What do you think?
Rate this book
Otis Lee Crenshaw: I Blame Society
Married six times, all to women named Brenda, Otis Lee Crenshaw's bourbon-fuelled odyssey takes him from the high mountains of East Tennessee to the bottom of the music charts. A man not above faking his own death to sell more records, this is his not quite true story of romance, recidivism, country music, and an unshakeable belief in Marriage at First Sight.
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
Rich Hall
27 books22 followersRichard Travis Hall is an American comedian, writer, documentary maker, and musician, first coming to prominence as a sketch comedian in the 1980s. He wrote and performed for a range of American networks, in series such as Fridays, Not Necessarily the News (popularising the "sniglet" neologism), and Saturday Night Live.
After winning a Perrier Comedy Award in 2000, using the character of Tennesseean country musician Otis Lee Crenshaw, Hall became popular in the United Kingdom, regularly appearing on QI and similar panel shows. He has created and starred in several series for the BBC, including comedies with Mike Wilmot and documentaries often concerning cinema of the United States. Hall has also maintained a successful stand-up comedy career, as both Crenshaw and himself.
After winning a Perrier Comedy Award in 2000, using the character of Tennesseean country musician Otis Lee Crenshaw, Hall became popular in the United Kingdom, regularly appearing on QI and similar panel shows. He has created and starred in several series for the BBC, including comedies with Mike Wilmot and documentaries often concerning cinema of the United States. Hall has also maintained a successful stand-up comedy career, as both Crenshaw and himself.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 21, 2022
A couple of unexpected laughs lifted this to a 2.25.
January 9, 2021
Rich Hall, the inventor of Sniglets, writes this tale of trailer park love gone awry (and then awry again and again), which I enjoyed thoroughly. His prose has heart (and a whiff of white trash propane tank)
February 11, 2024
Utter bloody poetry. Loved every minute Rich Hall’s finest hour.
September 8, 2022
The "true" life story of a fictional character.
Otis Lee Crenshaw is the alter ego of comedian Rich Hall. If you're old enough to remember a comedy show from the 1980s called Not Necessarily the News, then you might recall comedian Rich Hall and his sniglets.* Sometime in the late 1990s, Hall created the character of Otis Lee Crenshaw, a white trash, ex-convict country singer who embodies just about every "redneck" cliche imaginable while espousing hard won worldly wisdom (that often isn't wise at all). It's the dark side of "you might be a redneck... ". Comedy genius!
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Hall gives us this "biographical memoir" of Otis Lee Crenshaw. Criminal, musician, ladies man, and all around cautionary tale.
I absolutely loved this! It has the absurdity of someone like Carl Hiaasen but with the sincerity of "serious" literature. Take a trip down memory lane with Otis Lee Crenshaw as the Tennessee native tells you how he met and married his various wives, all of them named Brenda (to match his tattoo), how he got into the music business by way of donkey basketball and a rodeo clown, and his misbegotten road to musical mediocrity.
*Rich Hall is the creator of sniglets; which are made up words to describe things for which no words currently exist.
NOTE: Otis Lee Crenshaw is not especially civilized or cultured, as such there may be some things in this book that will offend the overly sensitive and the humorless.
Otis Lee Crenshaw is the alter ego of comedian Rich Hall. If you're old enough to remember a comedy show from the 1980s called Not Necessarily the News, then you might recall comedian Rich Hall and his sniglets.* Sometime in the late 1990s, Hall created the character of Otis Lee Crenshaw, a white trash, ex-convict country singer who embodies just about every "redneck" cliche imaginable while espousing hard won worldly wisdom (that often isn't wise at all). It's the dark side of "you might be a redneck... ". Comedy genius!
With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Hall gives us this "biographical memoir" of Otis Lee Crenshaw. Criminal, musician, ladies man, and all around cautionary tale.
I absolutely loved this! It has the absurdity of someone like Carl Hiaasen but with the sincerity of "serious" literature. Take a trip down memory lane with Otis Lee Crenshaw as the Tennessee native tells you how he met and married his various wives, all of them named Brenda (to match his tattoo), how he got into the music business by way of donkey basketball and a rodeo clown, and his misbegotten road to musical mediocrity.
*Rich Hall is the creator of sniglets; which are made up words to describe things for which no words currently exist.
NOTE: Otis Lee Crenshaw is not especially civilized or cultured, as such there may be some things in this book that will offend the overly sensitive and the humorless.
August 18, 2024
Hilarious. But with some sad bits too.
May 22, 2025
Loved this. Clever and funny.
October 1, 2007
What is this thing about British writers writing about the US? This is the fifth such book I've read in a months or so.
Very un-PC, hilariously funny so far.
28/9**update** - finished
**grrr...homepage shut down, so my long review is gone**
I picked this book up on a whim, so I had no expectations of it, at all. If the protagonist had been a woman, I would have assumed this book belonged to the category commonly referred to as "chicklit".
(It is a category I hate, by the way. A bunch of books categorized based on the common factor of the protagonists having a uterus?? )
It is full of funny things to quote:
"In America, your name is a giveaway to where you stand on the ladder. If it's on the outside of the buildin' you work in, you're rich. If it's on a desk, you're middle class. And if it's on your shirt pocket, you're fucking poor."
Regarding cleveages: "I was just amazed at /.../ how a amna could be attracted to what was, essentially, sheer nothingness."
Very un-PC, hilariously funny so far.
28/9**update** - finished
**grrr...homepage shut down, so my long review is gone**
I picked this book up on a whim, so I had no expectations of it, at all. If the protagonist had been a woman, I would have assumed this book belonged to the category commonly referred to as "chicklit".
(It is a category I hate, by the way. A bunch of books categorized based on the common factor of the protagonists having a uterus?? )
It is full of funny things to quote:
"In America, your name is a giveaway to where you stand on the ladder. If it's on the outside of the buildin' you work in, you're rich. If it's on a desk, you're middle class. And if it's on your shirt pocket, you're fucking poor."
Regarding cleveages: "I was just amazed at /.../ how a amna could be attracted to what was, essentially, sheer nothingness."
October 8, 2012
Written by Rich Hall in the guise of his county and western singing, ex-con uncle Otis Lee Crenshaw, this is one of the strangest biography's you'll ever put your hands on. Otis takes us through the journey of his time in jail, various felonies, failing career, and all six marriages (all to women called Brenda).
As a fan of the Otis Lee Crenshaw act, you'll find this a great companion to a very interesting character, but if you're not familiar with the act there's not too much here for you.
Deliberately great and intentionally not groundbreaking.
As a fan of the Otis Lee Crenshaw act, you'll find this a great companion to a very interesting character, but if you're not familiar with the act there's not too much here for you.
Deliberately great and intentionally not groundbreaking.
September 10, 2023
One of the Funniest books I’ve read in a long time, I could hear Otis Lee in my head while I read… it rhymes
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews