{"product_id":"the-gospel-singer-paperback","title":"The Gospel Singer - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eHarry Crews\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eKevin Wilson\u003c\/b\u003e (Foreword by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Harry Crews is magnificently twisted and brutally funny.\" - Carl Hiaasen \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Penguin Classic\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGolden-haired, with the voice of an angel and a reputation as a healer, the Gospel Singer appeared on the cover of LIFE and brought thousands to their knees in Carnegie Hall. But for all his fame, he is a man in mortal torment that drives him back to his obscure and wretched hometown of Enigma, Georgia. But by the time his Cadillac pulls into Enigma, he discovers an old friend is being held at tenuous bay from a lynch mob. As Harry Crews's first novel unfolds, the Gospel Singer is forced to give way to his torment, and in doing so he reveals to the believers who have gathered at his feet just how little he is God's man, and how much he has contributed to the corruption of each of them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHarry Crews\u003c\/b\u003e was born in 1935 at the end of a dirt road in Alma, Bacon County, Georgia, a rural community near the Okefenokee Swamp. His father, a tenant farmer, died before Harry was two years old. A mysterious childhood paralysis; a horrible scalding accident; his mother's second, turbulent marriage and divorce from a drunken uncle whom Crews had been led to believe was his natural father; and a move to Jacksonville, Florida, for his mother to find factory work were experiences that would feed his desire to imagine and, ultimately, to write. As a teen, Crews served a tour in the Marine Corps. On the GI Bill, Crews attended the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor's degree in literature followed by a master's in education, with which he taught high-school and junior-college English. A protégé of Southern novelist Andrew Lytle, Crews published his first short story in the \u003ci\u003eSewanee Review\u003c\/i\u003e in 1962. He published his first novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Gospel Singer\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003ein 1968. Its publication earned Crews a new teaching job at the University of Florida and paved the way for the publication of seven more novels over the next eight years, including \u003ci\u003eNaked in Garden Hills\u003c\/i\u003e (1969); \u003ci\u003eCar\u003c\/i\u003e (1972); \u003ci\u003eThe Hawk Is Dying\u003c\/i\u003e (1973), which was adapted into a film released in 2006; \u003ci\u003eThe Gypsy's Curse\u003c\/i\u003e (1974); and the widely acclaimed \u003ci\u003eA Feast of Snakes\u003c\/i\u003e (1976). Crews's reputation as a bold and daring new voice in Southern writing grew during this time. In the 1970s, he wrote for popular magazines, including a monthly column for \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e and essays for \u003ci\u003ePlayboy\u003c\/i\u003e, and screenplays. In 1978, Crews's memoir of his youth, \u003ci\u003eA Childhood: The Biography of a Place\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003ewas published to enduring acclaim. Two compilations of his nonfiction works, \u003ci\u003eBlood and Grits\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eFlorida Frenzy\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003ewere issued in 1979 and 1982, respectively. A decade of drug and alcohol abuse and creative lapses ended in 1987 with the publication of his ninth novel, \u003ci\u003eAll We Need of Hell\u003c\/i\u003e. Crews retired from the classroom after teaching for thirty years at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Crews, who died in 2012 at age seventy-six, was a prominent writer in the literary genre known as Dirty South or Grit Lit, notable for its bizarre characters, grotesque violence, and satirical surrealism. His artistic forebears include William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and Erskine Caldwell, but Crews remade Southern gothic in his own rough-hewn image in eighteen memorable novels, including \u003ci\u003eKarate Is a Thing of the Spirit\u003c\/i\u003e (1971), \u003ci\u003eThe Knockout Artist\u003c\/i\u003e (1988), and \u003ci\u003eBody\u003c\/i\u003e (1990), dozens of riveting nonfiction pieces, and one of the finest memoirs in American literature. In 2002, the University of Georgia Libraries inducted Harry Crews into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eKevin Wilson\u003c\/b\u003e (foreword) is the New York Times bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Family Fang\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003ePerfect Little World\u003c\/i\u003e; and, most recently, \u003ci\u003eNothing to See Here\u003c\/i\u003e, which was named a 2019 Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e, \u003c\/b\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 224\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.71 x 7.64 x 5.04 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e March 15, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53755527921997,"sku":"9780143135098","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0927\/3304\/7117\/files\/SjJPdVVUemxEMytkMFVmQmlPbnFOdz09.webp?v=1776719243","url":"https:\/\/belfastbooks.us\/products\/the-gospel-singer-paperback","provider":"belfastbooks.us","version":"1.0","type":"link"}