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The Gospel Singer
To the dirt poor town of Enigma, Georgia, a local farm boy returns as a prosperous faith healer. Though the townsfolk give way to a mindless idolization, the Gospel Singer is tormented by the extent of his deception and is forced to admit his corrupt activities.
300 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
85 people are currently reading
4365 people want to read
About the author
Harry Crews
68 books644 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 225 reviews
January 19, 2025
The Gospel Singer is a fine piece of the wicked Southern Gothic…
God is above and folks are below… And the Gospel Singer is a voice of God… He is a living wonder…
Sleepy existence of a jerkwater town is disturbed… The grim murder… The merry freak fair… The Gospel Singer’s visit… This hole is his hometown…
An atmosphere of macabre mockery encompasses everything…
He sings to God but Original sin is his true vocation…
Repentance isn’t a coin that can buy innocence.
God is above and folks are below… And the Gospel Singer is a voice of God… He is a living wonder…
When Willalee Bookatee turned on that Muntz television and the Gospel Singer’s voice slipped out into his cabin, it was balm poured into a wound. Nothing mattered. The world dropped down a great big hole. Everything – whether it was a razor cut, or a tar-scalded eye, or a burning case of clap off a Tifton high-yellow whore – everything quit but that voice and it went in his head and down his flesh to where his soul slept.
Sleepy existence of a jerkwater town is disturbed… The grim murder… The merry freak fair… The Gospel Singer’s visit… This hole is his hometown…
An atmosphere of macabre mockery encompasses everything…
He sings to God but Original sin is his true vocation…
…a sea of female flesh, wet, violently heaving, smelling slightly of salt, surrounding him at the altar after the hymnsinging had ceased, the warm waves pressing in, eddying about him, a collective air coming off them smelling of breath and love.
Repentance isn’t a coin that can buy innocence.
April 26, 2023
Nos encontramos en ese profundo sur estadounidense, entre esa llamada basura blanca que gusta de refocilarse en su barbarie, que renuncia a cualquier clase de ayuda como si ello significara reconocer su fracaso, esa gente que prefiere ahogarse en el barro que exponer sus taras al mundo. Y como en esas películas del oeste, tenemos a dos hombres enfrentados, dos hombres que representan polos opuestos de como afrontar la vida.
Teniendo de fondo un episodio de brutalidad contra una belleza blanca supuestamente cometido por un hombre negro en peligro de linchamiento, vamos conociendo a la corte que rodea a un famoso cantante de góspel de alma atormentada y supuestos poderes curativos que vuelve a su localidad de origen, un mesías irreconciliable con su causa, atormentado por la farsa de la que es protagonista ante la multitud de impedidos o deformes, física o espiritualmente, que van tras sus pasos. Un mesías que quiere huir de sus orígenes y de su María Magdalena a base de profanar su capilla una y otra vez en una viciosa escalada sin salida.
Y frente a esta beldad de voz divina encontramos al ser deforme, al enano de pie monstruoso procedente de lo más selecto de la ciudadanía norteamericana que posee unas enormes ganas de disfrutar de la vida y la sabiduría más que suficiente para conseguirlo, por muy grotesco que sea el camino.
Puede que no sea un libro perfecto (no hay que olvidar que es una primera novela) pero este relato, de ritmo algo lento en sus inicios, muy de sol de justicia, y cuyos acontecimientos se van sucediendo de forma cada vez más angustiosa envueltos en una fina e incesante lluvia, suena a culpa pero también a la necesidad de esperanza o, al menos, de justificación del fracaso, y siempre a verdad.
May 22, 2022
What a book! It's one of those books that I would use some caution as to whom I may recommend. Ummm, I probably missed something but I never saw "that" ending coming. Crews is an amazing writer and exposes you to some interesting (to put it mildly) characters. I think I was expecting less from Crews because it was his debut novel, however I was completely blown away and should have never passed that judgement. "Judgement".....hmmm that could be the word to explain(if it can be explained) this entire book.
No less stars the second time around. I like the strange and the unexplainable, it seems.
No less stars the second time around. I like the strange and the unexplainable, it seems.
May 30, 2022
My history with Harry Crews is checkered. Loved his memoir telling of his childhood, but could not stomach A Feast of Snakes. After reading a couple of GR friends' reviews of The Gospel Singer, I decided to give him another try. Nothing about it was easy.
First of all, the font used in this small hardcover book was almost too small for me to read. The binding was poorly done, and made it difficult to see the full left-hand side page to read without breaking the spine. There was no dust jacket, but someone had carefully cut the front cover from a paperback edition of the book and glued it on the outside. This last, at least, did not make the book more difficult to read.
One of my GR buddies referred to this genre as Southern grotesque and I fully agree. It goes past dirty and gritty, that's for sure. Religious fanaticism is rampant. As a popular TV evangelist sets up his tent show that will feature the Gospel Singer, a freak show follows close on his heels. There are some fine reviews posted if you want to know more about the plot. Me, my very own personal bad self, I am calling it quits with Crews. Not a good fit.
Do any of you remember those hand fans that churches and funeral homes used to have? There is a picture of Jesus (usually praying) on the fan part which is glued to a large Popsicle stick. They were stuck into the hymnal holders on the backs of the church pews. Anyway, in the story there is a woman fanning the flies away and ends up mashing one with the fan, then scraping the fly corpse off of Jesus' face with her yellowed fingernail. Can't get it out of my mind.
First of all, the font used in this small hardcover book was almost too small for me to read. The binding was poorly done, and made it difficult to see the full left-hand side page to read without breaking the spine. There was no dust jacket, but someone had carefully cut the front cover from a paperback edition of the book and glued it on the outside. This last, at least, did not make the book more difficult to read.
One of my GR buddies referred to this genre as Southern grotesque and I fully agree. It goes past dirty and gritty, that's for sure. Religious fanaticism is rampant. As a popular TV evangelist sets up his tent show that will feature the Gospel Singer, a freak show follows close on his heels. There are some fine reviews posted if you want to know more about the plot. Me, my very own personal bad self, I am calling it quits with Crews. Not a good fit.
Do any of you remember those hand fans that churches and funeral homes used to have? There is a picture of Jesus (usually praying) on the fan part which is glued to a large Popsicle stick. They were stuck into the hymnal holders on the backs of the church pews. Anyway, in the story there is a woman fanning the flies away and ends up mashing one with the fan, then scraping the fly corpse off of Jesus' face with her yellowed fingernail. Can't get it out of my mind.
