If you want to learn more about Britney Spears, this is a great book to read. The author did a great job writing about Britney, and I thought the parts about Britney's style were really cool. It's a biography, starting from her birth all the way to the release of Baby One More Time. I just loved the pictures, they were all awesome. You learn a lot about Britney! This book is a must for all Britney Spears fans!

This book rocks it tells you everythin bout her even though I stopped liking Britney I still buy her stuff and this one is the coolest so far!

Britney Spears is my favorite singer. I love this book because it show's her sense of style. That's why I really like it. If you are a bid fan like me I would diffidently buy it.

...To me a five star book is supposed to be illuminating, exceptional, and something you'd consider coming back to and occasionally rereading. This isn't that type of book for me and therefore I give it three and a half. Although it has some poignant moments, overall I consider it significantly flawed.

The story focuses on the relationship between the lead character Pete Butcher and Sarah Leemer. This relationship is handled with delicacy and insight by Crews and takes on spiritual qualities by the end of the novel. As Pete comes to terms with his guilt Sarah unfolds as a strong, tender and courageous woman who helps Pete through the process of healing. In and of itself this relationship offers the reader an opportunity to observe the regeneration of a man from one weighed down by tremendous suffering and isolation to one who's willing to open up and confront not only his personal demons but also have them exorcised. There's certainly an element of human understanding in this book and it's through Pete and Sarah's relationship that we experience it.

The problem is with the characters that surround this relationship, some of whom often seem implausible or cartoonish and at times even irrelevant to the validity of what's going on with Pete and Sarah. The absurd and grotesque are elements of Southern fiction which in the past have been used to effectively demonstrate qualities of the human condition, but here they fail to do so. While encountering some of the characters in this book I found nothing in them in which I could identify some substantial idea or human trait. They more often obscured or hindered the story rather than enhancing it, their superficiality conflicting with the grander aims of the book.
I'm sure this isn't what Crews intended but nonetheless it's how I viewed it.

Although I thought the book had its problems I still think that Harry Crews has talent and therefore I intend to read some of his other work.

I have been a fan of Harry Crews for a long time, and this novel is one of my favorites. Alot of folks don't like it as well as some of his earlier work as it doesn't really fit into the catagory of redneck lit or grit lit that some many of the others do. Still, this novel, which on one level is a love story, has plenty of grit in it and more than enough of Crew's beautiful writng to offend those who don't know true literature when they read it.

Pete Butcher, for my money, is Crews' most accessible character. You can identify with him right from the first page and on to the very last. His guilt over an accident involving his little brother is acurately and painstakingly shown to the reader by Crews. And the supporting cast of characters, well, let me say there is no way you could be left disappointed by them.

If I had to rate Crews' five best novel I'd put them in this order: 1- A Feast Of Snakes 2- The Knockout Artist 3- The Gospel Singer 4- Scar Lover 5- All We Need Of Hell

That said, I should probably add that everything written by Crews is worth your time. With the exception of The Mulching Of America, which is merely all right, and even Crews said "That one got away from me" in an interview.

now, get Scar Lover and read a real piece of American fiction.

'Scar Lover' is one of Harry Crews's best works. With his eccentric characters and off-beat humor, he weaves this tale of an emotionally lost man finding his way slowly back to life and love. Pete Butcher is a loner, living in a boarding house in Jacksonville, Florida. He avoids contact with people for deeper reasons than we first suspect.

Seemingly against his will, Pete is pulled into the lives of the strange neighbors next door. The first one he meets is Sarah Leemer, a tall, beautiful, mysterious girl with a few problems of her own. She lives with her parents who are equally strange. As she draws Pete into her life, we begin to see the changes she affects in him. His life which was empty soon begins to fill again.

Crews introduces us to his usual array of odd southern folks and a Jamaican couple George and Linga find their way in as well. The story is often touching in little ways, and we never stop hoping that Pete somehow finds some happiness. The title 'Scar Lover' is very fitting, as each character has been scarred in different ways, emotionally and physically. Harry Crews is an accomplished writer who deserves more recognition.

This a collection of mostly older essays (from the 70's) that nevertheless deliver the same punch that readers have come to expect from this South Georgia native and resident wild man novelist. If you want the insider's perspective on subjects such as cockfighting, dogfighting, raptor training, insanely heavy drinking and occasional womanizing, this is the place to go. A warning: Crews is not for the weak hearted. His ability to relate realistic violence has influenced the likes of Robert Morgan (of recent Oprah fame) and Larry Brown.

Any other Crews-admirers on-line? peter@cybersight.co

I think that even someone who has not read any of Harry Crews could be fascinated by this collection of interviews. Crews, a self proclaimed redneck from rural Georgia, has over a thiry five year career published some of the finest fiction to come of out the south. But unlike the more typical genteel southern writers (Faulkner, Ransom, Tate, Lytle, Foote, Percy or Price for example)whose books, even when they deal with poverty and hard times, tend to a 'literary' language and an oblique view of the subject matter, Crews, in contrast, is confrontational, colloquial, profane, angry, violent, shocking, grotesque and really, really funny. His is a unique voice and perhaps an acquired taste, but no question that it is the real stuff.

