Determined to win Soaps for Life's annual sales contest, Hickum Looney is thrilled when he finds the perfect customer in a little old lady, but he still has to contend with the Boss, who outsells his salesmen every year. Reprint. 15,000 first printing. NYT. K.
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Book Description
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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
A satirical look at a door-to-door salesman and the corruption of American business.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Traveling salesman Hickum Looney has been toiling 25 years with the Soaps for Life Company to be the best salesman in the outfit. After one especially good day of door-to-door sales, Hickum figures he can easily win the annual Soaps for Life sales contest. But the Boss, a manic, hare-lipped figure who is part Norman Vincent Peale, part Jim Bakker, and part Adolf Hitler, has always won the contest, and he has other plans for Hickum Looney and Soaps for Life. Along the way to fame and misfortune, Hickum meets up with the typical cast of Crews's misfits: Gaye Nell Odell, a prostitute and karate expert whose ability to shoot a pistol renders one of Hickum's enemies toeless; Crews's perennial character, former bodybuilder Russell Muscle (e.g., Body, 8/90), now the Boss's masseur; and the Boss's chauffeur, Pierre LaFarge, a former convict with unconventional sexual appetites. For a brief moment after he and Gaye Nell become lovers, Hickum's flame of success flickers steadily only to be extinguished by the strong winds of the Boss's company plan. At its best, Crews's writing is a two-edged sword that slashes with its razor-thin hilarity while slicing open the underside of the New South to expose its depravity and hollowness. This novel is indeed one of his best.
--Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Westerville P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
the air was a shimmering of heat, and it felt to Hickum Looney as though with every step he took the weight of the sun on the top of his balding head and his thin shoulders became heavier. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
the air was a shimmering of heat, and it felt to Hickum Looney as though with every step he took the weight of the sun on the top of his balding head and his thin shoulders became heavier. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By Tim Peeler
Format:Paperback
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.
By Kyle
Format:Paperback
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.
By Kristy W.
Format:Paperback
I don't see how others can put this book down so much, it's definetly one of his better books. Although, yes, I have to admit it does slow down a bit and the characters aren't as defined, almost as if Harry got lazy around the middle. But I would definetely recommend this book to people who like the ethical kind of graphic expose' books.
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2.9 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great concept sunk by thin characters & ludicrous plot twis
I'm a relatively new convert to Crews, but this was the worst of the four books I've read to date. He sets up a great concept to skewer the zeal of salesmen and corporate... Read more
Published on Aug 4 1999 by Robert Ruggiero
2.0 out of 5 stars
Compost this book
Hey, I LIKE Crews but this book stinks, and its a pity because it starts out good, but it runs into a tough patch and just keeps getting deeper and deeper in it. Read more
Published on Dec 16 1998
4.0 out of 5 stars
An insane, inspired look at corporate America
I had the wrong impression of this book. I thought it was one of those character portraits, eccentric and revealing, at least of the poor sclub which it details. Read more
Published on Sep 16 1998 by senorbuckethead@hotmail.com
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unfocused, but mildly amusing.
"It does not lather, nor does it clean." So goes the unfilled promise both of Harry Crews' novel and the product its "Soaps For Life" employees hock from door... Read more
Published on Nov 7 1997 by ken.hunt@anadas.com
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