honestly the only reason i picked up this book was because of the cover. the ending is probably the best part of the entire book.

Crews’s memoir was the first, and best, book I read in 2023. This novel doesn’t have quite the same heft, but is deeply steeped in the tropes of Southern writing, strongly reminiscent of Flannery O’Connor: the physical grotesque as displayed by the presence of disabled people (“freaks” and “cripples”, per the text), incongruous tableaux (pigs live in a beautiful mansion the main character has had built for his family), and sudden extreme violence; the “Christ-hauntedness” and the racism; the poverty. Somehow, though, I like Crews more. I always want to fight with O’Connor despite being seared by her vision. Perhaps precisely because Crews’s Gospel Singer (no other name is ever given him) doesn’t believe in the God to whom his voice brings sinners home all over the nation, he’s a little easier to warm to. The parallels between the Singer and Foot—the successful, sane and affluent proprietor of a traveling freak show, who has one normal foot and one that’s twenty-seven inches long—are obvious but very effective: both are exceptional in an undeniable way, but one has allowed what looks like a gift to become a curse and one has forced what looks like a curse to become a gift. Yes, the ending is an explosion of appalling violence, but it lacks the nauseating aura of complete existential disorientation that O’Connor’s violence sometimes exudes—which, for me as a reader, is a good thing. I’ll read more of Crews.

This book blew my shit clean away. It is wonderfully filthy, funny, gritty and appalling. I want to read everything Crews ever wrote after reading this, his debut novel.

It seemed obvious that a man could not have both silk drawers and God. He could have one or the other but not both.

The Gospel Singer is the brillant debut by Harry Crews, originally published in 1968, reprinted in 2023 by Penguin Classics. Imagine a gritter, more depraved & amorale Flannery O'Connor story. This is what you're getting yourself into when you read Harry Crews. His work is unflenching, humorous, and disturbing, much like the work of O'Connor. The only difference is Crews wasn't a devout Catholic.

The Gospel Singer is a book steeped in old time religion and deep southern poverty-stricken pathos. It looks at how the south is haunted by Christ and how easily human nature can be corrupted. In this way, you could compare it to O'Connor's Wise Blood. Just don't expect any redemption.

The un-named gospel singer is a morally repugnant celebrity, who treated as holy by the hordes who see his beauty and godliness in his voice (sort of like a demented Elvis Presley). People are saved on the spot and he merely takes advantage of his pickings, burying himself in lust. And everyone wants a piece of him, even the killer of his lustful nemesis, MaryBell. In the novel, The Gospel Singer returns to his home town to sign at a revival, the singer must confront the corruption he has caused head on and it all leads towards a chilling violent ending.

With a bizarre cast of characters, twisted story, humorous dialogue, uncomforatable racial dynamics, and shocking ending The Gospel Singer certainly probably was a revelation when it was published. It still is shocking today.

I've been told that this isn't even the best Crews novel. And that's wild because it is a great debut novel. If The Gospel Singer is any indication, Crews' other novels are well worth reading.

Pairs well wih bourdon and some Johnny Cash or Elvis Presley records.

Southern Gothic that leans heavily on the grotesque. It's a novel rampant with images of decay, poverty, anything deemed "freakish" (including a freak show). I read probably 60% of it and skimmed the rest for plot details. The Gospel Singer's relationship with sin and the self (he's a mythologized, God-like figure but actually *gasp* is a slimy guy with a high libido) motivates much of this narrative, but Crews' ruminations grow redundant by the halfway point to the point that the novel appears to become a series of intriguing set pieces rather than a wholly realized milieu. As such, The Gospel Singer rings somewhat shallow as a pulpy take on destitution rather than something greater. But the style is good! So I'll probably try another Harry Crews at a later date.