Reed's Crouch

Ishmael Reed pens quite the obituary in "The Tragedy of Stanley Crouch." It's compelling reading full of rich details, and it captures the way anger lives on well after the subject of it is dead. If I'm not mistaken, it also depicts an extremely well recognized critic and journalist getting evicted from his residence late in life — yet another warning against the writing life — while also describing him as a failed musician and fiction writer. R.I.P. Stanley Crouch. I don't expect Ishmael Reed to find peace on this earth, but he delivers some amusing lines in this writing.