him...out in the cedar swamp though we see the dogs around his trailer where they fetch the flatbed...george and pete

this is what i meant earlier, from the text this is
there's this scene where pete is carrying max winekoff who'd been bent double--he bends and walks, remember--pete started around the side of the porch to the stairs leading up the back of the boardinghouse, carrying mr. winekoff--still bent double--like a suitcase.
"you're carrying me just like a suitcase," mr. winekoff said.

context is all...here's another: oops...thought i indexed it...not. but there's more to follow. i'm up to page 181 here, bout a hundred to go.

update, finished reading this one again...last night, 9:30 p.m. e.s.t. 23 jun 13, sunday...i'd like to say hi to the n.s.a....to all others, greetings from the authoritarian-ship

seems like the first half of this story is a bit more polished than the 2nd part...funnier, too. satirical...and there is the gratifying cha-cha-cha-changes by part two. ask alfie. it's what it's all about. wish i had marked those...two other places like i noted above...but the above does provide a bit of the flavor crews uses. there's a sense that crews was as surprised by what his characters say and do as the reader. booga booga.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its clear to see that Crews was a big influence on Willy Vlautin, surely the best of today's writers in this genre. The protagonist here, Pete, is a typical down-on-his-luck character who is just about keeping his head above water. This lack of luck dates back to childhood when he accidentally hit his 4 year old brother with a hammer, pretty much destroying his family with one blow. Not long into the novel he loses his job at the paper company in Jacksonville where he lives, and even buys a harmonica on the way home to play some blues.
Characters like Pete are synonymous with southern gothic, because the key is that weighty as the subject matter is, the best writers manage to inject amiability and wit, even though the story does get darker.. Pete's luck appears to change when a shy woman seeking company invites him to dinner, but her mother, foul-mouthed and half-crazed Gertrude, is rushed to hospital with cancer, and her father meets an untimely demise.
Each of the souther gothic greats has there trademark though, and for Crews it is that very black hunour that shows itself at the most unexpected times; for example, Gertrude singing tenderly to her dead husband’s skull..

[Óscar Brox · Rating 4 out of 5]

La huida es el motor de la mayoría de narraciones de Harry Crews. La huida como deseo, como necesidad o (definitivamente) como imposibilidad. El caso es escapar, soñar con otra vida sin cicatrices ni heridas de las que nunca curan; anhelar una realidad que no haya sido devastada por la pobreza o la locura, por el dolor o por el peso de la culpa. En la que vivir no resulte tan insoportable, acechado por los restos de una familia disfuncional o por la sombra de unos actos que no tienen olvido ni, tal vez, perdón. A Pete Butcher, el protagonista de El amante de las cicatrices, le recorre el espinazo día sí y día también el recuerdo del desafortunado accidente que relegó a su hermano pequeño a la condición de idiota babeante; un martillazo en plena cara que acabó con todo: con sus padres, con su otro hermano y consigo mismo, que huyó de su Georgia natal para, tras un largo vagabundeo, recalar en Jacksonville.

Jacksonville es peor que el mismo infierno: un lugar pantanoso y pestilente, en el que incluso los yaks del zoo viven en sus carnes la devastación. Sin embargo, para Pete el calor insoportable y un trabajo sin cualificación en una empresa de papel son suficientes para ahogar la culpa que le ha arrastrado hacia ese cenagal. Para dejarla a un lado y liberarse momentáneamente de la presión. O eso cree hasta que se topa con Sarah y la familia Leemer. Hasta que penetra en ese microcosmos de enfermedad, muerte y locura del que no sabe si es mejor escapar o abrazarlo con todas sus fuerzas. Reconocer finalmente las cicatrices, todas ellas invisibles, que arrastra en sus pocos años de vida.

Quizá porque nació en un lugar terriblemente empobrecido, a Crews le preocupaba la idea de no conocer una vida en la que no faltase de nada. En la que las tragedias personales no sacudiesen los cimientos de la familia cada dos por tres. Por eso, la mayoría de sus personajes arrastran, como la sarna, ese recelo hacia sus lugares de origen; bien porque han escapado por piernas o porque aquello fue demasiado duro como para traerlo de nuevo a la mente. Esa desesperación tiene en El amante de las cicatrices su traslación más barroca y enloquecida, como una pesadilla inacabable en la que su personaje se sume hasta dejar de oponer resistencia. Crews coquetea con la historia de amor de manera enfermiza, con esa Sarah acosada por el fantasma del cáncer y por la vulnerabilidad de un hogar cuyas costuras están a punto de saltar. Con la desidia de un Pete que se echa en sus brazos para difuminar, para emborronar, la imagen patética de su hermano idiota. Y en cierto modo, salvando la sordidez de algunos pasajes, hay algo en Sarah que despierta su ternura. Un instinto protector o, a saber, la búsqueda desesperada de un nuevo cobijo.

Mientras la vida se agota, cada cual hace un pequeño esfuerzo por mantener ese último hilo que la mantiene conectada. De ahí que Pete trague con auténtico asco a la familia basura que le ha caído en desgracia y observe, con temor, al matrimonio de rastafaris que sobrevuela el nido familiar. A esa belleza mestiza, Linga, cuyo rostro está surcado de cicatrices. O a la Sra. Leemer, que apura sus últimos días sobre la tierra tras la brutal extirpación de sus pechos. En ese entorno vulgar, derrotado por las circunstancias, solo queda sitio para disimular y esconder los secretos. Para dejar de pensar en el martillazo fortuito y emprender una huida hacia delante que acumule nuevas experiencias. Algo que, con el humor más negro posible, Crews refleja a base de golpes bajos: he ahí al pobre Sr. Leemer convertido en una calavera tras un infarto del que no ha podido recuperarse, al desagradable vecino entrometido al que Pete desearía matar o a una Sarah que, tal vez por soledad, se pega a su piel como un insecto a la miel. Y es que El amante de las cicatrices es una historia de perdición, dolor y, sobre todo, soledad. De esa clase terrible de soledad que se aplica con tanta fiereza sobre la conciencia como la peor de las culpas. Que machaca una y otra vez el cerebro de Pete hasta rozar el KO. Que le ahoga, angustia, arrebata cualquier pizca de alegría para recordarle, día tras día, el monumental complejo de culpa que porta a cuestas. Tan grande que ni una cicatriz de esas dimensiones conseguiría borrarlo de sus entrañas.

Crews escribió una novela sobre deudas y dolores, sobre cómo ambos se apoderan de todos nosotros hasta llevarnos a una vida de simulación. De falsas apariencias. En la que incluso el paisaje más sórdido y enloquecido puede albergar un mundo feliz. Un amago de familia vertebrada alrededor del dolor y el miedo, la pérdida y la soledad. En general, a los personajes de sus novelas les queda poca cosa; ni siquiera sus palabras, a las que casi nadie presta atención. De ahí que la odisea de Pete Butcher sea una de las más desagradables, obligado a caer presa de un entorno familiar destruido para así purgar la destrucción de la que se siente culpable. Para la que no encuentra compasión, conmiseración o ternura. Solo la simulación de una vida entre pantanos, yaks raquíticos y moribundos que, en algún momento, le embotará lo suficiente el cerebro como para olvidarlo todo. Por eso, la coda de El amante de las cicatrices es como una sonrisa mellada o el ardor de estómago. Podría ser peor, pero a la larga aprendes a aguantarlo. Y, mientras, la vida pasa y queda menos para que se acabe.

Escrito en Détour

[Joel Swokowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both enjoyed this and was infuriated by this... AHHHH!!!

[Ned Andrew Solomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boy howdy, it sure is hard to review one of Harry Crews' books. I have read several, and to me they fall into two categories: fascinating and very tightly written (Childhood: The Biography of a Place; A Feast of Snakes; Body), and fascinating but seriously in need of several more edits before a better book emerges (The Mulching of America; An American Family: The Baby with the Curious Markings; The Gypsy's Curse). Unfortunately, for me, Scarlover fell into this second category.

However, I may not stop looking/hoping for another polished gem.

Known to have a very strong and often belligerent personality, and a "I'll do what I want to" attitude about life in general, I imagine Crews being highly resistant to editors in general. Having read the excellent Crews biography, Blood, Bone, and Marrow by Ted Geltner, we know some of his biggest fights were with publishers who weren't thrilled with his delivered novels that Crews deemed "complete as is".

Although Crews does a nice job here describing various quirky characters that interact with the protagonist, Pete Butcher, after 284 pages I never got a handle on who Pete was - his physical appearance, his motivations, his morals, etc. That left me with: who is this guy, and why should I care?

That said, the book has some very funny scenes and some laugh-out-loud lines of dialogue, which kept me on the hook. But 2/3 of the way through I was figuring out what other author's book I was going to read next.

[Dsdmona · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 estrellas

En algunos momentos se vuelve demasiado fantasiosa y se va un poco de la línea argumental que lleva todo el libro pero en general es una buena manera de entrar en el mundo de Crews. Seguiré al estela

[Anni Kramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

True to Harry Crews' southern Gothic style, this is a totally honest book. The protagonist Pete Butcher is running from a tragic accident that tore his family apart, so that he becomes a little introverted and avoids contacts. Until he meets Sarah Leemer and her family. In typical Crews style, the characters are all quirky, some of them bizarre, like George and his wife Linga (as Pete himself thinks: "How can someone be called Linga?"), but at the same time, you can't help thinking, yes, I know people who are like that. Except for George's heavy dialect (a lot of which I had trouble deciphering), the language is strong and honest, each character is well-formed, none of them melt into each other.
I did subtract one star for the slightly storybook development of Sarah, towards the end, she seemed to evolve into something a little saint-like.
Crews has been compared with Faulkner, McCullers and Flannery O'Connor, and even though he has his own distinct style, he can certainly stand equal to them.

[Robert Morgan Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains all the raunchy, madcap, farcical antics one expects from Crews. But behind that he's clearly reaching for literary glory and that's why this novel stands out as a watershed in his career. Crews himself was badly scarred by a childhood accident. He takes that complicated, painful autobiography and alchemizes it into something beyond crude fetishization. This novel tickles the balls of profundity.

[Clay Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not good

[Lena]

Not the crews I love. This was more gonzo than gothic. Super random and absurd. I’m sure there’s fun to be found if that’s your prerogative

[James Emery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harry Crews is an incredible author, and I feel a bit conflicted with such a low rating, but I couldn't make myself give any higher.

The prose is clear and the story flows, and up until about the midpoint of the plot I was somewhat on board, but then it came off the rails and by the resolution it seemed like Crews just wanted to be done with the novel as much as I did. Plot threads were left unfinished and characters just walked off stage to never return.

For a Crews' novel, it checked the boxes. Desolate and broken protagonist, a dark story arc, violent language and descriptions, but the characterization was awful and the plot waffled. It felt like Crews couldn't quite decide on what kind of story he was telling, bouncing between magical realism and farce and gritty life. When I thought, okay...here's the direction. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief of such characterization in order to allow for the plot, he then changes his mind.

Sometimes it's clear to me that late in an author's career, a publisher just wants a book out there. Just give them something, anything. Scar Lover felt like the result of that.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could I stop reading it? No. Was it a good book? No. This book will probably end up being a "classic" at some point. However, anybody who has read my book reviews knows that I don't put much stock in books that other people call "classics!" Classic literature is just weird, weird, weird! This book's plot was unbelievable on every level! The short amount of time in which everything supposedly happens is complete crap! The author throws a mismatched bunch of unlikable characters together and tries to create a story out of them. His characters are left floundering for purpose! Not surprising the author is a college professor! Gee, I wonder if he teaches classic literature. (Smirk) This book's darkness is it's downfall. The only reason I kept reading was I hoped it would get better! IT DIDN'T!

[Andy Hendricks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing ever ends

[MARCO · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gran novela a cargo del señor Crews. Una mirada limpia, directa y enriquecedora sobre algunos personajes del sur de Estados Unidos. A ratos, aguda, a ratos cómica, a ratos en carne viva, pero elseñor Crew siempre mira a los ojos cuando narra lo que sucede a sus pesonajes. Excelente la sensibilidad del autor para meternos en su universo de calor, muerte, rastafaris, carne y chismorreos.

