Pulp Fiction discussion

November's Group Read selection is Harry Crew's most well-known novel, A Feast of Snakes.

Crews was born in 1935 during the Great Depression to a tenant farmer couple in Bacon Country, Georgia. His father died when Crews was a baby and his mother quickly married her husband's brother. Crews was unaware that the man who raised him was not his biological father until several years later. This reminds me of the Jeff Foxworthy joke: "You might be a redneck if...your family tree ain't got any branches."

Crews contracted polio at the age of five and was told that he would never walk again. However his legs eventually straightened out and he was able to regain mobility. Soon after he fell into a large vat of boiling water and suffered burns over most of his body, narrowly escaping death.

Crews joined the Marines during the Korean War and later attended the University of Florida on the GI Bill. He was mentored by Andrew Nelson Lytle who also taught Flannery O'Connor and James Dickey.

Crews married and divorced Sally Ellis twice. They had two sons, the older of whom drowned in a swimming pool during the time Crews was writing his first novel, The Gospel Singer which was published in 1968. Eight years and six more novels passed before Crews published this month's Group Read Selection, A Feast of Snakes, which is often regarded as his finest work. After publishing Feast it would be eleven years before he published another novel.

Crews died in 2012 in Gainesville, Florida.



Wikipedia (the source for the above biographical info, as usual) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_C...

NY Times Obituary - https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/bo...

LA Times 2022 article - https://www.latimes.com/entertainment...

Looking forward to this one. Thanks for the great intro, RJ.

As soon as I finish my Halloween read, the voluminous N0S4A2 by Joe Hill, I’ll be on this.

It seems there is no audiobook edition of A Feast of Snakes, and Amazon tells me that the Kindle edition is not available for purchase in the U.S., and there is no Nook edition, and none of my libraries carry it, so I will need to order a paperback copy. I am looking forward to the discussions for this book, but I probably will have to join in late.

It's a wild ride. No real plot to speak of. Just a series of crazy, related events leading up to a moment. Buckle up.

Well, I had hoped to join in this month's read, but I'm throwing in the towel around page 30. Ten years ago I might have read this, but right now I'm sick to death of men who want women for one purpose, but when the consequences, like an unwanted pregnancy, occur they want nothing more than to turn tail and run. I guess it's always been your body, his choice.

Skimming ahead, it looks like dog-fighting rears its ugly head, so I'm out. Between that jagoff, Nick Fuentes, and our Homeland Security secretary-to-be, Kristi Noem, I get enough of these people in real life.

Pass.

"Buckle up" is good advice. Book blurbs that describe an author or story as "unflinching"? Well, now I'm thinking those blurb writers probably haven't read A Feast of Snakes. Unflinching? Goddamn, I'd be hesitant to describe anything else that way now.

The more I think about this book, the more I'm convinced there's a lot going on beyond the visceral rocket-ride of the story. Everyone is fascinated or obsessed with snakes, actually deadly snakes. How close to death can you be for the thrill? Or dogs, murderous fighting dogs, what are they thinking just before they're unleashed on their mortal opponent across the pit? If not these animals, then it's a certain kind of person that commands this fascination, attracting others into their orbit.

I'm going to go wash my brain off now.

Great ! I gave it 4 stars, considering upgrading to 5.
Love his gritty realism.
Very entertaining !

I’ve been laid up in the hospital for two weeks. It’s impossible to read there because all you’re thinking about is what the f**k is wrong with me. After my current read I’ll head for December’s read. Looking forward to that.

Lawrence wrote: "I’ve been laid up in the hospital for two weeks. It’s impossible to read there because all you’re thinking about is what the f**k is wrong with me. After my current read I’ll head for December’s re..."

Get well soon! I've been myself 2 weeks in hospital with Covid back in 2021 and I struggled a lot with focus on what I read, but I couldn't spend whole days just staring at the walls. Lighter material works best for me.

... and regarding this month's read: sorry, I couldn't be bothered. I read instead Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, which might end up as my best noir book of the year