Description

A favourite of long-time Harry Crews fans, The Knockout Artist (1988) portrays Eugene Talmadge Biggs, a young boxer from rural Georgia whose champion rise is diverted by a vulnerability, or gift, for knocking himself unconscious.

As he begins to exploit his talents, the notorious Knockout Artist journeys into the New Orleans underworld and meets characters who have long since checked their morals at the door. The unforgettable climax shows Crews at his virtuoso best, when Eugene confronts his truth, and sets out to claim his freedom and win his own self-respect.

Publisher Review

A good old-fashioned morality play with drama and style to spare… * Chicago Tribune * Crews, one of the most inventive practitioners in modern American letters, returns to a milieu that has long fascinated him: the seedy world of fighters and musclemen … A brilliant specialist in black humour, Crews delivers the goods once again. His deadpan prose style is uncannily effective in meshing the surreal and everyday life. While the characters are mainly freaks, they come across so directly, often with an affecting sweetness, that they acquire extraordinary vibrancy. Crews is a modernist all right, but he isn’t a facile one. The moral here and elsewhere in his work is old-fashioned: to thine own self be true. * Publishers Weekly * Crews stalks the ring in near peak form, a master of storytelling fundamentals – pacing, character motivation, atmospheric details – yet armed with surprise punches. Don’t expect just a ring-side seat … You don’t merely read Harry Crews. You climb into the ring with him and go fifteen rounds … Score one for Harry Crews. * Winston-Salem Journal * Characterization, incidents and tone are all beautifully sustained in this unusual book. * Library Journal *