[Neven · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really goofy outing by Crews—full of good lines and scenes, but just a bit too quirky overall to add up to a solid novel. If it's the only book of his you read, try again; his style here is markedly different.

[Jake Kasten · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my second Crews novel and I’m all-in now. His characters are all so vivid and imaginative. There’s a layer of grime coating everything, but the love story at the center is able to shine through. You don’t want to live in one of Crews’ worlds, but it’s a good thing we get to peek in.

[Troy Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Crews’ novel I didn’t find extremely difficult to put down. One of my favorite aspects of his writing is the dialogue but here it felt stilted at times and repetitive throughout.

[A R · Rating 2 out of 5]

This review is based on one I made two years ago when I gave up on this. I have recently finished it off.

From the off, I concede that I have failed to finish this book (until now). At around page 230 I told my partner that I really wasn't enjoying it, so she asked me why I was still reading it. I generally always like to finish a book; you have invested time and effort and want to reach the payoff. I will return and finish this book at some point, but I found it lacking in comparison to his other works that I have read.

I discovered Harry Crews through a university module on Southern American literature, which I really enjoyed. A Feast of Snakes was an excellent novel in the Southern Gothic vein. I also read Car, which was pretty nuts but I did find lots to enjoy in it. Scar Lover was a different reading experience for me, and not really a positive one. There were parts and ideas that I did enjoy, but overall I found it too contrived, trying too hard to be outrageous and some of the characters rankled me. To tell the truth, I simply didn't believe in them. I could not warm to key characters, as much as I wanted to enjoy the story because I do like Crews as a person and as a writer.

The story starts fairly slowly, but does draw you in. Pete, the main character, had a conflicted and interesting back-story which I will not spoil. However, his outbursts, unnecessarily foul language and general disdain became tiresome for me. I'm no prude but I felt the obscenities were far and away too much. The woman across the road, Sarah, is also compelling. Their unlikely romance is one of the strengths of the narrative. Then comes one of my main issues: the Rastafarianism and love of all things ganja related. Pete's work-mate is rather over-the-top in his speech and actions, but I did warm to him. His wife however, was too strange for me. I just didn't really 'get' her, yet I didn't dislike her enough or find her weird enough to enjoy reading about her. My favourite character is Max Winekoff, who is brilliant. A positive, overly-active octogenarian, he spontaneously bursts into stretches between his long daily walks. He walks around spreading secrets and generally being an absolute busybody. What I loved about him was that he was amusing, likeable and most importantly, believable. His presence improved the book considerably and I genuinely found him to be one of the best characters in any book I've read.

The plot is odd, as you would expect. For me, it gets too odd. I foresaw some of what would happen, but felt it too forced. It didn't seem the way any rational person would act, though in the author's defence that is the point. The other main weakness is the dialogue. Some parts were far too elongated; people discussed nothing really for prolonged pages and that caused me to lose interest. Coupled with the fact that probably three of the main characters I couldn't really take to, this turned me off reading Scar Lover. Although Pete has a difficult back-story, he was still too inconsiderate and vulgar for me, often making brutal remarks that are totally uncalled for and without provocation. I needed to like him more, which I would have were he not such an awful person most of the time. Crews tries to weave the theme of 'scars' into the story and it works to a degree but it felt a bit too obvious and forced at times.

In short, if you are a fan you could pick this up. It is okay and some people seem to have enjoyed it more than me. Personally, I don't think it is one of his better books but I am going to read The Gospel Singer and Naked In Garden Hills (sitting on my bookshelf) before deciding whether to buy more of Crews' novels. I anticipate that this will not deter me from reading his other books.

[Shelley · Rating 1 out of 5]

It took me Seven LONG days to get through Scar Lover, then another Nine days to write this review because I was dreading it. Ugh! Do I give Scar Lover a 1 or 2? What do I give a book that took me a whole week to read? And then thought the first half was so bizarre, and by the second half I was also bored. Decision made: It's a 1.