June 3, 2016
I’m a fan of Crews, frustrated by how hard it is to acquire his books (why don’t they get reprinted?). I fear he will be lost to history and as his memory is erased so goes my existence. As his first book, the un-named gospel singer is morally repugnant yet treated as holy by the hordes who see his beauty and godliness in his voice. People are saved on the spot and he merely takes advantage of his pickings, burying himself in lust. Everyone wants a piece of him, even the killer of his sexual nemesis. This novel is aswath in deep southern poverty-stricken pathos. The writing is sharp and the moralism exudes in spite of itself. Crews is shocking today, beyond O’Connor and Welty, and goes deep into pathopsychology. The writing is sharp, and the characters memorable. Deep racism, so far beyond normal is nearly un-recognizable in this scramble. Even the black man in a small southern prison, fearing his own lynching, is seduced (p. 11): “..the Gospel Singer’s voice slipped out into his cabin, it was balm poured into a wound. Nothing mattered. The world dropped down a great big hole. Everything- whether it was a razor cut, or a tar-scalded eye, or a burning case of clap off a Tifton high-yellow whore- everything quit but that voice and it went in his head and down his flesh to where his soul slept. And he could stand whatever it was for another week.”
You’ll find freaks galore, hogs in homes, tobacco sucking women, seductive nymphets, a crazed religious manager and all manner of people in this book. The protagonist is touched by god, or so all the supplicants believe in spite of his protestations. He can’t escape, the will is on him and he must pursue his fate and the end will always be shatteringly cruel (thank you Harry). (p. 53) “…the people would stand nervously about, secretly touching him, whispering impossible requests in his ears, always there at his back like hungry doges over red meat. He would be forced to stand in their midst, impotent, castrated by his inability to relieve their suffering. All he could do was bleed for them, bleed for their ignorance and the condition of their world.”
Through these misanthropes somehow a dialectic arises (p. 82) “..If evil gave the opportunity for good, it ceased to be evil; if evil set into motion a chain of events that caused an eventual good, larger than the original evil, then it ceased to be evil. He had seen the logic of that once. And from that logi he had concluded that pain and suffering was God’s greatest gift to man… His mother, of course, had confirmed the reasoning. As she pointed out, without suffering there can be no hope for martyrdom.” Nietzsche would be proud.
The fine writing and the writhing of this sadly beautiful boy are but tragedy of the highest order. I’ll keep Crews on my top shelf.
You’ll find freaks galore, hogs in homes, tobacco sucking women, seductive nymphets, a crazed religious manager and all manner of people in this book. The protagonist is touched by god, or so all the supplicants believe in spite of his protestations. He can’t escape, the will is on him and he must pursue his fate and the end will always be shatteringly cruel (thank you Harry). (p. 53) “…the people would stand nervously about, secretly touching him, whispering impossible requests in his ears, always there at his back like hungry doges over red meat. He would be forced to stand in their midst, impotent, castrated by his inability to relieve their suffering. All he could do was bleed for them, bleed for their ignorance and the condition of their world.”
Through these misanthropes somehow a dialectic arises (p. 82) “..If evil gave the opportunity for good, it ceased to be evil; if evil set into motion a chain of events that caused an eventual good, larger than the original evil, then it ceased to be evil. He had seen the logic of that once. And from that logi he had concluded that pain and suffering was God’s greatest gift to man… His mother, of course, had confirmed the reasoning. As she pointed out, without suffering there can be no hope for martyrdom.” Nietzsche would be proud.
The fine writing and the writhing of this sadly beautiful boy are but tragedy of the highest order. I’ll keep Crews on my top shelf.
March 28, 2025
Maravillosa la conjunta elegida por mi queridísima Devoradora de libros para este mes de marzo. Lo terminé hace ya unos días y mi mente sigue en Enigma, ese pueblo que mi mente creía que era ficticio pero no, existe y se localiza en Georgia.
Anteriormente, ya había leído al autor con su novela "La maldición gitana" editada por @DirtyWorks, y desde entonces me enamoré de esa prosa tan característica y que tanto me gusta; descarnada, cómica y mordaz, pero también violenta y siempre con ese toque de denuncia a una realidad que le tocó muy de cerca a Crews.
Como digo, ahora le ha tocado el turno a su ópera prima.
Publicada en 1968, en "El cantante de Gospel" seremos testigos de ese intento desesperado de sus gentes (unos más que otros) por huir y buscar un futuro mejor. De la visión de ese don musical como una maldición y el talento como un estigma del que le será imposible huir.
En una ocasión, Pie, que no es otro que el máximo representante de ese circo de Freaks, comenta: "Hay Enigmas por todo este país. Por todo el mundo, y en todas partes hay hombres que luchan por salir de ellos," mostrando así la cruda realidad de sus gentes.
Ya el extenso prólogo; casi treinta páginas me parecen excesivas y me hicieron pensar que estaba leyendo una tesis de la vida y obra del autor en lugar de una presentación a la obra 😅 pero que el propio prologuista nos invita a leer al finalizar, al márgen de esto, Kiko Amat nos prepara para lo que nos vamos a encontrar, aunque como digo y también Amat, es mejor leerlo al finalizarlo porque contiene spoilers importantes de la trama. Haciendo también alusión a múltiples aspectos de la vida de Crews, entre ellos a uno que es clave y se refleja en cada una de sus novelas; en su pueblo todo el mundo era tullido, cojo, bizco o manco.
Gente que hace lo que puede con lo que tienen y así lo plasma en sus personajes, tan llenos de aristas.
Lo cierto es que lo cogí con muchas ganas pero esas expectativas iniciales hacia la mitad de la novela reconozco que mermaron un poco para volver a remontar con uno de esos finales que me gustan a mí 💥🤐
Tiene mucho que ver el hecho de que esperaba más presencia del circo de "freaks" y menos comportamientos obsesivos de parte del susodicho cantante de gospel con las mujeres. Toda esta parte, llegando al último tercio de la novela, se hace muy repetitiva, haciendo continuamente hincapié en esas conductas, unas conductas que me recordaron, en más de una ocasión, al alter ego de Bukowski que no es otro que Henry Chinaski; mostrando las más bajas pasiones, vicios y repetidos fracasos del cantante. Un personaje atormentado que se odia a si mismo y que te produce rechazo, aunque también cierta pena.
A pesar de esos pequeños altibajos, para mí el balance final es muy positivo, logrando remontar, y con creces, en ese pedazo de final 💥
"Un negro es como una mula. Aras la tierra con ella durante veinte años, pensando que es la mejor mula del mundo, hasta que un día te agachas un momento y te arranca la cabeza de una coz."
Otro aspecto que me ha gustado mucho fueron esas conversaciones absurdas, repletas de diálogos burdos, vulgares, expresando así la propia forma de hablar de la gente de Enigma, ese pueblo que parece estar sumido en la desgracia hasta que El Cantante de Gospel, del cual nunca sabremos su nombre, hace su aparición, revelándose como una suerte de Dios para sus múltiples seguidores.
Aquí algunos ejemplos de esa forma de hablar a la que me costó un poco acostumbrarme ⤵️
"¿No las tienes registrás?, ¿nunca has llevao la cuenta?"
"Encantao", "toa", "librao", "dao", "usté" o "cortao", son algunos ejemplos más.
Fanatismo religioso, masas enfervorizadas, y mucha denuncia social encontraremos entre sus páginas.
Una historia donde todo vale con tal de tener notoriedad, exponiendo una realidad muy presente hoy en día, con esa hipocresía tan patente que hace que parezca que estás leyendo una novela más reciente, y con un final apoteósico que hace que todo lo demás haya valido muchísimo la pena 🖤
"Cuando un hombre miente es porque le da vergüenza la verdad o porque desea que la mentira sea cierta."
¿Aún no has leído a Harry Crews?
¿Y a qué esperas, insensato? 😂
https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 💀📖🖤
Anteriormente, ya había leído al autor con su novela "La maldición gitana" editada por @DirtyWorks, y desde entonces me enamoré de esa prosa tan característica y que tanto me gusta; descarnada, cómica y mordaz, pero también violenta y siempre con ese toque de denuncia a una realidad que le tocó muy de cerca a Crews.
Como digo, ahora le ha tocado el turno a su ópera prima.
Publicada en 1968, en "El cantante de Gospel" seremos testigos de ese intento desesperado de sus gentes (unos más que otros) por huir y buscar un futuro mejor. De la visión de ese don musical como una maldición y el talento como un estigma del que le será imposible huir.
En una ocasión, Pie, que no es otro que el máximo representante de ese circo de Freaks, comenta: "Hay Enigmas por todo este país. Por todo el mundo, y en todas partes hay hombres que luchan por salir de ellos," mostrando así la cruda realidad de sus gentes.
Ya el extenso prólogo; casi treinta páginas me parecen excesivas y me hicieron pensar que estaba leyendo una tesis de la vida y obra del autor en lugar de una presentación a la obra 😅 pero que el propio prologuista nos invita a leer al finalizar, al márgen de esto, Kiko Amat nos prepara para lo que nos vamos a encontrar, aunque como digo y también Amat, es mejor leerlo al finalizarlo porque contiene spoilers importantes de la trama. Haciendo también alusión a múltiples aspectos de la vida de Crews, entre ellos a uno que es clave y se refleja en cada una de sus novelas; en su pueblo todo el mundo era tullido, cojo, bizco o manco.
Gente que hace lo que puede con lo que tienen y así lo plasma en sus personajes, tan llenos de aristas.
Lo cierto es que lo cogí con muchas ganas pero esas expectativas iniciales hacia la mitad de la novela reconozco que mermaron un poco para volver a remontar con uno de esos finales que me gustan a mí 💥🤐
Tiene mucho que ver el hecho de que esperaba más presencia del circo de "freaks" y menos comportamientos obsesivos de parte del susodicho cantante de gospel con las mujeres. Toda esta parte, llegando al último tercio de la novela, se hace muy repetitiva, haciendo continuamente hincapié en esas conductas, unas conductas que me recordaron, en más de una ocasión, al alter ego de Bukowski que no es otro que Henry Chinaski; mostrando las más bajas pasiones, vicios y repetidos fracasos del cantante. Un personaje atormentado que se odia a si mismo y que te produce rechazo, aunque también cierta pena.
A pesar de esos pequeños altibajos, para mí el balance final es muy positivo, logrando remontar, y con creces, en ese pedazo de final 💥
"Un negro es como una mula. Aras la tierra con ella durante veinte años, pensando que es la mejor mula del mundo, hasta que un día te agachas un momento y te arranca la cabeza de una coz."
Otro aspecto que me ha gustado mucho fueron esas conversaciones absurdas, repletas de diálogos burdos, vulgares, expresando así la propia forma de hablar de la gente de Enigma, ese pueblo que parece estar sumido en la desgracia hasta que El Cantante de Gospel, del cual nunca sabremos su nombre, hace su aparición, revelándose como una suerte de Dios para sus múltiples seguidores.
Aquí algunos ejemplos de esa forma de hablar a la que me costó un poco acostumbrarme ⤵️
"¿No las tienes registrás?, ¿nunca has llevao la cuenta?"
"Encantao", "toa", "librao", "dao", "usté" o "cortao", son algunos ejemplos más.
Fanatismo religioso, masas enfervorizadas, y mucha denuncia social encontraremos entre sus páginas.
Una historia donde todo vale con tal de tener notoriedad, exponiendo una realidad muy presente hoy en día, con esa hipocresía tan patente que hace que parezca que estás leyendo una novela más reciente, y con un final apoteósico que hace que todo lo demás haya valido muchísimo la pena 🖤
"Cuando un hombre miente es porque le da vergüenza la verdad o porque desea que la mentira sea cierta."
¿Aún no has leído a Harry Crews?
¿Y a qué esperas, insensato? 😂
https://www.facebook.com/LaLocadelosL... 💀📖🖤
January 21, 2023
(3.8) If you know of Harry Crews's background, you know he had a tough childhood - - He wasn't always the nicest guy, but he was a hell of a writer. "The Gospel Singer" is his debut novel and it's one of the best satires on evangelism that I've ever read. Crews never did shy away from controversy. His mix of crude humor, downright nastiness and extreme violence with great prose makes him the epitome of the Southern Gothic style. If I hadn't had read A Feast of Snakes, I may have rated this higher, but I'm used to the shock factor and it didn't hit me as hard as it had when I initially came across his writing. I am happy to see this along with A Childhood: The Biography of a Place re-printed by Penguin Classics and hope to see a lot more of his out-of-print books reborn in the near future.
May 1, 2011
This is a fabulous but really quite insane novel about a guy who lives in the South of the USA and has a golden voice which he puts to good use doing the Lord's work. Well, yeah, that's a little tiny part of the story. The rest is pure mayhem, people doing dreadful things to each other and what's worse, to animals too, there ought to be a law. Although the way Harry Crews tells it, down there it's illegal NOT to do these things. Which I am not about to describe cause you may be at work reading this and your colleague may be looking idly at your screen and should I be typing up some of the stuff in these pages, that colleague will surely never say yes if you ask him or her out for a Bacardi Breezer next Saturday. He or she will think you're a tragic weirdo, and however much you say "it's just a book review site", your moment will have gone forever and word will go round your office like wildfire.
So I'm not going to describe any of the things that happen in this novel.
But it does contain amidst the wreckage a very profound truth about Elvis Presley, the obvious real world version of The Gospel Singer in the novel. It's along the lines that people began to think Elvis was a kind of magical being with special powers, and he couldn't stop them thinking and feeling that, and the intensity of their projections on him actually did make a kind of shared hallucinatory magic, and he couldn't control it. He made the amber and he was the fly that got stuck in it. It makes the argument that Elvis (who I stress is not named in this novel nor alluded to, this is a book about a gospel singer and Elvis only sang gospel on two albums) was engaged in this hideous inner conflict with himself, his power, his talent, his popularity – that he could see clearly that it could be a terrible murderous thing and that’s why he buried himself for ten of his prime years, and that’s why he self-destructed and died aged 42. I think it’s a theory with a great deal of merit – you could write a thick long list of the stuff Elvis SHOULD have done, and COULD SO VERY EASILY have done in those crap years from 1960 to 1967 and he did nary a one of them. The Colonel Tom Parker Brainwashed the Poor Ignorant Bastard theory is quite funny but hardly credible. Elvis could have crushed the Colonel with the raising of his left eyebrow.
So anyway, Harry Crews is a crazy guy and this was a novel which twanged round my head for months. Still does. I wanna reread it!
Also - what a cover.
So I'm not going to describe any of the things that happen in this novel.
But it does contain amidst the wreckage a very profound truth about Elvis Presley, the obvious real world version of The Gospel Singer in the novel. It's along the lines that people began to think Elvis was a kind of magical being with special powers, and he couldn't stop them thinking and feeling that, and the intensity of their projections on him actually did make a kind of shared hallucinatory magic, and he couldn't control it. He made the amber and he was the fly that got stuck in it. It makes the argument that Elvis (who I stress is not named in this novel nor alluded to, this is a book about a gospel singer and Elvis only sang gospel on two albums) was engaged in this hideous inner conflict with himself, his power, his talent, his popularity – that he could see clearly that it could be a terrible murderous thing and that’s why he buried himself for ten of his prime years, and that’s why he self-destructed and died aged 42. I think it’s a theory with a great deal of merit – you could write a thick long list of the stuff Elvis SHOULD have done, and COULD SO VERY EASILY have done in those crap years from 1960 to 1967 and he did nary a one of them. The Colonel Tom Parker Brainwashed the Poor Ignorant Bastard theory is quite funny but hardly credible. Elvis could have crushed the Colonel with the raising of his left eyebrow.
So anyway, Harry Crews is a crazy guy and this was a novel which twanged round my head for months. Still does. I wanna reread it!
Also - what a cover.
December 13, 2025
Oh look, two stars!
Alright, so it seems like I'm the odd one out here because everyone else appears to be head over heels for "The Gospel Singer." For me, reading this short book felt like trudging through the Bible...no offense to the Bible, of course. The style was slower than a snail on a leisurely stroll, and I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. The story revolves around a gospel singer who's basically the Taylor Swift of his small hometown. Being the local celebrity, he pretty much sleeps with any swiftie who catches his eye. Well, one of his conquests ends up murdered, and when he returns to town, people start thinking he's some kind of miracle worker, but clearly, he's not. All he does is belt out some "alleluias" and "oh lord, save us," which, apparently, is enough to get him lynched in the end because he goes "Oi, I'm no fucking Sai Baba!" and everybody's like "Oh? LET'S FUCK HIM UP THEN!" And that's your plot twist. So, the bottom line is, he dies, hanged or summat, aye. And that's a wrap on this literary masterpiece. I give it a solid 1.5 stars, but I'll round it up to 2 because, hey, I'm super-nice and I'm only looking for love.
NEXT!
Alright, so it seems like I'm the odd one out here because everyone else appears to be head over heels for "The Gospel Singer." For me, reading this short book felt like trudging through the Bible...no offense to the Bible, of course. The style was slower than a snail on a leisurely stroll, and I found myself struggling to keep my eyes open. The story revolves around a gospel singer who's basically the Taylor Swift of his small hometown. Being the local celebrity, he pretty much sleeps with any swiftie who catches his eye. Well, one of his conquests ends up murdered, and when he returns to town, people start thinking he's some kind of miracle worker, but clearly, he's not. All he does is belt out some "alleluias" and "oh lord, save us," which, apparently, is enough to get him lynched in the end because he goes "Oi, I'm no fucking Sai Baba!" and everybody's like "Oh? LET'S FUCK HIM UP THEN!" And that's your plot twist. So, the bottom line is, he dies, hanged or summat, aye. And that's a wrap on this literary masterpiece. I give it a solid 1.5 stars, but I'll round it up to 2 because, hey, I'm super-nice and I'm only looking for love.
NEXT!
May 14, 2022
This was quite a story in many weird, freakish and fantastical ways. We are introduced to a dead-end small southern town of Enigma, Georgia in which the title character grew up in a family of poor pig farmers and has escaped the humdrum life that goes nowhere and the people who are just too dumb to realize the world beyond their boundaries. The Gospel Singer is blonde and beautiful with a golden voice to charm and save souls wherever he sings. He is a famous and wealthy TV evangelist and his manager drives him around in a fancy Cadillac. Every once in a while he comes back to his hometown to visit his family and his sweetheart, MaryBell Carter. But this time, MaryBell has been raped and murdered. He is never named but we are privy to all of his shortcomings, sins, and escapades with the women. The people of Enigma are portrayed as worshippers of the Gospel Singer and the news of his return for a revival concert ramps up the excitement and fervor that a celebrity can elicit. In addition, a Freak Fair run by a man named Foot, who has a deformed 27 inch foot, has been following The Gospel Singer’s tour locations. The Gospel Singer is faced with being believed to something he is not - many believe he can heal the sick and lame - and we see how the false perceptions affect him negatively. He begins to deal with the deceptions he has inflicted as The Gospel Singer as the foolish, senseless idolization of the people of his hometown is brought to the forefront and he is forced to reckon with them.
This is Southern grotesque at its best. My first Harry Crews experience and I have to say that I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. As long as you enter into the experience with the realization that you’re reading a dark satirical novel, then you should be ok.
No matter how hard he argued against it, sinners at every turn accepted God on the strength of his voice. All his troubles, he told himself, stemmed from that. Because it was true, people began insisting he was something he was not; because it was true, people began insisting that he could do other things he could not. He was not willing to give up singing gospels because singing was what had allowed him to escape Enigma and live as he pleased just because the songs he sang, in some mysterious way he had never understood, saved souls.
This is Southern grotesque at its best. My first Harry Crews experience and I have to say that I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. As long as you enter into the experience with the realization that you’re reading a dark satirical novel, then you should be ok.
No matter how hard he argued against it, sinners at every turn accepted God on the strength of his voice. All his troubles, he told himself, stemmed from that. Because it was true, people began insisting he was something he was not; because it was true, people began insisting that he could do other things he could not. He was not willing to give up singing gospels because singing was what had allowed him to escape Enigma and live as he pleased just because the songs he sang, in some mysterious way he had never understood, saved souls.
May 5, 2022
I need a brain cleanse after reading this.
Remember Oral Roberts? A TV evangelist who healed the sick, made cripples walk again, made the blind see and the deaf hear, all by laying his hands on them and calling on the power of the Lord. He had a TV show called The Hour of Power, his believers packed huge arenas to watch these miracles and incidentally, to donate money. My own grandmother sent in $5.00 of her hoarded money (a lot in 1959) for a handkerchief "blessed" by Oral Roberts. He finally went too far in the late nineties by claiming that God would take him home if his followers didn't send money to save him. That pretty much bombed, he faded from public view, and the Lord did indeed take him home in 2009. He was a sham and a fake and made millions off of the poor people who idolized and believed in him. There are a lot of hypocritical religious types doing the same thing these days, (remember Jim Jones?) and a few politicians I could name as well. All making money from those who think they are some sort of saviors.
That is all I could think of while reading this book. Blind adoration of men who deserve exactly what our unnamed Gospel Singer got by the end of this book. I don't know if Harry Crews was trying to make some sort of statement about religious hypocrisy or dumb white southerners or just telling a story that Flannery O'Connor would have been proud of, maybe all three. It was his first novel, so who knows? I only got through it by reading it as humor and satire. Crews can write for sure, but his subject matter is disturbing.
Remember Oral Roberts? A TV evangelist who healed the sick, made cripples walk again, made the blind see and the deaf hear, all by laying his hands on them and calling on the power of the Lord. He had a TV show called The Hour of Power, his believers packed huge arenas to watch these miracles and incidentally, to donate money. My own grandmother sent in $5.00 of her hoarded money (a lot in 1959) for a handkerchief "blessed" by Oral Roberts. He finally went too far in the late nineties by claiming that God would take him home if his followers didn't send money to save him. That pretty much bombed, he faded from public view, and the Lord did indeed take him home in 2009. He was a sham and a fake and made millions off of the poor people who idolized and believed in him. There are a lot of hypocritical religious types doing the same thing these days, (remember Jim Jones?) and a few politicians I could name as well. All making money from those who think they are some sort of saviors.
That is all I could think of while reading this book. Blind adoration of men who deserve exactly what our unnamed Gospel Singer got by the end of this book. I don't know if Harry Crews was trying to make some sort of statement about religious hypocrisy or dumb white southerners or just telling a story that Flannery O'Connor would have been proud of, maybe all three. It was his first novel, so who knows? I only got through it by reading it as humor and satire. Crews can write for sure, but his subject matter is disturbing.
March 25, 2025
Una de las características que tiene que tener un libro para que despierte mi interés casi de manera instantánea es el ambiente que se forja en los pueblos pequeños de la América profunda, con férreas creencias religiosas, fanatismos y un toque de excentricidad. Por lo que no dudé en elegirla para este mes en mi lectura conjunta con La loca de los libros.
Nos situamos en Enigma un pueblo de Georgia. En él se ha cometido un asesinato. Han matado a la jóven MaryBell, el culpable: el negro Willalee Bookatee y es tanta la gente que va a verlo que el sheriff se ha visto obligado a poner un cartel a lápiz informando del crímen.
Todo ello se superpone con la llegada del Cantante de Góspel, todos le conocen desde que era pequeño. Se ha convertido en una eminencia a la que venerar ya no sólo por su belleza, sus bucles dorados y su bonita voz sino porque aseguran que al oirlo cantar los ciegos recobran la vista y los inválidos vuelven a andar.
Este caldo de cultivo es ideal para que el ambiente sea opresivo y agobiante. Todos esperan que el Cantante de Góspel le dedique unos minutos, hacen colas hasta bajo la lluvia para hablar con él, para verlo. Y él...tiene su propia condena, la doble moral hace aparición a cada instante y ha de ir expiando pecados.
Sus vecinos abruman y presionan, MaryBell está siendo velada en el tanatorio, una mosca verde revolotea, se hacen los preparativos para que el Cantante de Góspel cante...
Me ha fascinado la lectura y ha acabado tal y como esperaba, no habría podido tener otro final.
Si te gustan este tipo de ambientaciones, este libro lo vas a disfrutar de principio a fin.
Nos situamos en Enigma un pueblo de Georgia. En él se ha cometido un asesinato. Han matado a la jóven MaryBell, el culpable: el negro Willalee Bookatee y es tanta la gente que va a verlo que el sheriff se ha visto obligado a poner un cartel a lápiz informando del crímen.
Todo ello se superpone con la llegada del Cantante de Góspel, todos le conocen desde que era pequeño. Se ha convertido en una eminencia a la que venerar ya no sólo por su belleza, sus bucles dorados y su bonita voz sino porque aseguran que al oirlo cantar los ciegos recobran la vista y los inválidos vuelven a andar.
Este caldo de cultivo es ideal para que el ambiente sea opresivo y agobiante. Todos esperan que el Cantante de Góspel le dedique unos minutos, hacen colas hasta bajo la lluvia para hablar con él, para verlo. Y él...tiene su propia condena, la doble moral hace aparición a cada instante y ha de ir expiando pecados.
Sus vecinos abruman y presionan, MaryBell está siendo velada en el tanatorio, una mosca verde revolotea, se hacen los preparativos para que el Cantante de Góspel cante...
Me ha fascinado la lectura y ha acabado tal y como esperaba, no habría podido tener otro final.
Si te gustan este tipo de ambientaciones, este libro lo vas a disfrutar de principio a fin.
May 3, 2017
A great precautionary tale about The Gospel Singer , who with both physical beauty and the grandeur of his voice is able to rise high above the status of his poor pig farming past. But there is trouble looming when after becoming wildly famous he returns to his hometown and people have come to expect miracles and healing from him. A case where the illusion is far different than the man, and he knows and suffers for it. Third and best book yet I've read by Harry Crews.
June 27, 2024
A concoction dripping with cult value. But how to describe it? It's rather like a National Enquirer exposé with literary merit. I read it in less than a day. Once it gets on its track, it rides (and reads) like a locomotive.
But is it art? Penguin Classics thought so, since that's how it was recently re-released. That was a decision as amusing as Criterion's go-ahead in adding Russ Meyer's 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' to its library (but don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did, esp. in blu-ray!).
To give it its propers, 'TGS' is a fairly pungent rebuke of phony celebrity; a Southern Grotesque view of how (in different ways) opportunists and the easily-duped are likely to respond to the funhouse mirrors of fame - when it's in close proximity.
A distant cousin to 'Elmer Gantry', the story tells of a young man with a golden voice who uses evangelism with non-religious intent; mainly to get out of his hometown in Georgia:
Particularly, he can be very effective with description.:
All told, a work that holds a certain fascination, without making you feel you need a shower afterwards. Apparently, subsequent Crews books get darker. (Note to self: Stop here?)
But is it art? Penguin Classics thought so, since that's how it was recently re-released. That was a decision as amusing as Criterion's go-ahead in adding Russ Meyer's 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' to its library (but don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did, esp. in blu-ray!).
To give it its propers, 'TGS' is a fairly pungent rebuke of phony celebrity; a Southern Grotesque view of how (in different ways) opportunists and the easily-duped are likely to respond to the funhouse mirrors of fame - when it's in close proximity.
A distant cousin to 'Elmer Gantry', the story tells of a young man with a golden voice who uses evangelism with non-religious intent; mainly to get out of his hometown in Georgia:
Gospel singing was a way to make money, a way to escape Enigma, a way to keep from having to spend his life wading around in hog slop. He had not planned on God getting into it. He was not even particularly religious, and to have someone tell him that he was responsible for saving a soul was confusing and scary.In this 1968 debut novel, Harry Crews certainly delivered the goods in terms of page-turning storytelling. Though it's natural to compare him to fellow Southerners like Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor or Carson McCullers at their darkest, Crews, In his own way, can be as smooth and compulsive a read as Raymond Chandler.
Particularly, he can be very effective with description.:
Myrtle and Bob's place was between Tifton and Cordeleon on U.S. 41. ... Inside, three tired-looking waitresses hurried about with bored expressions on their faces between tables of truck drivers who still wore crushed, black-peaked caps while they wolfed their food. The faint odor of gasoline hung over everything. A jukebox with small explosions of red and green and purple lights going off in its cracked plastic face screamed of love and dying at only sixteen. Behind the counter were stacks of doughnuts and NoDoz pills and waxpaper-wrapped sandwiches and racks of Zippo lighters and postcards full of naked women and stunned-looking Indians in full headdress wrestling alligators and glittery signs that said: WE DON'T PEE IN YOUR ASH TRAYS--DON'T THROW CIGARETTE BUTTS IN OUR URINAL...Though ultimately neither as scandalous nor as lurid as its reputation might suggest, the book is still generally freewheeling in nature and even occasionally a bit erotic. Needless to say for something this propulsive, it all leads to unbridled frenzy.
All told, a work that holds a certain fascination, without making you feel you need a shower afterwards. Apparently, subsequent Crews books get darker. (Note to self: Stop here?)
December 23, 2023
Actions have consequences & the snake eats its tail.
April 24, 2024
El cantante de gospel
Hay que ver lo mal que sienta la verdad, la verdad que no quieres oír, la auténtica verdad.
El cantante de gospel regresa a su pueblo, Enigma, en Georgia ,un pueblo de pueblerinos y paletos atrasados en el tiempo. Gente religiosa que idolatra al cantante, que lo tiene como un ser con poderes curativos que todo lo puede.
No crean que el cantante no es real, lo es, es el mejor en lo suyo y allá donde va, triunfa, tanto cantando como con las mujeres.
Pero tampoco es para tanto, no le gusta volver a su pueblo en el que solo hay gente atrasada, envidiosa y racista que creen que él es como un Dios. Y no es ningún ser superior. La verdad es otra muy distinta. ¿Hasta qué punto el pueblo de Enigma idolatra al cantante?
¿Podrán admitir la verdad?
Ahora regresa a Enigma luego que un negro haya matado a su antigua novia. El pueblo se prepara para linchar al negro con o sin razón, eso es lo de menos. Alguien tendrá que hacer justicia.
Para completar el cuadro, un circo de lleno de Freaks al mismo tiempo llega al pueblo, también siguen al cantante. Gente con algún defecto o tara extraordinaria que en realidad son los más cuerdos del panorama del sur Georgiano.
Un retrato del sur norteamericano visto por Crews que no tiene nada que envidiar al sur de cualquier pais. En todas partes cuecen habas, que se suele decir. Gente muy apegada a su tierra unos, y otros con muchas ganas de salir de su pueblo.
Hay que ver lo mal que sienta la verdad, la verdad que no quieres oír, la auténtica verdad.
El cantante de gospel regresa a su pueblo, Enigma, en Georgia ,un pueblo de pueblerinos y paletos atrasados en el tiempo. Gente religiosa que idolatra al cantante, que lo tiene como un ser con poderes curativos que todo lo puede.
No crean que el cantante no es real, lo es, es el mejor en lo suyo y allá donde va, triunfa, tanto cantando como con las mujeres.
Pero tampoco es para tanto, no le gusta volver a su pueblo en el que solo hay gente atrasada, envidiosa y racista que creen que él es como un Dios. Y no es ningún ser superior. La verdad es otra muy distinta. ¿Hasta qué punto el pueblo de Enigma idolatra al cantante?
¿Podrán admitir la verdad?
Ahora regresa a Enigma luego que un negro haya matado a su antigua novia. El pueblo se prepara para linchar al negro con o sin razón, eso es lo de menos. Alguien tendrá que hacer justicia.
Para completar el cuadro, un circo de lleno de Freaks al mismo tiempo llega al pueblo, también siguen al cantante. Gente con algún defecto o tara extraordinaria que en realidad son los más cuerdos del panorama del sur Georgiano.
Un retrato del sur norteamericano visto por Crews que no tiene nada que envidiar al sur de cualquier pais. En todas partes cuecen habas, que se suele decir. Gente muy apegada a su tierra unos, y otros con muchas ganas de salir de su pueblo.
October 16, 2022
It’s A Feast of Snakes meets Darin Morgan’s “Humbug” meets The Apostle, and that’s just where I’m trying to come up with a sentence that, had I told it to myself before I ever opened the cover, would have given me a hint of just what it contained. It still falls woefully short of doing the book justice. It’s a mix of freaks and geeks and saints and sinners that only Harry Crews can write.
And that’s not to mention the story structure, too: taking pass after pass at the story, and each pass through a different character’s eyes adds layers you couldn’t have imagined at first. Shapes you wouldn’t think possible, until they’re only the shapes that make perfect sense.
And that’s not to mention the story structure, too: taking pass after pass at the story, and each pass through a different character’s eyes adds layers you couldn’t have imagined at first. Shapes you wouldn’t think possible, until they’re only the shapes that make perfect sense.
June 13, 2016
The Gospel Singer is a veritable case study in Southern Gothic. All the usual suspects are present and accounted for: crown of thorn-twisted religiosity, atrocious subjugation of Blacks, fucking in the outdoors, et. al. What distinguishes Crews’ first novel is his idiosyncratic voice—even here in its nascent form, you sense that you’re reading an original with something special about the eyes. If Flannery O’Connor had picked up a bottle of Early Times instead of a fatal case of lupus, she might have written a not dissimilar book. As it happens, ye Gods had other plans for the Madame, and, in my unqualified opinion, Crews was the only author who had any rightful claim to her throne. Though he never attained it (no one has), he came mighty goddamn close here and in a few other bright spots in his career.
Side note: this review is a case study all its own in why you should write your reviews as fast to finishing a book as possible. With Leon Forrest and no less than Herman Fucking Melville (what a middle name!) having clogged my brainpipe since finishing this, I can’t think of a proper way to sing the substantial praises it entirely deserves. Let it be said that this book is a whole backseat's bonk of immoral fun with some imagistic flashes of brilliance. Crews, to me, is a great cleanser in between heavier fare. If that makes him sound like a laxative, then I say poo—I’m taking my ball and going home.
Side note: this review is a case study all its own in why you should write your reviews as fast to finishing a book as possible. With Leon Forrest and no less than Herman Fucking Melville (what a middle name!) having clogged my brainpipe since finishing this, I can’t think of a proper way to sing the substantial praises it entirely deserves. Let it be said that this book is a whole backseat's bonk of immoral fun with some imagistic flashes of brilliance. Crews, to me, is a great cleanser in between heavier fare. If that makes him sound like a laxative, then I say poo—I’m taking my ball and going home.
May 17, 2022
Everyone wants to leave Enigma, but like Hotel California, “you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.”
What a tale! This is quite a quirky story populated with strange individual characters, and a story filled with the absurdity of life and its afflictions and maladies, and with the existential struggle to live with authenticity.
Five well-earned stars for this imaginative novel! Who thinks up stories like this? I guess the answer is Harry Crews, whose unique stamp could never be repeated.
I listened to the Audible version, deftly narrated by Kevin Wilson.
What a tale! This is quite a quirky story populated with strange individual characters, and a story filled with the absurdity of life and its afflictions and maladies, and with the existential struggle to live with authenticity.
Five well-earned stars for this imaginative novel! Who thinks up stories like this? I guess the answer is Harry Crews, whose unique stamp could never be repeated.
I listened to the Audible version, deftly narrated by Kevin Wilson.
July 18, 2024
These days Crews’s influence on storytelling is more widely acknowledged than when he was alive. It may seem surprising for a middle aged white man whose work is fraught with racism and a masculinity so toxic it sometime bypasses misogyny and goes straight into violence.
During his life (1935-2012) Crews witnessed the South’s shift from a rural society to a cosmopolitan one marked by the civil rights movement. Along with that views on Southern literature have changed also. O’Connor, Welty, Caldwell, McCullers, once seen as eccentric outsiders are now revered as writers reflecting diversity. Crews writing is now seen as genuine, almost a part of history that may not generate pride, but at least is honest.
Typically Crews, here we have a travelling freak show, pigs roaming around the interior of homes, and broken countryfolk with huge heads, skin disease and missing legs.
The Gospel Singer, a man with a beautiful voice, rumoured to be able to heal the sick, but actually a sex addict, is reluctantly returning to his socially deprived home town, Enigma. He is followed, always, by a Freak Fair, run by a man called Foot, due to his one 27 inch foot, though he may be the sanest character in the novel.
It begins in a jail cell, where Willalee Bookatee Hull, an African American and preacher, is being held for the rape and murder of the Gospel Singer’s supposed bride to be, Mary-Bell Carter, who has been stabbed 61 times with an ice pick.
This is a chaotic and violent novel, and all the better for it. Crews’s writing is so spiky and precise that the images it conjures up are some you’d rather not see. He wrestles with issues of race, gender, religion and class then stretches them to breaking point. This is a great example of his work, the masses that have assembled to be saved by the Gospel Singer are whipped into such a state of frenzy the novel seems to be headed for one hell of a finale. And Crews delivers.
Here’s a clip as we first meet the famous songster..
During his life (1935-2012) Crews witnessed the South’s shift from a rural society to a cosmopolitan one marked by the civil rights movement. Along with that views on Southern literature have changed also. O’Connor, Welty, Caldwell, McCullers, once seen as eccentric outsiders are now revered as writers reflecting diversity. Crews writing is now seen as genuine, almost a part of history that may not generate pride, but at least is honest.
Typically Crews, here we have a travelling freak show, pigs roaming around the interior of homes, and broken countryfolk with huge heads, skin disease and missing legs.
The Gospel Singer, a man with a beautiful voice, rumoured to be able to heal the sick, but actually a sex addict, is reluctantly returning to his socially deprived home town, Enigma. He is followed, always, by a Freak Fair, run by a man called Foot, due to his one 27 inch foot, though he may be the sanest character in the novel.
