I came across this review of Sprawl by Guy Salvidge, which contains this neat reference to my story in the collection:
Now, I know who Harry Crews is. I haven't read any for years and years, but Crews is cool, and I'm all good with that comparison.
You don't know who Harry Crews is?
For shame.
You can buy Sprawl here.
Ben Peek’s “White Crocodile Jazz” reminds me of the work of one of my favourite writers, Harry Crews, of whom no one but me seems to have heard. This is a gritty piece quite different in tone from most of the stories in this anthology. In it, there’s a Snake Handler who gets the stuffing beaten out of him more than once, a Vietnamese midget by the name of Bob, a mute narrator, a Crocodile Woman, and more. The Crews novel this reminds me of most is The Gypsy’s Curse, which everyone should read directly after reading “White Crocodile Jazz.”
Now, I know who Harry Crews is. I haven't read any for years and years, but Crews is cool, and I'm all good with that comparison.
You don't know who Harry Crews is?
For shame.
You can buy Sprawl here.
Comments
my stuff tends to slip round on a lot of different styles, but i guess it's all mine in the end, so if you catch more of it, i hope you dig it. there ought to be a bit of it online, if i remember right (mostly red sun stories).
A Feast of Snakes
Naked in Garden Hills (rare)
Those are the ones I'd try to find first. There's a book called Classic Crews which has Gypsy, a short novel called Car (about a man who eats a car!) and Crews' memoir A Childhood: The Biography of a Place. I'd start with that.