A Feast of Snakes: A Novel

I'll start by saying, despite it's violent and unnerving plot, it was a breeze to read.Far be it from me to criticize a man raised in the rural south, but this feels a lot like porn for the coastal elite to scoff at the backwards ways of the mysterious and brutish culture of Dixie.That being said, what an entertaining story! I'm not sure if I'm supposed to scoff and sneer at the multitude of unlikable characters, but I enjoyed every single one of them. You can follow each character easily without forgetting who is who, despite going back between 2 or 3 points-of-view in the narration. You can probably see the conclusion coming from the first 20 pages, but it still hits hard and is very enjoyable.This is the only Crews book I've read, and might be the only I ever do, because I'm somehow convinced it's his best. It is quite good.

I would like to give this book 4.5 stars. I mostly don't like reading a book with no admirable, likable characters. There are none in Feast of Snakes. There are some sympathetic victims, but this is book about bad, mean people doing bad, despicable things. That said, these people are recognizable. They are compelling, if in a bad car crash kind of way. I grew up in south Georgia. My mom was born in the same county as Harry Crews. When I was 14 I met the author and took him to our local gym to work out. He was a friendly, grizzled old guy. Sometime after, I started reading his novels. I grew up in a stable, loving home, but I went to school and hung out with some of the folks from Crews's south. If that South interests you, read this book. If you like wild, real, tragic characters, read this book.

A page turner. I finished it. Now I'm traumatized. It's dark and dismal and tells of people who drink from morning till night. Rough, down and out, and dirty. The word "love" appears in the book, but I didn't get a sense of love for or from anyone. All the characters are despicable. Mean spirited and cruel to humans and to animals. He can write. But I'm afraid to open another of his books.

Like others have said, it’s not for everyone. I found it so off-putting at first. I have a rescue pitbull and had to skip over one 4-page part. There’s some stuff that’s going to stick with you in an uncomfy way but I think it’s worth it. Crews is brilliant. I do think some folks would understandably want to avoid.

Combing components of Faulkner (southern despair and alcoholism) and Dante's Inferno (a demonic obsession with snakes), Crews has taken a common premise and raised it to the mythical. The premise, a twenty-something Joe Lon Mackey is stuck in a trailer home with a woman he loathes and several hungry children while he escapes with recent memories of his glory football days, drinking moonshine, and helping the town with its annual snake festival. Vipers are a prominent image in this novel, which is, among other things, a refutation of unchecked masculinity. The men in this novel thrive on violence and primal expressions of masculinity to fill their void. It is this need to fill the void with a demonic energy that informs the novel's viper metaphor.The plot is easy to follow enough. We watch Joe Lon Mackey and others go down a descent of debauchery as they seethe with rage and resentment, partly because they sense there is a better life out there and partly because they have no real vision of what that better life could be.With a parallel to The Great Gatsby, we see Joe Lon Mackey long for his high school sweetheart, Berenice, a stuckup cipher who thinks she's superior to all the locals after she leaves to town to go to an elitist college in the north east. Her world becomes the chimera in the way that Daisey's became a chimera or a mirage to Gatsby.For all its nihilitic despair and Dantean violence, there is enough humor in this novel to keep it bouyant. It is also a short, terse 175 pages, crammed with themes about the chimera, the lost American Dream, male violence, tribalistic bonding rituals, racism, and the need for some kind of "religion," even a venomous one, in order to fill the abyss.

