KARATE IS A THING OF THE SPIRIT

by Harry Crews ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1971

Harry Crews is a verbal alchemist whose plots can leave you hanging your hat on the outer reaches of insanity and calling it home. Someday someone will be forced to write a thesis on him. In an attempt to bring it all together -- his excesses -- John Kaimon ""got very little sleep because the members of the motorcycle gang circumcised him, raped his mouth, anus and armpits and did some other things to him that he had never thought of""; and his simplicity: ""I don't know what this place is like around here, but I've found in most cities people'll give you for a day's begging about what you could make for a day's work. I mean I usually make about sixteen dollars for an eight-hour beg."" In reluctant summation this plot is about Faulkner fan John Kaimon getting mixed up with the Ultimate Tranquility group, an ""Outlaw"" Karate set that worships ""Jefferson Davis"" (the midget protagonist of Naked In Garden Hills) and especially Gay Nell Odell, a brown belted beauty who divides her time between Kartekas and Beauty Contests and who teaches in a dried out swimming pool in an abandoned motel. But that's not even the beginning, middle, or end. . . . Mr. Crews is a master of the uncommonplace and consistently fascinating.

Pub Date: April 5, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION