Crum: The Novel - Softcover

Lee Maynard

3.94

654 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0937058599 ISBN 13: 9780937058596

Publisher: West Virginia University Press, 2001

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The appearance of this novel in 1988 stirred deep feelings, and this second edition will no doubt do the same. Maynard, a native of Crum (Wayne County), West Virginia, spins a shocking, often outrageous, always irreverent tale of a young man's rebellion against the people and the place which have surrounded his life. Part Huckleberry Finn and part The Red and the Black, the story is ultimately not about the town of Crum, but about the need to reject the comfort and familiarity of home and find a place in the larger world. At the same time, Crum is a touching and humorous look at small-town life, and at the peculiar rituals of male adolescence. Since its highly successful first publication, this novel has become something of an underground classic, with used copies now scarce and costly. Maynard adds a brief epilogue to this new edition, and West Virginia writer Meredith Sue Willis provides an introduction.

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Review:

"The first couple of pages, I'm cringing. I'm tempted to put it down. I imagine a schoolteacher somewhere in the Midwest having all of these awful stereotypes about us confirmed. Yet, despite myself, I continue to read, and I am moved. It is literaure. Its voice is true. It's a wonderful portrait of rural America. The book wins me over." John O'Brien, author of At Home in the Heart of Appalachia "Maynard is a Gonzo Mountaineer..." Pops Walker, musician and writer "Crum is great. Lee Maynard is a genius. No writing has captured rural America this well since Mark Twain. A masterpiece." Stephen Coonts, author Flight of the Intruder "It's a tale of growing up in and moving away from Crum, a jumble of shacks on the Tug River in the state's God-forsaken southern coal fields. As tales about coming of age in rural America go, Crum isn't that much out of place on a shelf next to Mark Twain and Harper Lee." David Bean, The Charleston Gazette "Maynard presents a portrait of a young man's psyche which ranks just a small notch below great American portrayals of adolescence - Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye." Michael Shannon Friedman, The Charleston Gazette "Whatever you do, don't read Crum." Jack Cawthon, Hur Herald "For all its faults, Crum creates a hilarious, poignant, recognizable picture of a place and time, and of people I've known." Rodger Cunningham, Journal of Appalachian Studies "Each time I read Lee Maynard's Crum, I ask myself why this foul-mouthed, sexist, scatological, hillbilly-stereotyping novel is one of my all-time favorites." Meredith Sue Willis, authorOradell at Sea "[Maynard] writes like Jean Shepherd on acid...Crum is one twisted little novel." Robert Beveridge, Critic

From the Back Cover:

Like lots of eighteen-year-olds, the boy at the center of Crum doesn't know where he's going, but he knows he is leaving. This novel, named after a real-life, gritty little coal town on the West Virginia-Kentucky border, offers a sometimes shocking, often outrageous, always irreverent look at this young man’s attempt to escape his home.

In Crum, the boys fight, swear, chase - and sometimes catch girls, and have unflattering things to say about their neighbors across the river in Kentucky. The adults are cramped and clueless, hemmed in by the mountains that loom over this tiny suffocating town. And to boys flush with the hormones of youth, this situation is full of wonder, dejection, and even possibility.

Lee Maynard, a native of Crum in Wayne County, West Virginia, spins this tale of a young man whose rebellion against the people and the place of his childhood allows him to reject the comfort and familiarity of his home in search of his place in a larger world.

This novel stirred deep feelings in West Virginia, as readers reacted in different ways to the poetry and reality of Maynard's creation. Since its highly successful first publication, this novel has become an underground classic, with used copies now scarce and costly. Maynard adds a brief epilogue to this new edition, and West Virginia writer Meredith Sue Willis provides an introduction. Crum shot to number eight on the Doubleday Best Seller list within its first month of publication, despite its ban in West Virginia. He has since published a sequel to Crum entitled Screaming with the Cannibals.

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