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All We Need of Hell: A Novel
Chronicles the story of Duffy Deeter, a Florida lawyer obsessed with fitness and images of death; his wife Tish, a platinum blond having an affair with his law partner, and Duffy's girlfriend Marvella, a coke-snorting nymphet
162 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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698 people want to read
About the author
Harry Crews
68 books647 followersHarry 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
August 11, 2020
I’ve read a lot of Crews, and I plan to read them all. This one felt like a long short story (in fact I recall scenes from in it in Florida Frenzy). This a hard edged, masculine, bizarre and crazed adrenaline and testosterone-fueled romp. It begins with our protagonist, the wildly conflicted Duffy Deeter, on top of his young girlfriend, controlling his climax by filling his head with pictures of holocaust corpses. You get the idea. Duffy pushes himself to the limits of physical endurance, then past it, embracing pain and mutilation as a strange form of relief. He encounters Tump, the Miami Dolphins football hero, who becomes his mentor by calling Duff out of his confused Zen philosophizing (think the Nietzsche reading Otto in A fish Called Wanda) and helping him reconnect with his estranged wife and overly plump son. The son metamorphizes into a hilarious mimic of Tump, to the chagrin of Duffy who has never been able to get through to him. Tump is a free spirit, whose confidence and god-like physical gifts turn all those around him to followers, and the ending is an oddly cozy ending.
Crews is hilarious and his prose is just loaded and barrels down the track at a 100 mile an hour. The sights and smells will be shocking, there will be torn flesh and blood and body fluids all over the place. At first this story reminded me of Feast of Snakes (what with the washed-up athlete with misogynist tendencies) but, mostly it was similar to The Gypsy’s Curse with the calisthenics and fixation on the male body, physical fitness and deep exposes on physiology and muscle isolation. But this slim book does not measure up to the gravitas or plot depth of either of those. This was written in the 80s, and is packed with cocaine binges, pill popping, whiskey chugging, insane midnight misadventure and stalking by a most unreliable and mostly demented narrator. The story is told from his demented mind, thus his conversion to sanity after he requites his jealous rage and deep-seated self-hatred. It is a journey of discovery, and a ton of fun, but just not substantial enough to be a stand-alone novel. I hope this is the only Crews I give 3 stars, but it is just a trifle thin to do otherwise.
Crews is like crack and candy, hard to stop until you blast through it all in a go, slightly nauseated afterwards with a need for a cleansing.
Crews is hilarious and his prose is just loaded and barrels down the track at a 100 mile an hour. The sights and smells will be shocking, there will be torn flesh and blood and body fluids all over the place. At first this story reminded me of Feast of Snakes (what with the washed-up athlete with misogynist tendencies) but, mostly it was similar to The Gypsy’s Curse with the calisthenics and fixation on the male body, physical fitness and deep exposes on physiology and muscle isolation. But this slim book does not measure up to the gravitas or plot depth of either of those. This was written in the 80s, and is packed with cocaine binges, pill popping, whiskey chugging, insane midnight misadventure and stalking by a most unreliable and mostly demented narrator. The story is told from his demented mind, thus his conversion to sanity after he requites his jealous rage and deep-seated self-hatred. It is a journey of discovery, and a ton of fun, but just not substantial enough to be a stand-alone novel. I hope this is the only Crews I give 3 stars, but it is just a trifle thin to do otherwise.
Crews is like crack and candy, hard to stop until you blast through it all in a go, slightly nauseated afterwards with a need for a cleansing.
March 25, 2021
I might regret giving this 5 stars, but this book seriously got me. Here’s why:
1. I had ZERO idea what I was walking into. And then I was hit in the face by odd characters getting mixed up in odd situations. And it was so much fun. And also a bit tragic at the same time.
2. I have never felt forced to update my Goodreads as I read a book, but this book had me in disbelief pretty much every time I read it. I absolutely had to share it.
3. I laughed a lot!
4. The end may appear to seamlessly wrap up, but the only reason it’s seamless is because it doesn’t wrap up. No issues are solved, and in the most beautiful way. Crews simply allows the idea that things will be fine to work instead of forcing us to read how things end up fine. It was beautiful and, yeah, it made me cry.
5. I dog eared this puppy so much.
6. I love reading about messed up people. Every single character in this story is undoubtedly messed up. And watching them love each other and hate each other in their messed up ways—I hate that I find it romantic.
Haha yeah, I don’t regret it. It’s good. And messed up. And I loved it!
1. I had ZERO idea what I was walking into. And then I was hit in the face by odd characters getting mixed up in odd situations. And it was so much fun. And also a bit tragic at the same time.
2. I have never felt forced to update my Goodreads as I read a book, but this book had me in disbelief pretty much every time I read it. I absolutely had to share it.
3. I laughed a lot!
4. The end may appear to seamlessly wrap up, but the only reason it’s seamless is because it doesn’t wrap up. No issues are solved, and in the most beautiful way. Crews simply allows the idea that things will be fine to work instead of forcing us to read how things end up fine. It was beautiful and, yeah, it made me cry.
5. I dog eared this puppy so much.
6. I love reading about messed up people. Every single character in this story is undoubtedly messed up. And watching them love each other and hate each other in their messed up ways—I hate that I find it romantic.
Haha yeah, I don’t regret it. It’s good. And messed up. And I loved it!
September 11, 2010
i was at the university of florida in the 80s when harry was working on this one (as well as the knockout artist) and he read a bit from both stories (in manuscript form). he read the scene where the old man and the boy are flying that imaginary fighter, sitting side by side, and then the woman comes by and tells the old man it's time to put it in the hangar. been...23? years since i read this one. all of harry's stories are worth a read.
