The Knockout Artist

I read my first Harry Crews book, CAR, somewhere around 1974. It's a very strange novel about a guy who decides to eat a car - a Ford Maverick, to be exact - from bumper to bumper. Yeah, GROtesque stuff, no question. But I enjoyed it so much, that I went back and read his previous books, and continued to read his work for several years after. So I think THE KNOCKOUT ARTIST is prob around the 7th or 8th Crews book I've consumed. I mean READ, because I didn't actually EAT the books like the CAR guy ate the Maverick. I mean, well …

So here's the first Crews book I've read in probably over twenty years, and I did enjoy it. Set in Jacksonville, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, another scarred, damaged, fragile character is presented here in show more ex-boxer Eugene Biggs, whose fight career ended when he discovered he had a glass jaw. Shortly after that, he made the discovery that he could knock himself out by punching himself in the jaw. Apparently people want to see that, and will even pay for it, and so Eugene "Knockout" Biggs entered the world of "kink." He also met another damaged soul in rich Texan socialite, Charity, who takes on Eugene as a "research project," or so she says.

There are sex, S&M, drugs, violence, and lotsa "kink" in THE KNOCKOUT ARTIST, which is of course true of most of Crews' work. I was not quite as entranced by it this time around, but probably that's just me, forty-odd years later. Crews' fiction is often characterized as Southern noir or Gothic, and sometimes as "grotesque." I'm reminded somewhat of the weird grotesques in Flannery O'Connor's work whenever I read Harry Crews, and I just researched him a bit, and found out that he and O'Connor (and James Dickey too) had the same creative writing teacher at the University of Florida, one Andrew Nelson Lytle. An interesting connection, no?

Harry Crews died several years back, and this book came from somewhere mid-career for him, in 1988. If you are a Harry Crews fan, this one will not disappoint. I found the ending a bit abrupt and inconclusive, but, if I remember correctly, even that may be typical Crews. A good read. RIP, Harry, and thanks for all the entertaining hours I spent with you and your unique creations.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

A boxer whose only skill is knocking himself out... Outside of this work which takes the skill seriously for the down-on-his luck freak of ahtletic, I have only seen the ploy as a gag. Crews makes it work, which is impressive and especially to me that rarely reads and is less rarely moved to remember modern fiction. Setting the hero’s career in the New Orleans underworld was part of the reason I originally read the work; I then and still now loved the city and its possibilities. From such possibiliites, Crews comjures up the mysterious trainer Jake, perverse tycoon named Oyster Boy; and lover Charity, an earnest psychology graduate student. These are featrues in the city’s decandent and poisonous pool of tawdry sex clubs, fantastic show more deals, and private parties where every whim is indulged. Transformation (a near requirement for a good novel) comes when hero Eugene must confront his self-respect, which arrives in the person of an immensely talented young Cajun fighter - an innocent in whom he recognizes something of what he had once been. show less

Really enjoyed. Loved the characters and how the story built up looking at the underbelly of New Orleans. End a bit sudden but not many other directions to go. Probably one of the best TGBC books.

Story of a prize fighter with a glass chin, who is forced to move to New Orleans and perform for rich people. He knocks himself out. Literally.