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As mentioned on the homepage, I envision this as an "Alan Recommends" page--though I will certainly leave room for other reactions. If the author is fairly modern (i.e. has their own web page) you can click on their name and be directed right there. I hope to edit this page regularly, so check back often!
A Feast of Snakes
by Harry Crews
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 | This one was so tonally divergent from what I’ve been reading that it took me awhile to wrap my mind around it, but I ultimately decided that the book succeeds on a variety of levels. The plot seems familiar at first—high school running back that’s long on talent but short on brains deals with the aftermath of his now deflated status—but there is more than enough to distinguish this work from its brethren. Mystic, Georgia (where the novel takes place) is a backwoods treasure trove of fascinating characters, whose brazen arrogance and periodic malevolence is handled courageously, giving the novel a kind of redneck naturalism that is engaging and at times surprisingly moving. Characters brawl joyously, get drunk as both a carefree lifestyle and a balm against desperation (sometimes at the same time), attend illegal dog-fights, sell bootleg liquor, and in general do whatever they can to reinflame the tiny glories of their limited pasts. |
Crews structures his story around the annual rattlesnake roundup in Mystic, where people from all over the south (“and a few folks from Canada”) converge on Mystic to ferret as many rattlers and copperheads from the woods as they can, and the weekend’s various events—the roundup itself, the beauty contests, the impromptu competitions and sundry craftspeople—give the characters more than enough to do. But the ringmaster here is Joe Lon Mackey and—like some of Crews’ other leading men—he is first and foremost a bastard. Unlike the reprehensible lead in Crews’ Scarlover, though, we understand what made Joe Lon who he is, and to some extent forgive him his behavior, which (without giving anything away) ranges from disquieting to horrifying. On at least one level, the conceit behind Snakes is Crews’ desire to test how far he can take Joe Lon without losing the loyalty of his readers, almost daring us to forgive him or indulge him like the rest of Mystic seems to do. We follow Joe Lon’s tale carefully, and by the end of the book, when he has failed to recreate the world as it was and instead settles for destroying it as it currently is, the result is both shocking and heartbreaking. This dense little book is not for the faint of heart, but if that fits your bill check it out.
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