I'm pretty sure I haven't read a book by Harry Crews before and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to after this. It was so wracked and over the top, I couldn't believe what I was reading. For the first part of the book, I was telling my youngest about scenes that happened that couldn't possibly had been the outcomes if they were to happen in real life. My son's reaction: Tris was sitting on the ground and fell over in laughter slapping the floor over and over again. My reaction when I was reading: mouth hung open. So here are two examples, so spoiler alert - stop reading - warning - a 85 man is thrown down a set of stairs and he gets up as if he wasn't thrown down the stairs and tells Pete that wasn't a very nice thing to do to him. Oh really? Another time this same 85 year old was picked up by, you guessed it, Pete, and he throws the old man into an alligator pen at the zoo. The old man, once again, gets up and climbs over the fence unscratched. I get it, it's a story, but it's awful and not funny.

This story takes place in Jacksonville, Florida. That's where I've currently been living the last 5 years. The Jacksonville Zoo plays a big part in the first part of the book. I don't live too far and yet I've never been; not interested. While I don't know if Pete's comment, "the St. Johns River must be the dirtiest river in the country" anymore (this book was written in 1992, and it's presently 2021) there are still pockets of areas while driving on the highway that make you want to hurl if you aren't holding your breathe because the smell of raw human waste is powerful, especially in Florida's heat!

Pete is the main character; he's is a nasty fellow. He has anger issues, he also swears a lot. He's mean too. He can blow up when you don't even see it coming, for no reason and he can get violent, a lot. I wouldn't want to be around him. He works at The Bay Street Paper Company unloading stacks of cellophane from boxcars alongside George, better known as "Burnt N........" I thought good lord, we're going there in this story are we?! Ugh And I didn't appreciate the author making this part of his story either: "He'd met Linga's kind before. She needed to be raped and then killed." No and Never should that type of thinking be included in any book!!!!

He lives in a boarding house, so does Mr. Winekroff, a 85 year old man who spends a lot of his time bent in half. He walks the 2 miles to the Jacksonville Zoo every day and home again to see his favourite animal, the Yak. Yeah, I know weird and weird.

There's Sarah Leemer, the woman who lives next door with her parents and they start a romance which the whole thing was weird and I thought where this come from? How did it develop when I didn't even see it happening until it was just there and then it's just awful and no way I'm convinced they are a couple. There are her parents too that play a big part in this story as well and that ends up weird with, another spoiler, the father dying and what the mother does thereafter is creepy.

As I mentioned before, there's George and there's also his girlfriend or wife, Linga, and that gets, if you guessed it, weird. But towards the end they kinda disappear and that's weird too.

This story was not for me.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s better to burn out than to fade away. Or so sang Neil Young in his classic song “My My Hey Hey”, a tribute to Sid Vicious even though the name is changed to Johnny Rotten to fit the rhyme scheme of the lyrics. So when reading the earlier works of Harry Crews, you might be forgiven for thinking the Southern Gothic master of grit lit would be more likely to burn out. He came from a rough town and lived a rough life on a steady diet of whiskey and cocaine. But when reading Scar Lover, one of his last novels, you find that he faded away instead.

This novel is full of scars in a similar way to how his earlier novel A Feast of Snakes use ubiquitous snakes as a literary device. The main character, Pete Butcher, doesn’t have any visible scars. Instead he has a self-inflicted mental scar due to an accident when he hit his younger brother Jon in the forehead with a hammer, leaving a scar there and causing permanent brain damage to the poor kid, kind of like an unintentional lobotomy. Jon got put away in an institution and their parents died in a fire while trying to sell a pig to raise enough money to support Jon. So Pete blames himself for the demise of the family. He becomes sullen and withdrawn, indulging in self-hatred, pushing away anyone who tries to get close to him. An elderly man named Mr. Winekoff who is kindly and friendly, but also nosy and a bit daft tries to bring Pete out of himself and Pete doesn’t react with kindness. But Mr. Winekoff (Is that meant to sound like “wank off”?) serves as a bridge between Pete and the family next door where an attractive young woman learns about Pete from Winekoff’s gossip. Her name is Sarah and she introduces herself to Pete. Later they fall in love and he moves in with her and her parents, a hard working and honest man named Henry Leemer who makes a living by chopping wood and her mother Gertrude Leemer who returns from the hospital after having her breasts amputated because of cancer.

When Henry Leemer dies, Sarah and her mother are faced with the dilemma of what to do with his body and how to use their inheritance money. This is when George and Linga become important to the story. George is Pete’s friend and collegue; together they share a miserable job unloading freight cars. George is Jamaican and has horseshoe scars branded across his back which he believes give him magical powers. His wife Linga is an obeah woman and cult leader with colorful, decorative scars all over her face. I can’t tell if they are actually tattoos or not as Harry Crews doesn’t explain it in much detail. Anyhow, Gertrude Leemer decides to put Linga in charge of the funeral ceremony and the disposal of Harry Leemer’s body. Unfortunately, Linga is a grifter and Gertrude Leemer has also put her in charge of managing the inheritance money. On the good side though, Linga has also agreed to help reunite Pete with his lost brother Jon.

So far so good. The character development is strong. It deals with flawed but realistic people who have realistic dilemmas. Pete is a broken man but he isn’t beyond repair and Sarah has the strength of character to help him with what he needs. Henry and Gertrude are unique and strong in their own ways as are George and Linga.

But the narrative kind of fizzles out when Linga enters the story. Initially Harry’s corpse had been taken to the morgue, but Gertrude decides she wants to cremate him herself. So Linga and her husband George take Pete to the funeral parlor to retrieve Mr. Leemer’s dead body. For some reason I can’t comprehend, Crews stretches this segment out to an unnecessary length. They go on a long car ride to the funeral home, take lots of breaks to smoke weed, and carry the body out to the car. In fact, the narrative stops for their pot smoking breaks so many times it becomes redundant without serving any useful purpose in the story. For all its detail and page count, this stretch of prose doesn’t enhance either the character development or the plot in any way that is necessary. We do learn how domineering Linga can be and how she uses threats and intimidation to get her way, but this could have been said more effectively with less wordage. The same can be said for the funeral ceremony they hold in the swamp. It’s all a bit morbid and macabre, but Crews doesn’t overdo those elements in order to keep the characters’ humanity in the forefront. But again, this passage is extended unnecessarily so much so that it would have had a more powerful impact if it had been shorter.

In the end, all conflicts get confronted and Harry Crews demonstrates how a woman who is ordinary but strong and sincere can work the magic that is needed to bring out the best in a man, namely her future husband Pete Butcher. In contrast, Linga, the exotic obeah woman who practices magic, is nothing but a money grubbing leech and her magic is nothing but a smokescreen to hide her true nature. Crews shows us how the real power of a woman is in the everyday world right in front of our eyes. It doesn’t dazzle the senses, but it is potent and it is there if we look for it. The biggest problem I had with all this was that the story has no real confrontational climax at the end. As the story goes on, it is clear that Pete doesn’t believe in Linga’s magic and sees her for the con artist she is, but he never actually gets into a fight with her over it and the end of the story is weak as a result.

Scar Lover is obviously the work of an aging author. It doesn’t have the manic energy or the shock value of Harry Crews’ earlier novels. But you can tell he has grown as a person by the time he wrote it. While the themes and content are more mature, the actual prose suffers from a lack of energy. It’s still Harry Crews and his fans will probably find something to like here, but it doesn’t live up to his earlier works. It’s best if you read some of those before picking this one up.

[Toni Bautista · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry Crews (1935-2012), natal de Alma, Georgia, nos una novela… ¿romántica? Lo que sí está claro es que el libro trata sobre las cicatrices, físicas y metafóricas, y esa parte de Estados Unidos y parias que él conocía tan bien.

Pete Butcher, nuestro atormentado protagonista, es explotado por su jefe cabrón y trabaja cargando y desencargando bobinas de celofán de camiones hasta caer rendido para luego cobrar 1$ la hora. Allí pasa los días junto a su compañero rastafari (importante para la trama) Yo-Yo (George). Un día, camino al curro, Peter se enamorara de Sarah de manera enfermiza. Así pues, la historia se nos presenta, desde un primer momento, como lo que es, una novela llena de personajes irreales y caricaturizados pero creíbles e hilarantes. Cada miembro del elenco representa un tipo de “pena”, un tipo de herida, una u otra cicatriz y, al fin y al cabo, un tipo de persona. El cínico y agobiado Peter Butcher busca la huida, mandar todo a tomar por saco, y en ese camino vive experiencias a base de humor negro. También amará las cosas rotas, las imperfecciones de los seres humanos que los convierte en atracciones fatalmente bellas a la vez que repulsivas. Es un amante de cicatrices, y esas, que todos los personajes poseen, son las deudas a pagar, las piedras en la mochila con las que cargamos.
La novela tiene los elementos típicos de los dramas sureños góticos y recuerda otras obras en la manera en que personajes tan extremadamente ficticios nos pueden resultar tan extrañamente familiares. Lo mismo con la suciedad, tanto literal como metafórica.

Escrito con muy buen ritmo, cabe señalar que, después de una primera mitad del libro muy potente, el último tercio (coincidiendo con la conversión/transformación del personaje) me ha resultado un poquito lento, con muchos diálogos y situaciones que rompían el ritmo y alteraban el estilo e identidad de los personajes. Crews toma esa decisión y, no obstante, merece la pena pasarlas y entenderlas por el gran final.
Muy recomendable para amantes de McCarthy, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Flannery O’Connor, Faulkner, de los dramas sureños, de las batallas perdidas, o de las cosas rotas.

[Sarah Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much somewhere in the 2000s when I first read it, and enjoyed it re-reading it. Depending on how you look at it it is semi-realistic (Linga, the Obeah Jamaican woman who is a central figure is at least unusual) but it is in any event a gripping redemption story of a veteran of the second world war who has alienated himself from his family by, accidentally, severely injuring his four-year-old brother. The book is also very funny. The mother of his love-interest has had a double-mastectomy, and, during my most recent reading of the novel, it was interesting to me to link the mother's fury and hatred of her husband, and possible insanity, to how my mother felt about her own totally unnecessary radical mastectomy which took place when I was fifteen.
I didn't enjoy Harry Crews' other books, which are more realistic, at least not in the 2000s, but to an extent this is because I have a strong genre preference for science fiction/fantasy. I can tolerate a good deal of violence, and even vulgarity, within those genres, but I found Crews' realistic novels both vulgar and violent. Then too, I never finished any of them. So, you know, perhaps this is not a definitive condemnation.

[Randy Rhody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike his other books, Car and Body, I can’t recommend Scar Lover. Even the title is an awkward fit with the story.

Book One. A readable small town everyday story. Writing you can read without overthinking. Just the strangeness of the ordinary with what I’ve come to recognize as the trademark Crews varieties of horror, improbability, farfetchedness, and wise observation.

Book Two. What is intended to be rising action bogs down, even with the usual bizarre Crews events. Not enough ground is covered to justify the number of pages. Worse, the characters speak and act out of character and I wondered if I was reading the same book I began.

[Ferran Bals · Rating 2 out of 5]

No lo recomiendo.

No entiendo bien el desarrollo de los personajes de este libro. Está partido en Libro I y Libro II, y hay una clara diferencia entre los personajes entre uno y otro, sin justificar. No es que haya un salto temporal entre ellos, pero a partir del Libro II muchos de los personajes empiezan a comportarse de una manera muy diferente, como si hubieran introducido unos y luego los hubiera reemplazado por otros.

A nivel argumental se va dibujando una especie de plan para hacerse con el dinero de uno de los personajes pero no acaba de cristalizar en algo real, es más una especie de presentimiento que tiene el protagonista, pero no se dan muchas pistas al respecto, por no mencionar que el libro termina y tampoco se resuelve.

He leído bastante Harry Crews, pero tengo al impresión de que estoy encadenando novelas malas, entre esta y El Artista del KO.