Who is Harry Crews?

At the end of the film, "The Hawk is Dying," I waited to see if it was taken from a book and who wrote it. There it was: ". . . a book by Harry Crews." Who the heck is Harry Crews, and if he always writes such weird shit, why haven't I ever heard of him?

So I googled him, of course. Turns out he was in a documentary called "Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus" that I had watched with my two Gainesville friends on one of my visits down there, which also turns out to be where Crews lives. There is a website that pulls together stuff by and about and with Crews, where I read a couple of interviews. He kinda reminds me of Charles Bukowski (hope I spelled that right), cranky ol' guy with a history of hard drinking who doesn't enjoy much and writes like a sonofabitch (meant in a good way).

Wow. Three of his novels can be found in my very own local public library, where I've been spending time lately instead of in online or on-the-ground bookstores during my quest to stop pretending I'm rich. I have a Margaret Drabble novel to read first, then off I go to sample Crews.