Fri 1 Apr 2022
HARRY CREWS – The Gospel Singer. William Morrow, hardcover, 1968. Dell, paperback, 1969. Reprinted many times since.
The Gospel Singer’s about a gospel singer. We never learn his name. He’s just “The Gospel Singer.â€
Born to a family of pig farmers in Enigma, Georgia, he’s much prettier than the rest of the family (couldn’t be any uglier). He’s much prettier than the rest of the town.
Then at the age of 11, as his voice chords mature, his gift is exposed.
He has a transcendent, melodious, otherworldly, sonorous singing voice. And when he sings the gospels, all the ladies turn to jelly, and all the men fall to their knees begging forgiveness for their sins.
The thing is, though, the Gospel Singer’s not particularly religious. He’s not against it or anything. It’s just not his bag.
His bag? Gettin’ laid.
And my golly, this gospel singin’ is the ticket, for God’s sakes.
When he sings that old time gospel music, He sings that old time gospel music. All the sweet silken virgins slither at His feet. They succumb to His will. They will do as He pleases. And it pleases him (if not Him). Quite a bit.
It’s all going well as long as no one finds out about it.
But MaryBell screws up the whole works.
MaryBell is his boyhood sweetheart. Everyone in town is in love with darling MaryBell. But she belongs to the Gospel Singer. Everybody knows it.
MaryBell is as pure as satin sheets on a bed of fresh snow.
But when she hears the Gospel Singer sing, her clothes fly off faster than white on rice.
She naturally assumes that they’ll get married.
But the Gospel Singer ain’t too interested in settling down at the moment.
MaryBell gets pretty upset about losing her virginity without proper consideration.
So she hatches vengeance for her scorn.
She builds a church in the Black part of town. The Church of the Gospel Singer. And there’s no pictures of Christ anywhere. Just pictures of the Gospel Singer.
And she organizes it and ordains a preacher, a reformed, born again, badass: Willalee Bookatee Hull.
And then as soon as the Church of the Gospel Singer is up and running, she tries to seduce Willalee.
When Willalee refuses to sin, “She say, you saved on a lie, the church a lie, the Gospel Singer a lie. She say, God is a man with his pants down, God is a unbuttoned fly. She say, the Gospel Singer …. and I git her with the ice pick. I taken her by the throat and hit her and hit her and hit her.â€
So now MaryBell’s dead, Willalee is gonna be lynched not for murdering MaryBell, but for raping her. For deflowering the flower of Enigma. A crime of which he is innocent.
It’s up to the Gospel Singer to set things right.
And if you believe that, then you’re confusing Harry Crews with Flannery O’Connor.
Not only aren’t things put right.
The whole thing is going straight to hell.
April 1st, 2022 at 3:48 pm
From Wikipedia:
“Harry Eugene Crews (June 7, 1935 – March 28, 2012) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He often made use of violent, grotesque characters and set them in regions of the Deep South.”
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Crews
April 1st, 2022 at 7:22 pm
One of those writers who ran rampant barefoot through their own head with great energy. It’ the kind of thing Jim Thompson might have written in a different life.
Southern gothic done well for those who like the voice and style.
It’s always ironic how much some more mainstream fiction in this “genre” is just one remove from the kind of thing that would have been at home in a paperback original of much less ambition and quality.
April 1st, 2022 at 8:29 pm
Re your last paragraph, David, consider the difference between the two covers, hardcover vs paperback, same book.
April 1st, 2022 at 9:06 pm
I love this licentious cover of a Sartre novel:
I have yet to understand the difference between the so-called classics and the best of the paperback originals. It’s really marketing more than anything else.