Review of "The Harder They Come: A Literary Novel" by T.C. Boyle

What do you do when your delusional twenty-five-year-old son - who's paranoid about 'hostiles' (Mexicans, other foreigners, and especially 'the Chinese') - becomes destructive and violent? That's the problem faced by Sten Stensen, a retired high school principal and Vietnam vet, and Sten's wife Carolee.

Sten, a 70-year-old former Marine, is no shrinking violet himself. As the book opens, Sten, Carolee, and a group of golden age vacationers are about to embark on a nature hike in Costa Rica - an activity organized by their luxury cruise ship.



The tourists are mugged by three young thugs, armed with a gun and knives, who demand their valuables. Sten gets the jump on one of miscreants, puts him in a choke hold, and kills him.....while the other two punks flee.



Sten fears repercussions from the Costa Rican authorities, but instead is praised for dispensing with a trouble-maker. Moreover, when Sten gets home to Mendocino, California, he's hailed as a hero, and pursued by print journalists and television talk show hosts.



All this hoopla irks the Stensen's son Adam - a seriously troubled, mentally ill young man.

Adam reveres John Colter, the historical 'mountain man' from the Lewis and Clark expedition who - legend has it - ran hundreds of miles, naked, to escape from the Blackfoot Indians.


John Colter



In fact Adam has renamed himself 'Colter' and tries to emulate his hero, who lived off the land and battled hostiles (Indians in Colter's case).

Adam resides in his deceased grandmother's isolated house in a woodsy area of northern California, around which he's built a wall with no opening. Adam scales the wall, parkour-fashion, to get in and out. He also has a concealed hideout nearby, and a field where he grows poppies for opium.....his main source of income. Adam shaves his head, dresses in camouflage clothing, wears a backpack containing survival gear, and carries a rifle wherever he goes.



Adam doesn't get along with his parents, who've repeatedly tried to get the disturbed youth help over the years. The young man especially resents his father, who shows up one day to knock an opening into Adam's wall, in preparation for selling the house.

A few days after the wall incident, while thumbing a ride, Adam meets Sara Jennings, a forty-year-old divorcée with troubles of her own. Sara, who works as a farrier, doesn't acknowledge the authority of the government, which she calls the "U.S. Illegitimate Government of America."



To show her independence, in accordance with the 14th amendment (as she interprets it), Sara refuses to wear a seat belt, and - when she's pulled over by a police officer - won't present her licence, registration, and insurance.....as required by California law.

As a result, Sara is arrested, her car is impounded, and her beloved dog - who nipped the cop - is quarantined.....since (of course) the canine had no rabies shot. By the time Sara retrieves her vehicle and picks up a hitchhiking Adam, she's desperate to get her dog back.....and the two stage a rescue (illegal dognapping).



Afterwards, hiding from the police with her pooch, Sara temporarily moves in with Adam. The farrier becomes a mother figure/lover to the young man, who she finds irresistibly sexy. Adam is peculiar from the get-go, disappearing from morning til evening, then coming home for beer, food and sex. Later, when Sara invites her best friend for dinner, Adam sits at the table naked.



Eventually, Adam's behavior becomes completely unhinged, he commits serious crimes, and goes on the run.

Adam and Sara are a complementary pair in their disdain for authority. Nonetheless, Sara is sane, and - despite believing she can flout the law - fears the consequences of abetting a wanted felon.

Adam's parents are very concerned about their son's downward spiral, and Sten quietly considers cutting his son loose, since Adam won't cooperate with any form of treatment. When the police ask Sten to help capture the boy, though, he's torn.

To round out the action, Mexican gangbangers are using the Mendocino National Forest for a marijuana growing operation, and they're cutting down trees and poisoning wildlife to accomodate their needs.



Local citizens are furious, and Sten gets pulled into a vigilante scheme to stop the lowlifes, which adds danger and excitement to the novel.



The book is essentially a character study of Sten, Adam, and Sara, with Carolee in a supporting role. The writing is excellent, the landscape and environment are vivdly brought to life, and the characters are interesting and three-dimensional.

Sara is an especially intriguing character. Though the farrier's extreme 'libertarian' views are self-defeating - since there's red tape and a hefty fee to get her car out of impound, and the dog being 'in prison' leaves her overwhelmingly anxious - Sara sticks to her guns. You gotta admire that!

And Sara's weird opinions are interesting and a bit funny. I wonder if REAL people who reject taxes, government, vaccinations, and so on realize they would have no infrastructure, no roads, no emergency services, rampant disease, and so on. In short, chaos!

Carolee is also an amusing character (at times), as she mini-stalks Adam in an effort to find out what's going on with her son and Sara....the nefarious 'older woman.'



Though the book addresses serious subjects - dysfunctional individuals, drugs, violence, etc. - the story is lightened by a thread of humor that runs through the narrative. This is a good book that sheds light on important issues. I highly recommend it to fans of literary novels.

Rating: 4 stars