The Harder They Come

A Novel

By: T. C. Boyle

Narrated by: Graham Hamilton

Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Acclaimed New York Times best-selling author T.C. Boyle makes his Ecco debut with a powerful, gripping novel that explores the roots of violence and antiauthoritarianism inherent in the American character.

Set in contemporary Northern California, The Harder They Come explores the volatile connections between three damaged people - an aging ex-marine and Vietnam veteran, his psychologically unstable son, and the son's paranoid, much older lover - as they careen toward an explosive confrontation.

On a vacation cruise to Central America with his wife, 70-year-old Sten Stensen unflinchingly kills a gun-wielding robber menacing a busload of senior tourists. The reluctant hero is relieved to return home to Fort Bragg, California, after the ordeal - only to find that his delusional son, Adam, has spiraled out of control.

Adam has become involved with Sara Hovarty Jennings, a hardened member of the Sovereign Citizens' Movement, right-wing anarchists who refuse to acknowledge the laws and regulations of the state, considering them to be false and nonapplicable. Adam's senior by some 15 years, Sara becomes his protector and inamorata. As Adam's mental state fractures, he becomes increasingly schizophrenic - a breakdown that leads him to shoot two people in separate instances. On the run, he takes to the woods, spurring the biggest manhunt in California history.

As he explores a father's legacy of violence and his powerlessness in relating to his equally violent son, T. C. Boyle offers unparalleled psychological insights into the American psyche. Inspired by a true story, The Harder They Come is a devastating and indelible novel from a modern master.

©2015 T. C. Boyle (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers

Based on a true story

I live in Northern California where the events that this book is based on played out. It was a scary situation and the local media could focus on nothing else at the time. I am a T.C. Boyle fan, and familiar with the story, but I thought I would pass on this book. I was tempted though, so listened to the sample, at which point I became hooked!

This book is a very good read from page one through the finish. The story pulls you right in and never lets you go. Graham Hamilton does a great job of narrating. This is T.C. Boyle's 25th book, and I hope he keeps right on writing. He is a master.

Mr. Boyle has been doing this for way too long now

Is there anything you would change about this book?

It's at least twice as long as it needs to be. 25 years ago, I thought that Mr. Boyle was the best short story writer in this country. However, his novels were consistently overblown, almost all of them drawn from the far left side of the environmental movement, with a few biographies thrown in. The novels got really old really fast. The best one though, Drop City, is truly one of the greatest books I have read, in print or in audio. If you want to read this author at his very best, rather than muck around with this mediocre stuff, please read Drop City. It is all downhill from there. And there is a lot of it: Mr. Boyle is incredibly prolific.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I have to admit that I lost interest in the book (that is, if I ever had it), with about 90 minutes left to read. Maybe I'll go back at some time and see if it is worth reading. What leads up to it, though, is inconsequential and about a millimeter away from boring.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

I've never heard of Mr. Hamilton before, and now I know why. His talents are limited. He doesn't vary his rate or tone of speech much, which is kind of anti-dramatic. Adam, who I suppose is the protagonist, is a psychotic who is unlikeable in the extreme. The people around him are weak and pathetic, including his father, his high school principal. There is one excellent scene, in which he and his wife are on a bus tour of some Central American tour when they get robbed in a crime which was clearly thought up by the idiots who drive the bus, sell the souvenirs, and run the food store. Mr. Stephenson (is that right?) becomes a superhero for a moment, saving all of the tourists and bravely beating up two of the criminals and killing the third. This is an excellent scene, but I don't find another one in about forty chapters. Not a healthy ratio.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

No. Too much filler.

Any additional comments?

Nope.

Believable

Compelling riveting could be a true story. I listen to it twice probably listen a third time . A contemporary story about real people ina realistic situations I loved it..

Painful look at parenting, paranoia

Ultimately, this book looks with humanity and restraint at when a bad -- or just hopelessly screwed up -- kid happens to good parents. But it also nimbly equates the real problems of mental illness with the falsities invested in the militia/tea party movements.

Adam is paranoid because his brain disconnects with reality. His older, lonely lover Sara choose a sort of anti-government paranoia because it provides her grandiose visions of her small, uncertain life. It also provides her ready-made excuses when things don't go here way. As in when she gets ticketed for not wearing a seat belt or when she gets a DUI, she envisions government conspiracies -- “U.S. Illegitimate Government of America the Corporate” -- instead of her own stupidity.

Boyle presents the gibberish of the militia folks -- childish interpretations of the 14th amendment and the goofball ideas about the "Uniform Commercial Code" and "redemption theory," which can be dispelled with 15 minutes of time, an Internet connection and Google -- but he doesn't editorialize. He allows you to see two Saras -- the one who's trying to find her niche in life and then the one who envelops herself in a paranoid, anti-government mythology because she's not up to the first task.

It's curious that some readers/listeners seem baffled by the title. But it's pretty obvious, starting with the epigraph is from D. H. Lawrence -- “The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic and a killer. It has never yet melted" -- and ending with sympathetic, 70-year-old father, Sten Stenson, nearly coming to blows in a parking lot with an obnoxious teenager.

While Sara's paranoid, foolish political beliefs do grievous damage to her, she does not embrace violence. Stem knows violence and it is within him but he fights against that impulse. Yet when you combine a troubled child becoming a man, the American gun culture that doesn't bother to keep guns away from a trouble children becoming dangerous men, tragedy happens.

Boyle's restraint is perfect here. He's not fight fixing. He's describing a part of the present American character, which is drifting away from rationality and civility toward something that should worry us all.

not one of his best but Okay

seemed a little long and disjointed never developed an infinity for the main character although I enjoyed the portrayal of the lost coast.

Unforgettable

A novel so rare and true that it seems wrong to have merely listened to it. The closing lines are as beautiful and meaningful as Fitzgerald's " boats against the current". I am grateful for the mind and heart of this magnificent author.

Hard to like the characters

Unemotional, hyper masculine Sten
Sarah is a conspiracy theorist who doesn't use rational thought
Adam is a schizo gun freak survivalist prepper
I found it hard to find much in common with any of these characters.
It is frequently mentioned that Adam is always drinking or doing drugs, if that is so then why doesn't he show the effects of it more often? He seems to always be the same character whether he is loaded or not. And as any addict can tell you, that's not how an addicted person works.
Great story telling though, really dark and twisted novel that had me going until the very end

Dark and unsettling but a compulsive read.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Harder They Come to be better than the print version?

yes

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

Most of the time. Story line shifted between the present time and past.

What about Graham Hamilton’s performance did you like?

Just the right inflections.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not really..

Any additional comments?

An insider's glimpse into the minds of a psychotic and those who view the government as the enemy.

intense

A gripping emotional drama that kept me on the edge of my seat. very entertaining.

Dark, Multi-Layered and Entertaining

Any additional comments?

A few days after I finished listening to The Harder They Come, there was a news story complete with a photo of a young man with crazy eyes. The author has a knack for making current events real. Reading the news felt a bit personal.

TC Boyle is one of my favorite authors. He is such a chameleon, he can believably write as any character, male and female. His work is funny, sad, insightful and thrilling. Sometimes all at once. From what I've read about him, he's a grounded person with a family and a comfortable life. I would love to know his secret for having so much insight and keeping it in perspective. Channel it into a productive pursuit.

I enjoyed the history lesson inside this book as well as the fictional tale. There is so much going on in every chapter. The tension builds darkly, and you know something really bad is going to happen. The book moves steadily towards this, unstoppable. Adam is no Coulter and the Wild West was a long time ago.