About the suicide scene...A prominent Finnish music critic took his life in a hotel while talking on the phone to a colleague (his boss I think it was). He told her that he had taken a lot of pills and he really intended to die there and then.This was before smart phones and hotel reservation systems online. Naturally he did not reveal what hotel he was in. So, they went on talking until it got quiet on the other end of the line. Who does that to another person?

From Ted Geltner’s biography of Crews, an anecdote I always loved: “Bizarre behavior was not reserved for Harry's graduate students. Harry started his own end-of-semester tradition, one that he kept up for a few years. On the last day of class, Harry showed up completely drunk, dressed head to toe in a gorilla suit, toting a basket filled with bananas. He jumped up on his desk, thumped his chest, and scratched his backside. Then, one by one, he began pulling bananas off the bunch and throwing them at the students, as they stared up at him in disbelief. ‘Life is just a bunch of bananas!’ Harry bellowed. ‘Get 'em while you can, my friends, for tomorrow they're gonna drop the big one!’”

Your reading of that butcher shop sequence made me tear up. Definitely adding this to my tbr, just because of that.

That scene with the manic guy committing suicide with the butcher's knife really struck me. Something about that guy reminds me of myself when I was a junkie.

Harry retells some of these stories in his segment in the documentary "Searching For The Wrong -Eyed Jesus". That was my introduction to Harry and one of the best bits in the film.Highly recommended.

What drives a man to take himself out? Life. Living in a crazy world. Powerful scene, though. Talking about the butcher shop knife bit in the Crews' book.

This was the first book I read just my father died in February 2023. He was from a small mountain town in North Carolina and grew up poor. It was a world I never completely understood. I was raised in a mid-size city (Charlotte, NC) but have spent half my life in Prague. Reading this reminded me of my father's upbringing. There were differences. There were similarities. This book reminded me of my father and my relatives that still live in that small town that I still can't completely grasp. It hit me hard emotionally, but, as reticent as my father was, I felt closer to understanding him. I am grateful Harry Crews wrote this. Read it now. You will not regret it.

“Celebration” by Crews is one of the funniest and strange books I read this year

Definitely need that end of year list

Hi there Cliff, I love watching your videos, and when I find the books you talk about I buy. Keep the books coming bro. :)

Goddamn I love your reviewing process, approach, and delivery. Thanks man!

Well. I’m sold.

Superb!..Gracias, Cliff.

last year, spurred on by his appearances in your reviews, I started reading Crews. I read Feast of Snakes (my favorite so far), Gospel Singer (grew on me after some reflection) and Body (by then I’d really settled into his shotgun blast endings and loved it). I have this memoir now and I can’t wait to dig into it. thank you for the introduction to a writer who is quickly becoming a favorite of mine.

Happy Holidays Book Lovers ❤️

Merry Christmas and thanks for all of the entertainment over the years. Your reviews are both hilarious and insightful. A book I got for the holidays that I think you would like is When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut. Again happy holidays and hope you keep on truckin!

Not read Crews--but that jumps out as GOOD writing. Wow. I'm headed to the book store. Thank you for this.

Beautiful review

The late jazz great Art Pepper's autobiography written by Art Pepper and his wife Laurie hits pretty hard & comes highly recommended.

For a person in a whole other time zone, this book was super fascinating. The only time i wanted to read an autobiography. Crews to me came off as a sensitive but tough person

I was raised in Alma Georgia from earliest memories until middle school where I moved the next time over, Waycross. I've immediately ordered this book upon this review and amazes clifford is reviewing an author from my hometown I didn't even know about. I certainly was born out of this era of time and am a child of the Internet, grocery stores, SpongeBob SquarePants and shit loads of junk food and fast food. We dont pronounce it All-ma but rather Al- ma, Al like the name. But Allma sounds better. Growing up here is strange, it's a very isolating place and everyone at school was socially inaccessible, internet and playstation had replaced tromping through the swamps for many of us. Here trash litters the road more than the wildflowers and the trailer slums evoke a disturbing aura that McCarthy nailed with his descriptions in Suttree. When I think of south Georgia I don't think of the shitty food, the lack of social life, the meth or the churches that had always made me nauseous in some peculiar offset way, I think of the nature. The primordial swamps, the Okefenokee, the gnarled bloated swamp tupelos and the cypress spanish moss draped and root knees jutting out of the black mirror water. Beyond the uninspired and dreadfully boring small towns, there the mystical ancientness of the land, you may have to diligently seek it because just by driving all youre mainly gonna see are rows and rows of pine plantations. Next county over from bacon county is the 440 thousand acre swamp Okefenokee. To me that's the real south Georgia, not these dollar trees, food lions or McDonalds. Ive never felt anything close to God in a church, Nietzsche said it best the churches are the tombs of God. I laughed when I read that because it's the most accurate description ive ever heard of church. No the real church is the wilderness. The birds and the wild flowers and the vines and oaks and the creeks. That's church for me

Scott Bradfield talking about Harry Crews. SB's casual bathtub BookTuber vibe kills it. I call him MB for master bather.

bro hug from canada. thanks for your interesting reviews.

DANG! That's wild writing.

"It is curious that while good people go to great lengths to spare their children from suffering, few of them seem to notice that the one (and only) guaranteed way to prevent all the suffering of their children is not to bring those children into existence in the first place." -David Benatar

@folksurvival

5 ай бұрын

Vile ideology.

what a great review, biographies have an odd place in my mind. I had to write a biography on charles dickens when I was younger, and now I do have some difficulty with biographies, but this has sparked an interest. now, I do have some recommendations, if you like the idea of a group of characters descending into a pit of misery and madness, through addiction and obsession, read requiem for a dream. the movie adaptation is also wonderful, yet hard to watch, I think you will enjoy it. the book is much better, in the most grotesque way you can imagine. I will not spoil it, any who see this, read the book first, then the book. the movie is great in itself, but, the music really makes it the, in my opinion, a masterpiece.

Just woke up, was listening to this with my morning coffee and this made me cry... how much pain was he in to kill himself in that way... knife feels good

Dude, i'm not remotely southern but I totally get this Southern Gothic. Lived some of it, in the far north west.

Oh! I just finished reading it 2 days ago...

I grew up primarily in a very small, rural town in GA called Lincolnton. Albeit in the early 00’s not the 30’s but a lot of the description of this book seem hauntingly familiar. A different world indeed. I also had a strange sleepwalking experience.

@metaparcel

5 ай бұрын

Thinking in those towns is still pre segregation if you know what I mean. Not really safe

@Azkahamm

5 ай бұрын

@@metaparcel yes & no. It was complex. Race relations in my youth ranged from hostile to something akin to animal mother & 8 ball from full metal jacket where they were “racist” towards each other but had each others backs too. The real evil racism always came from the parents or grandparents. But the classism was also tied to it. The Deep South is very strange to say the least. There’s a sinister magic to it.

I feel like Cliff would like Russell Banks, Charles D'AMBROSIO, Barry Hannah, William Gass, Dorothy Allison, and April Reynolds

Laughed so hard when you said you can exploit the shit out of living through hardships and in spite of it…so true 😂

If you’re into memoirs you gotta read “Another Bullshit Night in Suck City” by Nick Flynn

The best autobiography: (IMO) "Malcolm X."

I haven't picked up a book in years really. Everything is audio books now. I can't imagine holding a book in my hand unless Im reading something on my phone like a pdf of a book but again I'd rather listen to something these days. I get no pleasure or nostalgia or asmr from holding a book. I'm a former avid reader of books into a current avid reader on digital media and listener of audiobooks. I hope I can find some good books on your channel which I just found.

The new layout of the Penguin books looks so soulless