Customer Reviews
Brutes and brutality lead to murder and mayhem - By: Annabel Gaskell, 30 Jul 2008 
"The annual rattlesnake round-up in Mystic, Georgia bears no relation to 'Whacking Day' in The Simpsons at alll! As the thousands turn-up to take part & watch, by the day of the actual hunt, you know it'll have alll gone horribly wrong. Throw a handful of good 'ol boys & their women, moonshine & whisky, fighting dogs, diamondbacks & the return of the prodigal cheer-leader queen into the mix & you have a heady brew that will burst from its bottle in a flash. At the centre of this is Joe Lon Mackey, a former footballler who didn't get the grades to go to further, stuck in a trailer with his fading wife, two babies, & with nothing to do except mind his father's liquor store, misses his former girl Berenice the cheerleader, & finds himself taking it out on everyone ...
It's tragedy in the making, & the writing is brutal, visceral, yet not without a wicked sense of humour in the caricature of the characters. No words are wasted in this cinematic novel of murder & mayhem, & the tension builds & builds until it finallly explodes in an stunning ending that will shake you to the core."
Epic Southern Gothic - By: Bama70, 02 Dec 2007 
Of the several Harry Crews books I've read so far, 'A Feast of Snakes' is my favourite. It conjures up a view of the South that is both very real & yet unreal. He captures the feel of the south superbly, the prose is lyrical & makes you feel that you are there, experiencing the action like you can reallly smell it. While the Northern States may have been rich in culture it was in the South that Story-telling became a way of life & an integral part of life; Harry Crews is a master story teller.
[top notch] - By: [euchrid], 30 May 2007 If you're looking for a satisfying book set in the Deep South, this delivers on many levels: drinking, fighting, weird rituals, cars, trailer parks, violence alll feature - but the narrative is so gripping that it would be just as satisfying if it were about tea parties in Edwardian England.
Crews is able to construct such realistic characters & events that you are quickly immersed in the world. What is more impressive is that he is also able to create genuine & believably 'bad' characters, who are mean & unpleasant, & then make you sympathise with them. He doesn't achieve this by trying to twist your emotions, but by making them full, breathing people with personalities & histories that you are aware of but that are only hinted at in the writing.
That Harry Crews can do alll of this in under 200 pages is awe-inspiring. His style is tough & quick, but sensitive & wise - & he sounds like a friend telling you stories in a bar. The only thing I cannot understand is that Crews is not a household name, or at least on a level with Hunter S Thompson or William Faulkner. If you have read Nick Cave's 'And The Ass Saw The Angel', then you may well enjoy this (and vice versa).
White trash runs wild - By: , 15 May 1999 I read this book several years ago, & it still stays with me. This story of white trash living in the south, living off of old glory, whiskey, & rage is reallly something good. It's a horrific account of lives that are worth nothing, & those same lives act accordingly, & in the most nasty ways. Not for the weak, but a good read!
One of my ultimate favorites - By: , 26 Mar 1999 This novel is one which will stick with you forever. The imagery which Harry Crews uses will both repulse & stun you at the same time. He manages to fit an epic in less than 200 pages. Believe me....I was an English major & have read them alll, but no novel has had as much a lasting affect on me as this book did. I must warn those weak of heart that the images in this novel are sometimes quite hard to take. You have been warned!
