The late Harry Crews is regarded as one of the greatest, gnarliest storytellers of the Deep South, with his stories full of dark humor, suffering, and sweat. So far three of his books have been reissued by Penguin Classics — 1968's Gospel Singer, 1978's A Childhood: The Biography Of A Place, and 1988's The Knockout Artist — and now his 1990 novel Body is getting a new edition from the imprint and it has a foreword by MJ Lenderman.
The book is not yet announced, but it's displayed on the Penguin Random House website. The Asheville musician and Wednesday member previously talked about the book in an interview with Southwest Review when asked about some good books about sports he's read:
Crews’s book Body is a good one. It’s about a female bodybuilding competition. He has the Southern-freak thing happening in so many of his books, but this one is rooted in his life in a way that’s really funny. The novel was inspired by his time working as a trainer for a bodybuilder in the 80s. He met her at a gym and somehow became her trainer and her boyfriend. I think this was after he quit drinking, and he got really into working out as a way to help with writer’s block. There’s a great YouTube video of Crews reading from the book that’s worth watching.
He also said he read a lot of Crews while working on Boat Songs:
When I think about that time, I mostly remember Harry Crews. I was deep into his catalog while working on Boat Songs. There’s a book of compiled interviews called Getting Naked With Harry Crews that spans his entire career. By the end of the book, he’s settled into a pretty serious discipline for writing every day. He’d wake up at three or four in the morning and write for four hours. That was all the writing he’d allow himself to do for the day. He also talks about being good at something other than writing. For him, that was teaching. So when he was having a bad day at writing, he could do something else and still find confidence in himself, which was necessary for him to continue writing. Reading about his writing process helped me find my own discipline during what ended up being a really prolific time for me. I didn’t get up that early, but I did try to wake up earlier than usual and write every day. So that was helpful to me.
The Penguin Classics edition is out Nov. 20. Earlier today, Thomas Dollbaum announced a new album with Lenderman on drums. The guy's got lots of side quests.