January 24, 2025
4,5. Me lo he pasado muy bien leyéndolo. Tal vez no sea un NOVELÓN pero es altamente adictiva y sus personajes decadentemente inolvidables
December 29, 2022
All We Need of Hell is another easy win for Florida’s definitive writers’ writer. It’s about a status/fitness obsessed lawyer whose life is falling apart around him. His wife is sleeping with his partner, his son is disappointingly uninterested in athletics, and he just lost what should have been an easy case. He’s the sort of superficially perfect, zen-obsessed, secretly sadomasochistic yuppie archetype that popped up in a lot of 80s literature (he wouldn’t be out of place in American Psycho), but one of Crews’ great strengths is taking characters who other writers would reduce to a few eccentricities and giving them great depth and humanity. By the end of this book, you’re rooting the protagonist, which already sets it apart from a lot of those other 80s novels. One beautiful chapter is dedicated to the protagonist’s father’s PTSD, and it’s written with graceful compassion that extends to the main character and his mother as well. We also see what feels like a genuine and easy camaraderie form between the main character and a football player he first meets when they’re beating the shit out of each other on a handball court. It’s honestly one of the more convincing portrayals of friendship I read this year. Crews was great at what he did, and while this wouldn’t necessarily be the greatest starting point when reading him, it’s a worthy addition to his bibliography.
October 20, 2024
If you’ve read Harry Crews’ novel A Feast of Snakes you will be familiar with Duffy Deeter. In that story, he befriends Joe Lon and Willard as they walk around the campground where Deeter’s winnebago is parked. They spot him as he sets up a bench and begins lifting weights. They ask if they can join in and they take turns chugging liters of whiskey between bench presses before embarking on a series of misadventures. Duffy Deeter is there to attend the annual rattlesnake hunt. He leaves his wife behind in Florida and brings a female cocaine sniffing graduate student along for sexual entertainment. That same Duffy Deeter is brought back in All We Need of Hell as the protagonist of the story rather than a supporting character.
In fact, the opening paragraphs in All We Need of Hell are lifted directly, almost word for word, from A Feast of Snakes, the big difference being that the name of the cocaine sniffing coed nymphette has been changed to Marvella. We are immediately transported inside Duffy’s mind as he fantasizes about violence from World War II while having sex with her in his mobile home. This time he isn’t in rural Georgia though, he is right near home in Gainesville, Florida where he works as a lawyer and lives with his wife Tish and their son Felix. Duffy is athletic and obsessed with physical fitness while his son prefers to eat junk food and watch TV. Tish is a woman he just can’t relate to. She can’t relate to him either. He tries to teach them about Zen Buddhism and Taosim by holding meditation sessions in their backyward and then making Felix work out in his private gym. None of this is going well for any of them. Tish is also having an affair with Duffy’s law partner, the chronically irritating Jert McPhester. How could you possibly respect a man with a name like that?
Duffy Deeter knows his life is on the wrong track, but he has no idea how to set things to right. He has a hilarious confrontation with Jert which I won’t describe here. I’ll just ruin it for you if I do, but I will say it involves Duffy crushing Jert’s testicles. Later, in another hilarious scene, Duffy breaks into his own house while Tish and Jert are having sex in his bed. I won’t spoil this one either, but it does involve a paddle and Jert’s ass. An especially clever passage happens afterwards when Tish calls Duffy and begs him to come home because she thinks a burglar had broken into their house. When Duffy arrives, the police are there and Duffy gloats because he knows what really happened and he watches as Tish and Jert, who don’t know the truth, lie to the police. It is one of those times when only the protagonist and the reader know the truth while the others in the room don’t. Harry Crews pulls this literary trick off perfectly; by making the truth a secret that is shared between Duffy and yourself, you get drawn closer to him as a character.
After hitting rock bottom, a new friend appears in Duffy’s life, an African American professional football player named Tump. That name must mean something special to Crews because he also uses it as the name of the football coach in A Feast of Snakes. This is a man who understands how low and confused Duffy is and he goes about helping him solve his problems. Tump’s first approach is to make friends with Duffy’s son Felix. The two of them get along perfectly so Duffy drives them off in his winnebago, they go pick up Marvella, and the four of them go to a football field to run around in the moonlight all night. Tump brings Felix out of his shell and Duffy realizes he doesn’t know how to relate to his son.
There is another clever twist here because Tump embodies what Duffy thinks he believes. Duffy is deeply into Eastern mysticism and spends time meditating and reciting mantras, but he doesn’t understand what any of it means. He uses it to build an armor around himself and he also uses it as a means of controlling his wife and son by trying to teach the philosophy to them. In his mind, he is trying to connect with them, but it all fails. What Duffy fails to understand is that Zen and Taosim are all about letting life happen and not being in control. This is what Tump embodies; he gets through to Felix because he lets their friendship happen rather than forcing it. Tump is so successful at life because he always goes with the flow. As Duffy watches them tossing the football around, he realizes how proud he is of Felix and also sees what he has been doing wrong. There is another poignant moment in this passage when Tump tells Duffy how important mothers are. You can literally see Duffy shrink even though Crews doesn’t specifically write that. Duffy wants to be the head and the leader of his family, but this desire is so overblown that he fails to see the value in his own wife. He shrivels because he knows Tump is right. This humanizes him because he realizes his own weakness and his own mistake at this point. Rather than reacting with the expected bluster, he instead admits to himself that it is time to change.
Since Duffy is having an existential crisis, he begins to look back over his life and think about his relationship with his parents. He visits his widowed, agoraphobic mother who lives in a dark apartment with the curtains permanently draw and fishbowls on the shelves with about half of them being home to dead goldfish floating on the surfaces. She insists on feeding all of them so he wonders about her sanity. More importantly, he revives memories of his father, an air force pilot who lost his sanity after fighting Nazis in World War II. Although his father was loving and quite a lot of fun, Duffy locates the source of all his problems in their relationship.
By the end of the book, Tump has helped Duffy repair his relationships with everybody in his family including Tish. Duffy comes to the realization that he feels a need to be in control because he fears vulnerability. This is rooted in his desire to avoid going insane like his fathe. Both Duffy and Tish admit that they don’t know each other and agree to begin again. They also agree that neither of them are to blame for their failing marriage. Sometimes things don’t work out because that is part of being human. And you know what happens next. You should know from experience that the making out after making up is the sweetest, most delicious love making you can make.
Aside from all the amazing plot twists, narrative tension, and dark humor, this novel succeeds because it does such a great job with character studies. From the start, we are immediately plunged into the strange and terrible mind of Duffy who instantly becomes an unforgettable character. Despite being the kind of person I wouldn’t want to know, he turns out to be admirable for his determination, his passion, and the deviously twisted logic of his complex mind. A writer is great when they can make you see the world from the point of view of someone you wouldn’t ordinarily understand and Harry Crews succeeds brilliantly in this. He is also a great character because he subverts our expectations. Since he is such an alpha male type of guy to the hilt, you would expect him to react to his situation in a less sympathetic way. But instead he is man enough to admit his faults, confront his weaknesses, and attempt to make amends for what he has done wrong. In Duffy Deeter, and in Tump too, Harry Crews has tapped into what it means to be a real man. A large part of that means being responsible as well as tough. There has never been a literary character as unique as Duffy Deeter and there never will be again.
And something has to be said about Tump since he is such a central figure in the plot. He is the deus ex machina that arranges for everything to work out right in the end. Being fun, insightful, big hearted, charismatic, and honest, he is nothing but lovable and in many ways he really steals the show. You feel like you get to know him on an intimate level. He is eternally optimistic, but he isn’t looking at the world through rose colored glasses since all the good he sees in other people is really there. Everybody, that is, except for Jert McPhester. You just can’t admire a guy whose name is Jert McPhester. But I fear that describing Tump in too much detail here would be an injustice. You have to read the book to experience him for yourself.
All We Need Of Hell isn’t as grotesque as Harry Crews’ earlier novels, but it does have its moments where it feels like someone is hammering a nail into your funny bone. It is also the work of a more mature Harry Crews with less shock value and transgression and a lot more humanity. I haven’t read all of his novels, but for now I might gamble and say that this could be his most polished work with all the right elements of character development, plot progression, and its mixture of complexity and accessibility. It is entertaining, but also deep and dark enough to be cathartic. Any writer who can pull off such an optimistic ending that is also believable has a lot going for them. It’s an underrated novel by an underrated writer and I’m surprized it hasn’t been made into a movie. It would be good as the kind of indy, art house American family comedy-dramas that Alexander Payne is known for.
In fact, the opening paragraphs in All We Need of Hell are lifted directly, almost word for word, from A Feast of Snakes, the big difference being that the name of the cocaine sniffing coed nymphette has been changed to Marvella. We are immediately transported inside Duffy’s mind as he fantasizes about violence from World War II while having sex with her in his mobile home. This time he isn’t in rural Georgia though, he is right near home in Gainesville, Florida where he works as a lawyer and lives with his wife Tish and their son Felix. Duffy is athletic and obsessed with physical fitness while his son prefers to eat junk food and watch TV. Tish is a woman he just can’t relate to. She can’t relate to him either. He tries to teach them about Zen Buddhism and Taosim by holding meditation sessions in their backyward and then making Felix work out in his private gym. None of this is going well for any of them. Tish is also having an affair with Duffy’s law partner, the chronically irritating Jert McPhester. How could you possibly respect a man with a name like that?
Duffy Deeter knows his life is on the wrong track, but he has no idea how to set things to right. He has a hilarious confrontation with Jert which I won’t describe here. I’ll just ruin it for you if I do, but I will say it involves Duffy crushing Jert’s testicles. Later, in another hilarious scene, Duffy breaks into his own house while Tish and Jert are having sex in his bed. I won’t spoil this one either, but it does involve a paddle and Jert’s ass. An especially clever passage happens afterwards when Tish calls Duffy and begs him to come home because she thinks a burglar had broken into their house. When Duffy arrives, the police are there and Duffy gloats because he knows what really happened and he watches as Tish and Jert, who don’t know the truth, lie to the police. It is one of those times when only the protagonist and the reader know the truth while the others in the room don’t. Harry Crews pulls this literary trick off perfectly; by making the truth a secret that is shared between Duffy and yourself, you get drawn closer to him as a character.
After hitting rock bottom, a new friend appears in Duffy’s life, an African American professional football player named Tump. That name must mean something special to Crews because he also uses it as the name of the football coach in A Feast of Snakes. This is a man who understands how low and confused Duffy is and he goes about helping him solve his problems. Tump’s first approach is to make friends with Duffy’s son Felix. The two of them get along perfectly so Duffy drives them off in his winnebago, they go pick up Marvella, and the four of them go to a football field to run around in the moonlight all night. Tump brings Felix out of his shell and Duffy realizes he doesn’t know how to relate to his son.
