Right Books

Stanley Crouch, former Village Voice critic, is a hard man to pin down. Is he liberal, neo-liberal, neo-conservative, or what? Whatever he’d call himself, bet it’s not conservative, so why am I writing about his Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews 1979-1989 (Oxford University Press, 296 pp., $22.95) in “Right Books”? Well, judge for yourself.

Mr. Crouch claims we’re living in the Age of Redefinition, and that he, as a black writer disillusioned with much of the contemporary Afro-American ethos, is part of an “undeclared lost generation.” Such descriptions suggest a writer in transition, and the 37 pieces in Hanging Judge confirm it. Stanley Crouch’s thoughts are unsettled, but his book may provide at least a sense of an American community that right-wing white folks are unlikely ever to know.

BM

About the Author

Brad Miner

Brad Miner, a former Literary Editor of National Review, is senior editor of The Catholic Thing website. This article is taken in part from his book The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man’s Guide to Chivalry, now available in a Third Edition from Regnery Gateway.

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Stanley Crouch, former Village Voice critic, is a hard man to pin down. Is he liberal, neo-liberal, neo-conservative, or what? Whatever he’d call himself, bet it’s not conservative, so why am I writing about his Notes of a Hanging Judge: Essays and Reviews 1979-1989 (Oxford University Press, 296 pp., $22.95) in “Right Books”? Well, judge for yourself.

Mr. Crouch claims we’re living in the Age of Redefinition, and that he, as a black writer disillusioned with much of the contemporary Afro-American ethos, is part of an “undeclared lost generation.” Such descriptions suggest a writer in transition, and the 37 pieces in Hanging Judge confirm it. Stanley Crouch’s thoughts are unsettled, but his book may provide at least a sense of an American community that right-wing white folks are unlikely ever to know.

BM

About the Author

Brad Miner

Brad Miner, a former Literary Editor of National Review, is senior editor of The Catholic Thing website. This article is taken in part from his book The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man’s Guide to Chivalry, now available in a Third Edition from Regnery Gateway.