ALL WE NEED OF HELL

by Harry Crews ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 1986

Crews' first novel in ten years (The Gypsy's Curse, 1974; A Feast of Snakes, 1976), and for the first half he's at his weird, wacky best; but the book thereafter degenerates into sentimentality and antic posturing. Duffy Deeter, a 40-year-old Gainesville, Florida, lawyer, is a physical fitness nut to end all physical fitness nuts--a karate expert who can mn a 4:37 mile and ride his ""handmade Gitane Tour de France ten-speed touring machine"" 40 miles an hour: ""His hard supple ankles rolled delicately under pointed calves that melded in a single flow of muscle to thighs that could do ten deep squats with three hundred pounds, exactly twice his body weight."" But to his wife, Tish, and fat, lazy son Felix, he's a petty dictator, a kind of Great Santini. When he forces Felix to spend a grueling hour on the Nautilus machine, Tish kicks him out of the house and clears out his bank accounts--it turns out she's been having an affair with his law partner, a pompous ex-footballer named Jeff McPhester. Duffy gets his revenge by sneaking into his own bedroom one night and whacking McPhester on the butt with a fraternity paddle, but is saved from further violence by his friend, huge, black Tump Walker, ""the baddest-assed running back in the NFL."" Tump invites Jeff, Tish, Felix, and Duffy to his palatial condo for a tiresome comedy of errors, which ends in Tish and Duffy's reunion and his stunned realization that Felix really isn't such a slobby kid after all (Daffy just wasn't paying attention). Duffy is a classic Crews character, but he's wasted in this pointless novel, with its contrived happy ending. Crews can do, and has done, a lot better.

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1986

Categories: FICTION