fiction files redux discussion

I'm currently reading The Knockout Artist, by Harry Crews. I have also read a short of his, but I don't remember the title. Have any of you read his books? Neil? Martha? Hugh? The feeling I'm getting from this one is sort of a cross between Flannery O'Connor & Thomas Pynchon.

. . . i have read crews, patty! . . . like a smarter bukowski from florida . . . my dad was an acrobat and a bodybuilder at muscle beach in the 50s, and crews is the only writer i know to ever talk about bodybuilders and acrobats, though his were generally depraved and physically misshapen . .. have not read the knockout artist, though . . .

Will bring the KO to you this summer, then, JE! I really liked it. I picked it up at one of the used bookstores in Phoenix that Dan took us to. They had another book, the Gypsy's Curse, and I didn't buy it. I'm thinking about sending Dan back over there to buy it for me if they still have it.

I wouldn't have thought of Bukowski, aside from underworld themes, are there other similarities, do you think?

{Side note: Speaking of underworld themes, I have been meaning to send you a note, JE, to see what you know about the 1970s national table tennis team, the Seattle Sockeyes.]

I can see the similarity to Flannery O'Connor in the freakishness of the characters. When he was younger, Crews traveled with a circus and socialized with some of the "freaks," yet he regarded them as men & women struggling to survive. (I'm remembering from interviews ...)

A Feast of Snakes was the book that startled me. The bizarre characters seemed to be a darker version of Erskine Caldwell, a writer who has almost vanished from the literary landscape.

Crews was also fascinated by athletes. I think he believed that some writers, such as himself, could reach their goals by willfulness, if they had the passion and discipline of an athlete.

I recall that he usually mentioned Graham Greene as an important influence on his work. He dissected The End of the Affair and wrote an entire novel by replacing the characters, the weather, the rooms, etc. with his own variations while adhering completely to its structure. He wasn't able to sell his novel, but he claimed that it taught him a lot.

Wow, Adrian. I had completely forgotten about Erskine Caldwell!

Would never have guessed there was a Graham Greene connection. I will have to think that over. Maybe after I've read more of Crews, I'll be able to see that connection. I have only read part of A Feast of Snakes (there was an excerpt in the Grit Lit anthology that I read earlier this year)

I think his interest in Greene was related to structure and technique, rather than thematic issues. He wanted to construct novels with a strong underlying narrative that would carry the reader from the beginning to the end, without being diverted by subplots or extraneous details.