Rating: 
Summary: A wonderfully grotesque black comedy
Review: Of all Harry Crew's books, this remains my favorite. On the difficult tightwire that Crews has chosen to walk, this book strikes the perfect balance between the horror and the comedy of life in a universe that doesn't give a damn about the individual's hopes and dreams. At times both laugh out loud funny and saddly horrible, this tale of modern day marginal southern characters is the perfect example of the peculiar universe of Crew's fiction.Harry Crews has established himself as a kind of southern gothic Hemingway whose bruised, bloody and always, in some ways, crippled protagonists seem more foolish than heroic. Yet these 'freaks' are human and their stories move us. There is a great humanity in Crews books, but always beneath the surface. A Feast of Snakes is one of those books on the very short stack I keep on hand to reread with pleasure from time to time. If you enjoy black comedy - if the exremes of the human condition strike you as much comic as tragic - then this book might be for you. I love it.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing accomplishment
Review: Only Harry Crews could write a novel filled with unlikable charcters who have no redeeming qualities and make it work. That Crews is an outstanding writer should be a given to those familiar with his work. That his writing is often angry and depressing should come as no surprise. But I never would have thought he had a book like "A Feast Of Snakes" in him. This is the written equivalent of a shotgun blast to the belly. "A Feast Of Snakes" is more than an angry book; it boils over with rage. Joe Lon Mackey isn't just a Southern redneck stereotype, he is the embodiment of the frustration and desperation of America's rural poor. "Deliverance" reads like a fairy tale in comparison to this novel. The tone of "A Feast Of Snakes" is vile and hateful. It feels like Crews' most personal work, perhaps written at a time when Crews was going through a living hell of his own. Like Joe Lon Mackey, Crews comes from a poor, rural area of Georgia. Unlike Joe Lon, Crews' skills afforded him the opportunity to break away from the endless cycle of violence, ignorance, hatred and self destruction that is Joe Lon's life. But Crews hasn't forgotten. As detestable as Joe Lon is, it is obvious that Crews has a certain respect for - or at least feels a kinship with - the character. You will likely feel unsettled after reading this novel. You may feel angry. You will certainly feel something and you will feel it intensely. This book grabs you by the throat and bangs your head against the wall for seemingly no reason. But maybe there is a reason. Maybe someone finally realized that in order to properly convey the impotent fury of the Joe Lon's of the world, the story must be written with cold, hard, unflinching honesty. Love it or hate it, you simply can't deny the truth that Crews has the guts to tell with a defiant pride.
Rating: 
Summary: Compellingly ugly
Review: Parts of this novel were so disturbing, I wanted to toss it across the room. I most especially hated the passages about the torture of the poor pit bull...but then everyone in this novel is a poor pit bull. And Crews has a genius for describing the ugliest things in a way that is compelling; like an auto accident up the road you swear you won't look at, but there you are rubber-necking.
Rating:
Summary: Football,Whiskey,Rattlesnake Round-ups...Sounds Great!
Review: This is a book for men I would think. It is filled with male humor,subjects that are not for the squeamish. A lot of deep south symbolism that is depressing and sometimes could be reality.The characters are disturbed hicks that live in a surrealistic atmosphere. The snakes are sickening to boot!
Rating:
Summary: One of my ultimate favorites
Review: This novel is one which will stick with you forever. The imagery which Harry Crews uses will both repulse and stun you at the same time. He manages to fit an epic in less than 200 pages. Believe me....I was an English major and have read them all, but no novel has had as much a lasting affect on me as this book did. I must warn those weak of heart that the images in this novel are sometimes quite hard to take. You have been warned!
Rating:
Summary: How I Became an Addict
Review: This was the first novel by Harry Crews that I ever read. It may as well have been heroin because to this day I will read anything and everything he publishes. Crews writes almost tenderly about brutal, ugly people in a wasteland of frustrated desires. He grabs you by the back of the neck and holds your head down close enough to see the gorgeous, swirling iridescence of a fly's wing as it feasts on rotted meat. He propels you through the most chilling land of horrors you will ever see and yet, somehow leaves you feeling uplifted. Crews will baptize you in a lake of raw sewage laughing gleefully all the while as you struggle to understand why you feel redeemed.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal, depraved, perfect...
Review: What if the Jerry Springer show was an allegory for the human condition? The masterpiece by Crews explores loneliness, isolation, destiny, and evil through the most unlikely of people. The symbolism of the snakes is milked for everything its worth and is somehow, pulled off perfectly. And that which holds this book together and sets it apart is, of course, the humor.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty Good
Review: While a fairly quick and entertaining read, the book lacks in certain areas. Likeable characters being one. Almost every character in the book is either detestable, or pitiful. It does succeed in being tragic and depressing. The back of the book makes it sound like it might be more humorous then it actually is. I was expecting something along the lines of Vonnegut-like satire. But was dissapointed. All in all, a decent read, but doesn't really leave you with much. The ending is a good one, and makes sifting through the tragic and boring life of the main character worthwhile.
Rating:
Summary: Here he goes again..
Review: Wonderful, disturbing Southern Gothic. An unsettling yarn that "sticks to the ribs". As usual, a Crewes novel that joins David Lynch and William Faulkner. Each novel is eagerly awaited, and this is Crews at his surrealistic best... Buy 'em all...they won't dissapoint!! I made my wife read it, and she's still disturbed and haunted by the narrative.
Rating:
Summary: A sick, depraved, and hilarious voyage through Americana
Review: You will never encounter another literary character on the scale of Joe Lon Mackey. He is sick, depraved, perverted, cruel, and highly entertaining. He probably also exists in many forms in Modern America more than we would like to think about. This novel has exactly zero literary merit, but nonetheless deserves its five stars for the sheer lecherousness of it. You can read it in a few hours and be none the worse for wear because of it.
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