This book of interviews captures the writer (typically having just finished a project) at various stages in his publishing career from 1972 to 1997. To read all of these in one setting, as I did yesterday, is a bit much, because over the years some of the same questions (and answers) recur reqularly, so that it begins to seem a lot like a candidate's standard stump speech. One does see Crews presenting the same stock answers to questions about his use of 'freaks' in his stories, his favorite authors, the impact of drinking (and drugs) on his writing, and his specific writing habits. Still, each interview has at least one moment of unique insight and many are delightfully entertaining. Moments of pure Harry such as informing a female interviewer that despite being on the wagon his sexual powers have not deminished or, in another interview after speaking at length about being sober for a year, he downs several carafes of white wine because he doesn't really think it counts.

Those who have read and enjoyed Crews should really get a lot of pleasure from the perspective that these interviews give us of his work. Those who haven't read him can get a real flavor for his attitute and language. What you can't get from this book is the flavor of that genius for character and story that is uniquely his

If you've only read books BY this author, I think you'll be surprised by "Getting naked . . . " In essence, this title means Crews is baring his soul, being more honest than most of us would have the courage to be. He admits to all his human frailties, continues to indulge them, but is not defeated by them. In this collection of interviews of Crews by many different journalists, the "naked" Crews comes through as a kind, caring, sensitive, warm human being, impeccably honest with and about himself and others. His obvious love of and knowledge of literature is also impressive. I fell in love with the "naked" Harry Crews.

It's always interesting to hear an author's voice after you've read their works over the years. I was really surprised at Charles Bukowski's wimpy voice after reading so much of his stuff. This may seem superficial, but it is naturally the first thing you notice with an interview like this. I can get a lot out of a taped interview like this one because I work with sound and sample manipulation, and Crews is one of my favorite artists (writers). How much someone else would benefit from this tape, I don't know. This is a pretty good interview by a female interviewer (!) talking with Crews about writing, the South, his childhood, philosophy, freaks, his "feminine side", his family, whiskey, and other things. Crews came across to me in this interview as a genuinely nice, down-to-earth, intelligent guy. An inside look at a writer's mind for the serious Crews fan.

My sister had the 'mis-fortune' to purchase this video, from a video store that was going out of business.
I am a fan of the first 2 movies, though for different reasons-one is good, campy, fun and the second is just too funny!!
This one, however...well, I don't know WHAT they were trying to achieve, but all it resulted in was a ridiculously BAD movie!!
You, basically, can figure out who the murderer is WAY before they reveal it.
And the murders themselves are, well, rather dull and passe.....the movie IS fun to MAKE FUN of though!!
It is so silly that everyone could have gotten OUT of the house and been able to save themselves if they had only crawled out a broken window and walked over their dead friend....instead of being all 'girly', and instead, screaming and running around the house throught the rest of the film!!

One of my few blind purchases. I was always curious about this series. However I think I made a mistake buying the 3rd one first. The movie is a very acceptable slasher film with some good gore... although not enough. There is plenty of T&A, more so than gore, I mean what do you expect from a horror movie called Slumber Party Massacre? The thing that sort of got me a bit mad was that 3 of the implied kills on the back of the box never happened... in fact the pictures on the back of the box, all but one, were actually in the movie. If you can find it for 5 bucks it might be worth it, but I would try and find something else. What excited me the most was the Slumber Party Massacre II preview (which somehow was a coming attraction) where the killer is a rock star, it looked hilarious so I'll definitely be picking that one up. (6.5/10)

I ordered this movie for my mom. She loves all kinds of scary movies. So this one got added to her collection.

Are we really supposed to believe that the main character is acutally paid money to knock himself out as a public spectacle?

I admit, I gave up on this book part way through. I got bogged down in one of the many lavish discriptions of New Orleans banquet food, and gave up. The book seems to have been written as a prank against the reader.

This book is out of print for good reason, in my opinion.

Sometimes to satirize one must approach the extreme, venture into the unbelievable or explore the ridiculous. I'm sorry one of the reviewers failed to grasp this. The Knockout Artist is one of the finest pieces of fiction ever written by a contemporary American author. It grabs at the heartstrings and yanks them out of tune, then proceeds to play Mariachi in dropped D tuning.
I laughed, I cried,....
In seriousness, Harry Crews is going to be one of those authors who will be taught in college courses fifty years from now, well after he's dead and gone. We are fortunate to be living at the same time as a legend.

when all you have is one occupation, one talent, one desire and your denied the "glory" of being at the top you settle for what pays your bills. talents big and small can be made into a capital gaining venture but when you lose some bit of respect for yourself what is that you really have left

I LOVE some of Harry Crews' work so this came as a real disappointment. It seems designed to work as a sort of anti-establishment fable, and some of the characters are typical of Crews' better work. But this book lacks the heart and the careful plotting of the better books. It's almost as if this is self-parody, a kind of Harry Crews-meets-Soylent Green. I don't suggest this unless you are a committed fan!

For many years Crews has been one of my favorite novelists; his personal life is an astonishing example of how endurance can conquer tragedy. Futhermore, the early '90s books, BODY and THE KNOCKOUT ARTIST had him back on the track he had cut with the early novels. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for this near travesty. MULCHING, as an idea, has great promise, but the work reads like a rough draft. The author wants so badly for the audience to embrace the bizarre protagonists of this book, that he sacrifices plot and often sense to accomodate them. Rather than a scathing sendup on American business, MULCHING becomes a parody of its own ideas, a product without substance.

Although this book was not as strange, or as blatently shocking and funny as Crews' other masterpieces, this book is truly one of his greatest, and one of the greatest social satires to date. In the spirit of "Death of a Salesman" and in the tone of a truly tortured soul, this book was witty, remarkable, and brilliant.

still a good book, but not as good as crews' other books. still, it's one i'd recommend.