Powerful but unpleasant novel from the mid-70s by cult writer Crews about the motley denizens of Mystic, Georgia, a town that holds a yearly "rattlesnake roundup" which attracts thousands of people due to it being the rattlesnake hunting capital of the world. As expected there are lots and lots of snakes and snake metaphors herein.Crews is a very good writer but the problem here is the same as with all his books: the characters are either total morons or criminally violent and infantile alcoholics. The plot includes castration, mass murder, horrific animal abuse, and so much southern gothic macho posturing it's like Norman Mailer meets Gomer Pyle. What to make of all this? I'm really not sure. Although I have attempted to read other Crews books this is the only one I've been able to get through.Crews does conjure up some nightmarish imagery, I'll grant him that. This is straight-up backwoods evil. Many writers have attempted to capture this kind of vibe and many have failed. Crews is clearly not lying. He knows his territory well. I just don't have a strong enough stomach for this kind of stuff. It's a bit too rough for me.The joys of this novel, as with other Crews novels, are in the descriptions, which are fascinating and as vivid as they come. Passages from this book spring to life so clearly in the mind you can almost taste them. I just wish his characters weren't such unapologetic louts.

This is so well written I am going to find a bookstore source and order a few more to give as gifts.

Poorly printed book, not worth £10.99. Listing should say this is 'Printed in Great Britain by Amazon' (these words appear on the last page and as therefore missed by the 'look inside' view). So not manufactured in the USA as shown in the 'look inside' view on the publishing information page?Amazon - this quality of printing reflects very poorly on you and ruins the book reading experience. I can only assume you are trying to drive people to kindle. If you must produce books of this quality at least mention it in the listing and charge a fair price, say £1.99. I would pay extra for an above average print quality by the way.Wouldn't have bought it if the listing had been honest.

"The annual rattlesnake round-up in Mystic, Georgia bears no relation to 'Whacking Day' in The Simpsons at all! As the thousands turn-up to take part and watch, by the day of the actual hunt, you know it'll have all gone horribly wrong. Throw a handful of good 'ol boys and their women, moonshine and whisky, fighting dogs, diamondbacks and the return of the prodigal cheer-leader queen into the mix and you have a heady brew that will burst from its bottle in a flash. At the centre of this is Joe Lon Mackey, a former footballer who didn't get the grades to go to further, stuck in a trailer with his fading wife, two babies, and with nothing to do except mind his father's liquor store, misses his former girl Berenice the cheerleader, and finds himself taking it out on everyone ...It's tragedy in the making, and the writing is brutal, visceral, yet not without a wicked sense of humour in the caricature of the characters. No words are wasted in this cinematic novel of murder and mayhem, and the tension builds and builds until it finally explodes in an stunning ending that will shake you to the core."

This book came as recommended for me. If i'd known it was only 177 pages i may not have bothered. It was more than i would normally pay for a paperbqck too. I am so glad i bought it! A great read, and quite horrific. Yes you guess the worst charqcter will get his comeuppance, and it makes you want to cheer when it happens. I didn't realise how long ago it was written, why have i never heard of it before i can't fathom. It should be made into a film, it reminded me of an southern american whicker man in some ways. Buy it, read it, recommend it!

I really like Harry Crews stuff. I got this one after reading 'Car' and 'The Gypsies Curse' and loved it just as much. It's dark and violent and very enjoyable.

Harry Crews ist ein amerikanischer Südstaatenautor dessen Kultstatus sich noch nicht bis nach Deutschland herumgesprochen hat. Während Cormac McCarthy weltweit gelesen wird, kennt Crews hierzulande kaum jemand. Und das ist schade, denn "A Feast of Snakes" ist wahrscheinlich einer der besten Romane der amerikanischen Nachkriegsliteratur. Dieser Roman enthält alles, was die Südstaatenliteratur ausmacht: "Southern Gothic", "violence" , präzise Wiedergabe der gesprochenen Sprache und poetische Beschreibung der Atmosphäre. Und das in einem Stil, der lakonisch und "tough" ist. Joseph Heller, der Autor von "Catch 22" hat dies als "fine, extraordinary novel...weird and powerful" bezeichnet. Man kann kaum mehr sagen. Wenn man glaubt, dass Hemingway "tough" schreibt, dann sollte man dieses Portrait der gesellschaftlichen Unterschicht in Georgia lesen. Gewalttätig, von einem Ton der Verzweiflung getragen und doch hochpoetisch. Dieser Roman gehört einwandfrei zu den Top Ten der amerikanischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts.