The Gospel Singer

De: Harry Crews, Kevin Wilson - introduction

Narrado por: Matt Godfrey

“Harry Crews is magnificently twisted and brutally funny.” - Carl Hiaasen

A Penguin Classic


Golden-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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The Gospel Singer was an assertion of Crews’s Southernness, of his claim both to the lofty inheritance of Faulkner and O’Connor and to the clipped, enchorial rhythms of Bacon County.”
—Charlie Lee, Harper's

“Flannery O’Connor on steroids.”
—John Williams, GQ

“I don’t know where [Harry Crews’s] narrative magic comes from, but it is firmly there.”
—Joseph Heller

“…a bona fide Southern writer in the vein of Flannery O’Connor, whose unvarnished language and absurdist take on life among the lower rungs of the region’s social ladder [is] shot through with a rough-and-tumble kind of empathy….it was with great pleasure that I spent last weekend reading The Gospel Singer,… a darkly funny tragedy…. The world he writes about is violent and ruthless….But there’s a point to Crews’ madness, and always present is a throughline of empathy…”
—Atlanta Journal Constitution

“Critics and awards anoint some authors as legends. Others depend on word-of-mouth and prose that stands the test of time….There is nothing folksy, never mind pastoral or genteel, about Crews. With caustic and fabulist writing, he exhumed the ghosts of America’s original sin…..Crews captured the raw essence of humanity in both fiction and nonfiction. Side by side, these reissues form the complete picture of an imperfect man who charged hard into extremes to escape his cultural inheritance.”
—Lauren Leblanc, Los Angeles Times

honest southern gothic

and the narrator nailed the main characters southern dialect.
hard too listen to in public or with friends but a damn brutal use of storytelling should be that way

Superb

Harry Crews is next level. Donald Ray Pollock mentioned him as one of his favorite authors. I can’t wait to read everything he’s done.

Elvis was supposed to star in the movie

Harry crews knew how to write a novel! If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to come from a small town to become a national or international musician this is most likely what it feels like. The anxiety, the perception and the hope that an audience can put on a performer can weight heavily.

Character studies like no other southern writer

How did I miss out on Harry Crews?
Not included in any of my southern tomes but he is a worthy story teller.
Crews included every freak and abhorrent character to be found in one story.
Seems predictable at the outset, but the plot twists and turns so many times that the ending is a shock!
I will be reading more of his books now.

Dark, gritty Southern Lit

What starts out hilariously over-the-top turns into something fascinating and possibly deep (I'm still figuring out what it all means).

Excellent all around

Harry Crews was absolutely one of a kind. I have most of his books and each of them are truly great in their own way. Do yourselves a favor and immerse yourselves into the world of Harry Crews. You will not regret it. RIP.
JST-

The gospel singer

This book is an incredibly slow burn but keeps you intrigued the entire time. It starts by seemingly going nowhere until the end and you just sit there in shock. Harry Crews does such a good job at describing everything that it all comes together in the end. This book is definitely not for the light hearted, and there are A LOT of n-words; but the novel sits apart from anything else.

Wickedly funny satire of tent revival culture

The Gospel Singer is wickedly funny Southern Gothic literature pushed to its most extreme limits. Crews parodies the institution of tent revivals, taking on racism, misogyny, poverty, illiteracy, ableism, dishonesty, and a whole host of other human and societal failings as he explores the hypocrisy, greed, and blind faith and superstition so often found in the human component of religious institutions. Crews takes aim at everyone and everything with savage wit. If you are easily offended, this is probably not the book for you. But if you like satire, the absurd, and unconventional and irreverent ways of reflecting on culture and society, Crews is hilarious.