A Childhood: The Biography of a Place (Penguin Classics)

Harry Crews grew up in south Georgia in an impoverished sharecropper family. Their poverty and ignorance were almost unbelievable. But their world also contained love and magic, along with alcoholism and domestic violence. Crews was attuned to the nature that surrounded him and took for granted his parents' fights over his father's drinking, his close relationship with a black tenant family on the farm, and everyone around him being poor, illiterate, and marked or maimed by physical labor, accidents, and animals.The father in the book is actually Crews's stepfather. After Crews's father died, when he was about two, his older brother divorced his wife and married Crews's mother. He was a loving father to Crews and his brother, but he grew increasingly drunk and absent. Life on the farm was incredibly hard, but as I said, magical for young Harry. Then he was briefly and painfully crippled by polio at about age five and, just as he recovered, horribly burned when he fell into scalding water at a hog butchering.During both protracted recoveries he was cared for at night by his best friend's grandmother, an elderly black woman who told him outlandish tales that reflected her magical understanding of the world. Even amidst a rich storytelling culture, in which stories immortalized, explained, and helped people endure an unforgiving and often desperate life, Auntie stood out. Her tales, which emphasized unknowable power and mystery and the importance of protective rituals, didn't provide comprehension of phenomena but a way to live with them. Crews learned well—what a fine storyteller is riveting our attention on his life from ages five to about 10, with a flash forward at the end.The tone that Crews creates and his sentence rhythms made this an intoxicating read for me, and the story is compelling—you really want to find out what happens. He conveys his experiences through his childhood point of view, and often in vivid scenes, but using the strong storyteller's voice of an older, wiser, sadder man looking back. Though Crews only occasionally seems to speak to readers in his adult writer's voice, his layering of both childhood and adult perspectives imbues the memoir with depth. We grasp more than he did then, even as we enjoy his childhood innocence and originality.Despite the brutality and harshness of his world, I could not help but envy aspects of its cohesion, which sets up a reader to be unexpectedly moved by Crews's ultimate plight.

Hard to put down. A foreign world but recognizable to any who lived on a farm even in modern times.

I was engaged throughout the reading but found many of the author's tales from childhood difficult to accept as memoir. Often these recounting took on the flavour of inflated fantasy perhaps based on the whisp of a real memory. Certainly the book offers a very real portrait of life in south Georgia in the early and middle twentieth century. Having been born and brought up in the same environment I found many stories in the book that caused me to stop reading and reflect and remember just how confusing it all was.

I don't read many books for personal enjoyment because I don't have time. My work requires a great deal of professional reading. However, I decided to try this book since the location, Bacon County, is very familiar to me and geographically close to where I currently live. Also, I have a personal interest in history. There are not many books written about childhood by individuals who grew up in south Georgia. I gave this book five stars because I could hardly put it down, so for me, this means it was highly engaging.Most of the time I get bored and cannot finish a book. A few years ago, I talked to my father who was born in 1928 about how pretty the girls from Bacon County were, and he said, yes that was true, but if anyone from Ware County tried to go out with one of them, those boys in Bacon County would beat their tails. After reading this book, I think that was probably true and that my dad was not exaggerating.

Wonderful writing, amazing memories and a heart worth listening to. I’m so glad I had the experience. I highly recommend

Engaging, at times hilarious, at times sad…and then, it abruptly ends. It’s the story of a little boy making sense of his world and his life in rural Georgia during the depression and into the 1940s.

Well written and interesting reminiscences. I'm not yet finished with it but I'm struck with how hard life has been for the author. I'm not a fan of the illustrations.

As mentioned by another reviewer, if you're not familiar with Harry Crews, this is a good place to start. Then read his novel _Scar Lover_, and you'll see the connections.This is simply the most evocative and beautiful memoir I have ever read. The man is amazing.I know that his novels tend to shock some people. But reading this book helps us understand where he's coming from--both literally and figuratively.I spent a day at Harry's house this summer (July 2011), and he was gracious and hospitable--and tons of fun. He cussed up a storm, but he just exuded wisdom. He's 76. He can't use his legs, and he has all kinds of health problems. But he still has that gleam in his eye, and he's working on his 18th book. He gets up at 4 a.m. every morning and writes 500 words. Long may he live.

This is one of the best books I have ever read.

A book I would never have thought of reading, but read an excellent review, and I'm finding it accessible and thought-provoking. Really glad I bought it.

Mary Karr in her book 'The Art of Memoir' recommended two of Harry Crews's books. 'A Childhood:...' was one of them. It is a fascinating, enjoyable book. One of the best books I've read. I won't give away anything, but Chapter 7 highlights Crews's mastery in storytelling.The poet and writer Charles Bukowski recommends that every sentence in a story should have some 'juice'. Crews pours a lot of 'juice' in this novel.

A stoater of a recollection of how a town contributed to the making of a man.

good