By James Calemine
“Parting is all we know of heaven
And all we need of hell.”
–Emily Dickinson
Harry Crews wrote most of All We Need of Hell in the 1970s, but it was published in 1987. It was his first novel in eleven years. The story revolves around fitness nut Duffy Deeter and how his life begins to unravel. His wife may be cheating, his law partner is suing him and his son is obsessed with junk food. The NFL player who cracks a couple of Duffy’s front teeth in the beginning of the story, eventually becomes a kindred friend.
Barry Hannah called this Crews book “a happy masterpiece”. There is no doubt pages 101-118 contains some of Crews’ most hilarious writing. The reader will laugh out loud a few times. All We Need of Hell includes Crews’ brutal physical descriptions, memorable characters and some of his most light-hearted moments.
All We Need of Hell counts as one of Crews’ best-selling novels, and it began a resurrection of his career in the 1990s. These 161 pages rank as inspirational literature. Crews wrote to an editor: “When my work is in with me and the legal pad and the pencil in the room where I write, it’s–I hope–art. Or at least I have pretensions to art. When it gets outside of that room, it’s a business.”
All We Need of Hell mixes art and business with a high degree of potency.
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