There is another clever twist here because Tump embodies what Duffy thinks he believes. Duffy is deeply into Eastern mysticism and spends time meditating and reciting mantras, but he doesn’t understand what any of it means. He uses it to build an armor around himself and he also uses it as a means of controlling his wife and son by trying to teach the philosophy to them. In his mind, he is trying to connect with them, but it all fails. What Duffy fails to understand is that Zen and Taosim are all about letting life happen and not being in control. This is what Tump embodies; he gets through to Felix because he lets their friendship happen rather than forcing it. Tump is so successful at life because he always goes with the flow. As Duffy watches them tossing the football around, he realizes how proud he is of Felix and also sees what he has been doing wrong. There is another poignant moment in this passage when Tump tells Duffy how important mothers are. You can literally see Duffy shrink even though Crews doesn’t specifically write that. Duffy wants to be the head and the leader of his family, but this desire is so overblown that he fails to see the value in his own wife. He shrivels because he knows Tump is right. This humanizes him because he realizes his own weakness and his own mistake at this point. Rather than reacting with the expected bluster, he instead admits to himself that it is time to change.
Since Duffy is having an existential crisis, he begins to look back over his life and think about his relationship with his parents. He visits his widowed, agoraphobic mother who lives in a dark apartment with the curtains permanently draw and fishbowls on the shelves with about half of them being home to dead goldfish floating on the surfaces. She insists on feeding all of them so he wonders about her sanity. More importantly, he revives memories of his father, an air force pilot who lost his sanity after fighting Nazis in World War II. Although his father was loving and quite a lot of fun, Duffy locates the source of all his problems in their relationship.
By the end of the book, Tump has helped Duffy repair his relationships with everybody in his family including Tish. Duffy comes to the realization that he feels a need to be in control because he fears vulnerability. This is rooted in his desire to avoid going insane like his fathe. Both Duffy and Tish admit that they don’t know each other and agree to begin again. They also agree that neither of them are to blame for their failing marriage. Sometimes things don’t work out because that is part of being human. And you know what happens next. You should know from experience that the making out after making up is the sweetest, most delicious love making you can make.
Aside from all the amazing plot twists, narrative tension, and dark humor, this novel succeeds because it does such a great job with character studies. From the start, we are immediately plunged into the strange and terrible mind of Duffy who instantly becomes an unforgettable character. Despite being the kind of person I wouldn’t want to know, he turns out to be admirable for his determination, his passion, and the deviously twisted logic of his complex mind. A writer is great when they can make you see the world from the point of view of someone you wouldn’t ordinarily understand and Harry Crews succeeds brilliantly in this. He is also a great character because he subverts our expectations. Since he is such an alpha male type of guy to the hilt, you would expect him to react to his situation in a less sympathetic way. But instead he is man enough to admit his faults, confront his weaknesses, and attempt to make amends for what he has done wrong. In Duffy Deeter, and in Tump too, Harry Crews has tapped into what it means to be a real man. A large part of that means being responsible as well as tough. There has never been a literary character as unique as Duffy Deeter and there never will be again.
And something has to be said about Tump since he is such a central figure in the plot. He is the deus ex machina that arranges for everything to work out right in the end. Being fun, insightful, big hearted, charismatic, and honest, he is nothing but lovable and in many ways he really steals the show. You feel like you get to know him on an intimate level. He is eternally optimistic, but he isn’t looking at the world through rose colored glasses since all the good he sees in other people is really there. Everybody, that is, except for Jert McPhester. You just can’t admire a guy whose name is Jert McPhester. But I fear that describing Tump in too much detail here would be an injustice. You have to read the book to experience him for yourself.
All We Need Of Hell isn’t as grotesque as Harry Crews’ earlier novels, but it does have its moments where it feels like someone is hammering a nail into your funny bone. It is also the work of a more mature Harry Crews with less shock value and transgression and a lot more humanity. I haven’t read all of his novels, but for now I might gamble and say that this could be his most polished work with all the right elements of character development, plot progression, and its mixture of complexity and accessibility. It is entertaining, but also deep and dark enough to be cathartic. Any writer who can pull off such an optimistic ending that is also believable has a lot going for them. It’s an underrated novel by an underrated writer and I’m surprized it hasn’t been made into a movie. It would be good as the kind of indy, art house American family comedy-dramas that Alexander Payne is known for.
February 9, 2015
Really, I can't believe I liked this book as much as I did. The characters are not likable for the first 100 pages (out of 160), and the situations are bizarre. But, with that being said, Crews takes the characterizations to the extreme and makes the situations so over the top that hilarity just has to ensue from there.
Duffy Deeter is the main character of the novel. He is a forty-something lawyer, obsessed with his body and working out. He has a wife who is obsessed with her looks and an 8-year-old son who is a mama's boy and eats all the junk food he wants. Duffy also has a mistress, who I couldn't tell if his wife knew about and didn't care or if she just didn't know about the other one.
The opening scene has Duffy showing up to play a game of handball against a professional football player named Tump. What should have been a friendly game turns into a fist fight wherein Duffy gets one tooth knocked out and one broken. I kept returning to this image throughout the book because while that tooth is only mentioned by his wife upon first seeing him, but that broken tooth remains through all the other crazy things that happen.
Duffy gets into a falling out with his law partner, as he set up Duffy for the showdown with Tump, and it doesn't end there because the partner starts sleeping with Duffy's wife - and they are not very discreet about it either. So, Duffy's wife then wants a divorce and his law partner wants Duffy out of the firm. Duffy's bank account is wiped out, the locks on his house are changed and he is left with the winnebago he was about to go on vacation with his wife and son. Duffy is down, but he will not stay down. He vows revenge against his law partner and wife.
He then makes a strange alliance with Tump, the man who knocked out his tooth. They become friends in these circumstances and Tump bonds with Duffy's son in a way Duffy never had before. This friendship causes Duffy to look at his son in a different light. The ending is somewhat heartwarming for such a bizarre plot with cartoonish characters.
Duffy Deeter is the main character of the novel. He is a forty-something lawyer, obsessed with his body and working out. He has a wife who is obsessed with her looks and an 8-year-old son who is a mama's boy and eats all the junk food he wants. Duffy also has a mistress, who I couldn't tell if his wife knew about and didn't care or if she just didn't know about the other one.
The opening scene has Duffy showing up to play a game of handball against a professional football player named Tump. What should have been a friendly game turns into a fist fight wherein Duffy gets one tooth knocked out and one broken. I kept returning to this image throughout the book because while that tooth is only mentioned by his wife upon first seeing him, but that broken tooth remains through all the other crazy things that happen.
Duffy gets into a falling out with his law partner, as he set up Duffy for the showdown with Tump, and it doesn't end there because the partner starts sleeping with Duffy's wife - and they are not very discreet about it either. So, Duffy's wife then wants a divorce and his law partner wants Duffy out of the firm. Duffy's bank account is wiped out, the locks on his house are changed and he is left with the winnebago he was about to go on vacation with his wife and son. Duffy is down, but he will not stay down. He vows revenge against his law partner and wife.
He then makes a strange alliance with Tump, the man who knocked out his tooth. They become friends in these circumstances and Tump bonds with Duffy's son in a way Duffy never had before. This friendship causes Duffy to look at his son in a different light. The ending is somewhat heartwarming for such a bizarre plot with cartoonish characters.
September 14, 2015
Not a huge fan of Crews' writing, but this is not only an exception, it is one of my all-time favorite books, especially when struggling. The start will likely jar you, unless you're used to Crews, but don't let it daunt you -- this portrayal of a long weekend in the mid-life crisis of Duffy Deeter is one of the most honest, funny & touching renderings I've ever read of a man coming to terms with his contradictions & conflicts and finding the good underneath, while at the same time learning to open to the people around him. Hilarious, sharp, and definitely filled with moments & lines that you will recall again & again -- perhaps you, too, will find it one you return to when some of your "unshakable" beliefs start to waiver....
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April 19, 2023If you told me you hated Harry Crews and everything he wrote, I wouldn't argue with you. But if you ever make Florida Man jokes, and maybe need to understand a little more, well, he'd be a good source. Harry Crews writes about toxic masculinity, and especially in the cases where said masculinities are not explored within the minds and hearts of its adherents.
Duff Deeter is a small town lawyer in Florida, cheating on his wife, who is cheating on him with his legal partner. Duffy needs to imagine scenes of death and carnage (the Holocaust is a common one for him) in order to maintain an erection and hold off orgasming. This is very important to him because his identity is tied up into this part of him. He also demands his son (a child mind you) play sports, lift weights, not be fat, and respond to Zen koans screamed at him at full volume.
Spiralling, Duffy agrees to a handball game in the park with a former pro football and in the fracas looses a tooth, and responds by kicking his opponent in the head. This sparks a series of events of both chaos and "personal growth" as the spiral moves toward some kind of end. Like I said, if you told me you hated all of this this, I get it.
Duff Deeter is a small town lawyer in Florida, cheating on his wife, who is cheating on him with his legal partner. Duffy needs to imagine scenes of death and carnage (the Holocaust is a common one for him) in order to maintain an erection and hold off orgasming. This is very important to him because his identity is tied up into this part of him. He also demands his son (a child mind you) play sports, lift weights, not be fat, and respond to Zen koans screamed at him at full volume.
Spiralling, Duffy agrees to a handball game in the park with a former pro football and in the fracas looses a tooth, and responds by kicking his opponent in the head. This sparks a series of events of both chaos and "personal growth" as the spiral moves toward some kind of end. Like I said, if you told me you hated all of this this, I get it.
January 10, 2014
I am going to read all of Harry Crews because I like that kinda thing. He's the kinda author you know you like or not after one page. It don't change too much (at least regarding his fiction), but that's a good thing. Strong on oddball characters and even odder premises, this book is no different. Duffy Deeter is a lawyer that tries hard to remain human through infidelity, intoxication, working-out, and honest violence. I'm not even going to try and track the plot for you--in EVERYTHING I've read by Mr. Crews so far, there are many things that happen in his books that are hard to believe ever happened. And don't expect any perfect endings either. With Crews, it is not the end of Journey but THE RIDE. And if you think you'd like drunk driving with Barry Hannah, James Crumley, and Flannery O'connor-on-mushrooms, then this ride is for you. "In the nation of the heart, there is enough war for everybody." Would give this 3 1/2 stars. Pretty short on pages (162) and, well, how DO you end a novel like this???
June 8, 2012
Another Harry Crews book and another cast of oddball misfits. This time, the main protagonist - one Duffy Deeter - is an attorney cuckolded by his law partner, while Deeter himself is getting a piece of young student ass on the side.
Deeter is an extremely intelligent fitness fanatic who attempts to see the zen in all his (mis)deeds, along with being prone to outrageous acts of deranged violence (some warranted, others - who knows?). Example: a simple game of handball takes on the significance of a maximum security prison shank fight, and ignites incredible ill will between Deeter and one Tump Walker.
Walker, an extremely laid back and talented football star, is actually at least Deeter's spiritual equal. How these two reconcile their differences as Deeter attempts to make sense of his life, his wife and son, and his future is where the book takes us. Unlike the prior two Crews novels I read, this one concludes on an enigmatically positive, though still satisfying, note.
Deeter is an extremely intelligent fitness fanatic who attempts to see the zen in all his (mis)deeds, along with being prone to outrageous acts of deranged violence (some warranted, others - who knows?). Example: a simple game of handball takes on the significance of a maximum security prison shank fight, and ignites incredible ill will between Deeter and one Tump Walker.
Walker, an extremely laid back and talented football star, is actually at least Deeter's spiritual equal. How these two reconcile their differences as Deeter attempts to make sense of his life, his wife and son, and his future is where the book takes us. Unlike the prior two Crews novels I read, this one concludes on an enigmatically positive, though still satisfying, note.
November 27, 2019
Finally a Harry Crews novel that I don't hate or passively forget immediately after reading it. The main character could have been another flat, bland hyperbole, a la Feast of Snakes, but instead evolves throughout the story to someone that you get the feeling you gave short shrift to early on. The same goes with most of his characters, which, at first glance, seem to fill stereotypes formed in our minds (and reinforced by previous Crews book, funnily enough), but then expand and become something else - real people, albeit still hyperbolic and unlike anyone you or I may have ever met (let alone gotten to know). After his first two novels left me beyond bored, I had just about given up on Crews, but this novel makes me think that I owe him a few more chances.
August 23, 2016
Harry Crews is clearly a funny bastard, one who writes in lean, contemptuous prose, but the narrative of this short novel is not very strong. Rather, it's more focused on being a character study about a man's realisation that he's living in something like a echo-chamber, and that his entire construction of reality is a fake thing, separated long ago from real happiness and connection.
It's all Duffy Deeter stripping away the artifice he's unwittingly frame his life within.
I look forward to reading more of this author's ever more difficult to find, more accomplished novels.
It's all Duffy Deeter stripping away the artifice he's unwittingly frame his life within.
I look forward to reading more of this author's ever more difficult to find, more accomplished novels.
October 27, 2017
Crews reemerged with this, proving he'd lost nothing in the 11-years since his last fictional novel. Thus begins the New Era of Harry: darkness cannot exist if light does not. Lookatme, gettin' all Zen an' shit!
June 2, 2024
A estas alturas, está claro que en las novelas de Crews no es tanto lo que cuenta, sino cómo lo cuenta. Me parto de risa con su estilo rudo y enérgico que no se está para hostias. Y los personajes, capaces casi solo por ellos mismos de sustentar sus propuestas: Duffy Deeter, el Manos, Tump Walker, la majorette pasada de rosca Marvella… ¡qué peña!.
Voy a hacer trampa y transcribir una parte de la reseña que hice de “Festín de serpientes”, que creo que no sabría mejorar y viene al caso:
“Para retratar a esta fauna se vale de un estilo realmente expeditivo, personal y descojonante, si entras en la onda: frases cortas y rotundas, diálogos extraordinariamente vivos y fluidos, reflexiones enfermizas, situaciones absurdas y delirantes, y un gusto por el feísimo y lo grotesco (…). Sin embargo, y aquí están el contraste y el mérito, tiene también una extraña magia, un arte instintivo y salvaje para contar las historias, un desarmante lirismo rudimentario, sucio y desvaído, de una musicalidad descacharrada, una gracia natural para describir personalidades de una pincelada, para narrar barbaridades sin cortarse un pelo, y un talento misterioso para poner adjetivos impactantes y certeros, a veces dolorosos, a veces gratuitos, casi siempre muy gráficos.”
Volvamos a nuestro infierno. El protagonista es en este caso un loco vigoréxico que cree tenerlo todo muy controlado con sus rutinas deportivas, sus máximas motivacionales y sus rollos extramatrimoniales ( «Tenía entusiasmo, me cago en la puta») . Un tipo realmente gracioso, este Duffy Deeter, con algunas virtudes loables (a pesar de todo) y contradictorias. (Merecen mención aparte dos temas: su parafilia nazi y su padre, ex piloto de aviación enloquecido, ensimismado con sus maquetas y sus ruiditos).
El caso es que llega un momento en que a Duffy se le va la mano en su intento de motivar a su hijo, que está bastante abotargado, y su mujer se cabrea con él. A partir de ahí, todo le va cuesta abajo… pero tampoco tanto: se embarca en una especie de involuntaria juerga farlopera con su amante Marvella y un colega de ella –Tump Walker, todo un personaje, ex estrella del deporte de empuje y cordialidad envidiable ( «Tengo que alimentar a la máquina. La máquina es todo lo que tengo y no puedo descuidarla solo porque esté haciendo el imbécil. Voy a llamar por teléfono y a pedir cinco o seis pizzas» ) – y el hijo (!), que flipa con Tumb, y de hecho, espabila de golpe. A partir de ahí, desastres varios, y aunque hay algo de sangre, tampoco llega al río; van dando tumbos que nos proporcionan unas buenas risotadas…
Quien no conozca de antes al autor encontrará motivos más que de sobras para escandalizarse. Pero conociéndolo, “Todo lo que necesitamos del infierno” acaba resultando bastante conciliador. Es de un absurdo controlado, delirante sin perderse en surrealismos. Precisamente por eso, junto con la ya mencionada “Festín de serpientes”, es la novela que más me ha gustado, de momento, del autor.
Voy a hacer trampa y transcribir una parte de la reseña que hice de “Festín de serpientes”, que creo que no sabría mejorar y viene al caso:
“Para retratar a esta fauna se vale de un estilo realmente expeditivo, personal y descojonante, si entras en la onda: frases cortas y rotundas, diálogos extraordinariamente vivos y fluidos, reflexiones enfermizas, situaciones absurdas y delirantes, y un gusto por el feísimo y lo grotesco (…). Sin embargo, y aquí están el contraste y el mérito, tiene también una extraña magia, un arte instintivo y salvaje para contar las historias, un desarmante lirismo rudimentario, sucio y desvaído, de una musicalidad descacharrada, una gracia natural para describir personalidades de una pincelada, para narrar barbaridades sin cortarse un pelo, y un talento misterioso para poner adjetivos impactantes y certeros, a veces dolorosos, a veces gratuitos, casi siempre muy gráficos.”
Volvamos a nuestro infierno. El protagonista es en este caso un loco vigoréxico que cree tenerlo todo muy controlado con sus rutinas deportivas, sus máximas motivacionales y sus rollos extramatrimoniales ( «Tenía entusiasmo, me cago en la puta») . Un tipo realmente gracioso, este Duffy Deeter, con algunas virtudes loables (a pesar de todo) y contradictorias. (Merecen mención aparte dos temas: su parafilia nazi y su padre, ex piloto de aviación enloquecido, ensimismado con sus maquetas y sus ruiditos).
El caso es que llega un momento en que a Duffy se le va la mano en su intento de motivar a su hijo, que está bastante abotargado, y su mujer se cabrea con él. A partir de ahí, todo le va cuesta abajo… pero tampoco tanto: se embarca en una especie de involuntaria juerga farlopera con su amante Marvella y un colega de ella –Tump Walker, todo un personaje, ex estrella del deporte de empuje y cordialidad envidiable ( «Tengo que alimentar a la máquina. La máquina es todo lo que tengo y no puedo descuidarla solo porque esté haciendo el imbécil. Voy a llamar por teléfono y a pedir cinco o seis pizzas» ) – y el hijo (!), que flipa con Tumb, y de hecho, espabila de golpe. A partir de ahí, desastres varios, y aunque hay algo de sangre, tampoco llega al río; van dando tumbos que nos proporcionan unas buenas risotadas…
Quien no conozca de antes al autor encontrará motivos más que de sobras para escandalizarse. Pero conociéndolo, “Todo lo que necesitamos del infierno” acaba resultando bastante conciliador. Es de un absurdo controlado, delirante sin perderse en surrealismos. Precisamente por eso, junto con la ya mencionada “Festín de serpientes”, es la novela que más me ha gustado, de momento, del autor.
January 15, 2023
En el caso de que Harry Crews fuese un barco sería un portaviones. Una nave algo oxidada, un poco envejecida, con achaques, pero con su dignidad y majestuosidad intactas. No en vano, Crews forma parte de ese grupo de autores que los lectores más apreciamos de los que forman el catálogo de Dirty Works, una editorial empeñada en que literariamente masquemos tabaco, nos toquemos nuestras partes y nuestro sudor destile un leve toque a Bourbon.
Crews representa con maestría eso que algunos llaman gótico sureño y otros, libros cojonudos: historias donde se acentúan las desigualdades sociales, donde campan la dureza, la violencia y el humor negro y donde sus personajes son tan grotescos y tan marginales que no podemos si no amarlos.
Desnudo en Garden Hills, Festín de serpientes o Coche constan entre sus obras más importantes. Como si fuese un catecismo cumplen con el canon de lo que sería gótico sureño. Todo lo que necesitamos del infierno, también. Francamente, no está a la altura de las otras. Con esto no quiero afirmar que sea una mala obra. Ni mucho menos. Solo que está un escalón debajo. Sucede que una obra inferior de un gran autor es mucho más de lo que uno mediocre puede lograr.
Todo lo que necesitamos del infierno está protagonizado por Duffy Deeter, deportista extremo, seguidor zen y amante del dolor. A través de lo que parece una sitcom desfilarán una serie de personajes histriónicos. Su mujer y su hijo y un matrimonio abocado al desastre, la amante de Duffy, un abogado, un jugador de fútbol americano, su madre…, alcohol, infidelidades y cocaína, mucha cocaína, cocaína a espuertas.
A diferencia de otras obras del propio Crews los hechos suceden porque están previstos en un guion. Carecen de naturalidad. Una sensación de que exceso de vueltas se apodera del lector, que puede reír o empatizar, pero como lo haría ante un sketch de televisión de los años 70.
Una lectura apropiada para iniciados en Crews.
Crews representa con maestría eso que algunos llaman gótico sureño y otros, libros cojonudos: historias donde se acentúan las desigualdades sociales, donde campan la dureza, la violencia y el humor negro y donde sus personajes son tan grotescos y tan marginales que no podemos si no amarlos.
Desnudo en Garden Hills, Festín de serpientes o Coche constan entre sus obras más importantes. Como si fuese un catecismo cumplen con el canon de lo que sería gótico sureño. Todo lo que necesitamos del infierno, también. Francamente, no está a la altura de las otras. Con esto no quiero afirmar que sea una mala obra. Ni mucho menos. Solo que está un escalón debajo. Sucede que una obra inferior de un gran autor es mucho más de lo que uno mediocre puede lograr.
Todo lo que necesitamos del infierno está protagonizado por Duffy Deeter, deportista extremo, seguidor zen y amante del dolor. A través de lo que parece una sitcom desfilarán una serie de personajes histriónicos. Su mujer y su hijo y un matrimonio abocado al desastre, la amante de Duffy, un abogado, un jugador de fútbol americano, su madre…, alcohol, infidelidades y cocaína, mucha cocaína, cocaína a espuertas.
A diferencia de otras obras del propio Crews los hechos suceden porque están previstos en un guion. Carecen de naturalidad. Una sensación de que exceso de vueltas se apodera del lector, que puede reír o empatizar, pero como lo haría ante un sketch de televisión de los años 70.
Una lectura apropiada para iniciados en Crews.
November 11, 2017
All We Need of Hell is the frantic, feverish story of a few days in the life of Duffy Deeter, a high-strung, borderline-insane lawyer who's cheating on his wife and whose wife is cheating on him. The novel has a picaresque feel to it - there's not really a plot, there are just a series of chaotic events tied together with a series of implausible characters (especially Tump, who is such a magical person that it almost borders on reverse racism). The book is mainly about Duffy realizing he doesn't really know his family after all, and the book, for all its twisted humor, .
The comedy of the book wasn't always as uproariously funny as, perhaps, Crews intended it be - Duffy's assault on Jert, for instance, is obviously supposed to be hilarious, and yet to me it came off as just mean. At the same time, much of the satire is de-fanged by the book's ending, where Crews' chummy affection for his characters shines through. Overall, the book is a quick read, amusing at times, but ultimately not terribly effective either as a satire or as a novel.
The comedy of the book wasn't always as uproariously funny as, perhaps, Crews intended it be - Duffy's assault on Jert, for instance, is obviously supposed to be hilarious, and yet to me it came off as just mean. At the same time, much of the satire is de-fanged by the book's ending, where Crews' chummy affection for his characters shines through. Overall, the book is a quick read, amusing at times, but ultimately not terribly effective either as a satire or as a novel.
June 7, 2023
Duffy Deeter, a minor character in Feast of Snakes, is Crews' most likable protagonist. While the bar isn't very high, Deeter is a licensed attorney in college town Gainesville, FL and he's a health and exercise fanatic. However, life isn't good; his wife is cheating on him and his young son is a major disappointment. Deeter also travels in an RV blasting Hitler speeches to build up his sexual psyche.
But in a 48 hour whirlwind he fights then befriends a famous NFL athlete who takes him on a journey of self-discovery. He learns how to let people into his life. And lots of cocaine and cheerleaders, too.
One of Crews' later novels, but up there with Feast of Snakes and Body, and much better than Gospel Singer and Celebration.
But in a 48 hour whirlwind he fights then befriends a famous NFL athlete who takes him on a journey of self-discovery. He learns how to let people into his life. And lots of cocaine and cheerleaders, too.
One of Crews' later novels, but up there with Feast of Snakes and Body, and much better than Gospel Singer and Celebration.
July 18, 2018
My grandmother ran an unlicensed daycare in her home in Gainesville Florida in the late 60s/early 70s, and evidently took care of Harry Crews’ son during that time. I have vivid memories about the children in her charge, but can’t say I remember one named Crews. When my father passed away last year, I found a number of Harry Crews’ books on his shelves. Reading this took me back to the rough and redneck town Gainesville was in my childhood memories. The characters are tough and southern, just as I remember them.
November 24, 2022
Great stuff. Duffy’s the main character in this one, he’s the other small weird jock that joins in with the fellas from Feast for Snakes. A zen jock Florida lawyer who’s disgusted with his life and family and who makes a cool friend out of a cool enemy. I love the scattered little paradoxes in his life, stuff like the ultra lightweight racing bike that needs an extra heavy bike chain to keep safe.
This is the first Harry Crews book that doesn’t end with the main character destroying themselves and everyone around them, kind of a heartwarming ending.
This is the first Harry Crews book that doesn’t end with the main character destroying themselves and everyone around them, kind of a heartwarming ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2017
I swear this same book has been written before, with different names and different settings, but this whole "man with man problems is put in bizarre situations that test his masculinity" and these tropes, conversations and inner monologues have been written countless times before and I'm constantly shocked to see this same story has been published so many times.
I liked a feast for snakes so I know Harry Crews is better than this.
I am a fan of the Emily Dickinson title reference tho
I liked a feast for snakes so I know Harry Crews is better than this.
I am a fan of the Emily Dickinson title reference tho
June 9, 2018
To my pleasant surprise, this is one of the tightest and most enjoyable Harry Crews books I've read. You never quite know what you're getting with a Crews novel, because he never seemed like the kind of author who listened to an editor. His plots can meander, and his endings can come from left field, as if he got tired of writing the book and wished it done, somehow. But this one was truly funny, with fascinating characters and spot-on dialogue.
August 19, 2024
It's a travesty that Harry Crews isn't mentioned among other great American writers. His writing is grotesque, funny and surprisingly philosophical. This book tells the story of Duffy Deeter. He is a successful lawyer and a fitness fanatic. It tells of Duffy's decent into a midlife crisis and all the mayhem that ensues. Duffy is a complicated character. He's an asshole, but it's difficult not to like him. He's a very well developed very real character.
September 4, 2022
Even for Crews, this is a weird one. Essentially just two days in the life of Deeter Duffy, the maniac lawyer from Gainesville who joins up with Joe Lon for drunken festivities in A Feast of Snakes, the book is a blur as the characters drink, smoke, and snort their way through Deeter’s midlife crisis.
January 11, 2023
Harry Crews is a madman. You almost never know where his stories are going to go or how they may play out. They never feel belabored or trite or false. He can make the most loathsome people worthy of love, even if they don’t believe themselves to be.
January 16, 2024
Seguint les recomanacions que alguna vegada havia llegit a en Kiko Amat y vaig agafar el llibre amb ganes. Per mi, un si però no. Tot i ser una traducció m'agrada l'escriptura de Crews eprò no tant la història. Una història que per mi resulta una mica intranscendent i que a mesura que va avançant vaig esperant que passi alguna cosa realment important però.
En definitiva, un llibre per passar l'estona i poc més.
En definitiva, un llibre per passar l'estona i poc més.
April 2, 2025
some of the best characters i've ever encountered. the thrilling dirtiness of bukowski but more thoughtful...careful with the unfettered-ness. as if the anguish and instability of a bataille narrator was situated in the family man. perfectly suburban. profane. uncomfortable and hilarious.
June 7, 2021
It’s been a while since I read Mr. Crews. Absolutely loved this one.
June 3, 2022
The first two thirds of this book may just be my favorite thing I’ve ever read. The rest isn’t bad either. Hilarious, surprising, mean, stupid, sweet, and clever all at once.
June 30, 2022
This book is a fun romp... yes I said romp!!!!
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