It begins in a jail cell, where Willalee Bookatee Hull, an African American and preacher, is being held for the rape and murder of the Gospel Singer’s supposed bride to be, Mary-Bell Carter, who has been stabbed 61 times with an ice pick.
This is a chaotic and violent novel, and all the better for it. Crews’s writing is so spiky and precise that the images it conjures up are some you’d rather not see. He wrestles with issues of race, gender, religion and class then stretches them to breaking point. This is a great example of his work, the masses that have assembled to be saved by the Gospel Singer are whipped into such a state of frenzy the novel seems to be headed for one hell of a finale. And Crews delivers.
Here’s a clip as we first meet the famous songster..
The Cadillac was vast, domed, vaulted and trussed, specially built by Detroit to the Gospel Singer's own specifications, but costing as much as Detroit cared to make it cost, expense being no consideration with the Gospel Singer because he consistently made more money during any given year than he was able to spend. The interior was deep savage red: the seats and headliner formed in heavy leather; the floor padded in spongy carpet. A pale mauve light-indirect, as though emanating from the passengers themselves-lit up the Gospel Singer in the back seat where he lolled, long-jointed and beautiful under his incredible head of yellow girl's hair, and lit up Didymus-manager, chauffeur and confessor to the Gospel Singer-where he sat, narrow-faced and nicotine-stained, rigid in his dark blue businessman's suit. He turned to look over his shoulder at the Gospel Singer, his mouth like the blade of a hatchet. He wore a clerical collar.
July 11, 2015
I propose this book as the canon of Southern Grotesque. The best I've read from Crews. Everything I want in one book, a joy and a pleasure to read!! I was surprised to see it was released in 1968. The addition of 1994's Where Does One Go When There's No Place Left To Go? was a wonderful and hilarious bonus!
July 11, 2014
I used to think FEAST OF SNAKES was his best novel. I don't think that anymore.
Read
November 3, 2022folks the flannery-ness is off the charts here. you got a protagonist w/ a brother named gerd who almost gets recruited into a traveling freak show helmed by a guy with a 3' long foot. do you even have to ask if gerd has a cousin named maze who got kicked in the head by a mule? & i mean gerd & mirst & maze aside, there's a mess of xtian allegory, but xtian allegory that's been kicked around a bit by the fedex guy: there are disciples, martyrs, &c. but nobody maps neatly 1:1 onto a biblical figure. penguin classics is kinda killing it this year huh? recommended soundtrack: palace brothers - there is no-one what will take care of you (1993, drag city)
April 24, 2018
This Southern Grotesque gem has all the elements needed to qualify for my "favorites" list. A miserable, poor, small, rustic southern town as the setting. Enigma, Georgia. Couldn't have a better name. A gifted, handsome singer from modest Enigma roots. The Gospel Singer. His fame and reputation are beyond imagining, in an Elvis Presley sort of way. Beyond even his own imagining. The story wends it's way around his reluctant revisit to his hometown for a performance. The icing on the cake in this tale is that The Gospel Singer is being followed around on his singing tours by a Freak Show that benefits from the crowds drawn by the singer. The downside of The Gospel Singer by Harry Crews is that it is difficult and pricey to find a copy of this book. It is worth the search and price though.
January 18, 2025
Incredible and disturbing depiction of southern evangelism, desperation, racism, and guilt. As someone who grew up in southern Appalachia, parts of this book were upsettingly all too familiar. I can particularly relate to the desperate need to escape from southern small town life, which makes the motivations of the main character and others real and, at times, uncomfortably understandable to say the least. If you grew up in the south, especially if you are familiar with the influence of Southern Christian Evangelism, small town desperation, jealous guilt tripping, and the tragic, yet particularly difficult to articulate, mindset that is overwhelming evident in many poor southern towns (If you know, you know).
March 28, 2022
SEE THE FREAK FAIR--MARVEL AT HUMAN WONDERS!After reading the first couple of chapters, I jumped to the opinion that this book was Harry Crews attempting to out-do (gross-out, out-grotesque, freak-out, out-freak) Flannery O'Connor and Erskine Caldwell. Crews succeeds. But the freakophillia is merely backdrop.
A beloved TeeVee-evangelist returns to his hometown and solves a murder mystery. At first, the motive is obvious:
"Why, rape," said the Gospel Singer. "Why else would a Negro kill a poor girl like MaryBell?"Then the Gospel Singer uncovers the twisted truth. But can the truth satisfy the vengeful mob? Shockingly, yes.
February 28, 2023
One hell of a dirty grit filled bowl of southern goodness. Just need a biscuit.
December 27, 2024
*author names characters Gerd, Mirst, Avel, Didymus and Foot*
Me: 🤤🤤🤤
Me: 🤤🤤🤤
September 11, 2018
Entretenida y divertida primera novela de Harry Crews. Es una novela de gótico sureño y salvando las distancias podría decir que el estilo de Crews es como si mezclaras a Bukowski con Curson Mccullers.
Por un parte tienes todo lo políticamente incorrecto, el sur de Estados Unidos visto como un lugar de pobreza, vicio y paletos redomados. Por otra parte tienes personajes memorables como Didymus, MaryBell o el propio cantante de gospel peleando por su futuro de diferentes formas.
La novela es una crítica a la influencia de la religión, la fama masiva y las oportunidades que la vida nos da a unos y otros.
Un pedazo de Sur francamente disfrutable.
Por un parte tienes todo lo políticamente incorrecto, el sur de Estados Unidos visto como un lugar de pobreza, vicio y paletos redomados. Por otra parte tienes personajes memorables como Didymus, MaryBell o el propio cantante de gospel peleando por su futuro de diferentes formas.
La novela es una crítica a la influencia de la religión, la fama masiva y las oportunidades que la vida nos da a unos y otros.
Un pedazo de Sur francamente disfrutable.
March 6, 2024
"So by now he knew that there was nothing so monotonous in its sameness as man’s vice."
I am definitely an outlier here so I won't belabor the point, I must admit I had never heard of Harry Crews or the subgenre Southern Grotesque, turns out I don't like either one. This novel is described as satirically hysterical, I get the satire but missed the funny, simply not a good fit.
I am definitely an outlier here so I won't belabor the point, I must admit I had never heard of Harry Crews or the subgenre Southern Grotesque, turns out I don't like either one. This novel is described as satirically hysterical, I get the satire but missed the funny, simply not a good fit.
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