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All We Need of Hell

Harry Crews

Paperback | Pages: 162 pages

Rating: 3.93 | 487 Users | 48 Reviews

Describe Out Of Books All We Need of Hell

Title	:	All We Need of Hell
Author	:	Harry Crews
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 162 pages
Published	:	April 1st 1988 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 1987)
Categories	:	Fiction. American. Southern

Narration During Books All We Need of Hell

Really, I can't believe I liked this book as much as I did. The characters are not likable for the first 100 pages (out of 160), and the situations are bizarre. But, with that being said, Crews takes the characterizations to the extreme and makes the situations so over the top that hilarity just has to ensue from there.

Duffy Deeter is the main character of the novel. He is a forty-something lawyer, obsessed with his body and working out. He has a wife who is obsessed with her looks and an 8-year-old son who is a mama's boy and eats all the junk food he wants. Duffy also has a mistress, who I couldn't tell if his wife knew about and didn't care or if she just didn't know about the other one.

The opening scene has Duffy showing up to play a game of handball against a professional football player named Tump. What should have been a friendly game turns into a fist fight wherein Duffy gets one tooth knocked out and one broken. I kept returning to this image throughout the book because while that tooth is only mentioned by his wife upon first seeing him, but that broken tooth remains through all the other crazy things that happen.

Duffy gets into a falling out with his law partner, as he set up Duffy for the showdown with Tump, and it doesn't end there because the partner starts sleeping with Duffy's wife - and they are not very discreet about it either. So, Duffy's wife then wants a divorce and his law partner wants Duffy out of the firm. Duffy's bank account is wiped out, the locks on his house are changed and he is left with the winnebago he was about to go on vacation with his wife and son. Duffy is down, but he will not stay down. He vows revenge against his law partner and wife.

He then makes a strange alliance with Tump, the man who knocked out his tooth. They become friends in these circumstances and Tump bonds with Duffy's son in a way Duffy never had before. This friendship causes Duffy to look at his son in a different light. The ending is somewhat heartwarming for such a bizarre plot with cartoonish characters.

Itemize Books Conducive To All We Need of Hell

Original Title:	All We Need of Hell: A Novel
ISBN:	0060914602 (ISBN13: 9780060914608)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	Florida(United States)

Rating Out Of Books All We Need of Hell

Ratings: 3.93 From 487 Users | 48 Reviews

Discuss Out Of Books All We Need of Hell

The best short novel I've ever read. A book that packs more into 160 pages than you can imagine. Crews is amazing.

To my pleasant surprise, this is one of the tightest and most enjoyable Harry Crews books I've read. You never quite know what you're getting with a Crews novel, because he never seemed like the kind of author who listened to an editor. His plots can meander, and his endings can come from left field, as if he got tired of writing the book and wished it done, somehow. But this one was truly funny, with fascinating characters and spot-on dialogue.

Not a huge fan of Crews' writing, but this is not only an exception, it is one of my all-time favorite books, especially when struggling. The start will likely jar you, unless you're used to Crews, but don't let it daunt you -- this portrayal of a long weekend in the mid-life crisis of Duffy Deeter is one of the most honest, funny & touching renderings I've ever read of a man coming to terms with his contradictions & conflicts and finding the good underneath, while at the same time

I don't think this actually merits a 4, but it's not really a 3 either... I feel more comfortable with the 3 though. There's some sexist, racist shit going on that bothers me a bit, and the Southern/humor factor(s) don't really account for it, or justify it.



This tough guy prose is pretty cool. Florida guy through and through

My third Crews novel of the summer and it remains consistent with his absurd sense of character development. Short (160) pages and sweet and full of demented chuckles round on every page. As always, devoured by those with unusual taste and wickedly dark sense of humor......