Reviews
Boyle's...hypnotic narrative probes the complexities of heroism, violence, power, and resistance...Written with both clarity and compassion, each of the novel's characters inhabits a rich and convincing private world. As they traverse a landscape none of them control, their haunting stories illuminate the violent American battle with otherness., Fifteen years ago, Boyle told The Paris Review that he was 'writing novels of social engagement...These same concerns appear in The Harder They Come ... It is not a cheerful book. The best ones never are.", A gripping read and a powerful commentary on American themes of self-reliance and anti-authoritarianism… eerily prescient., Written with both clarity and compassion, each of the novel's characters inhabits a rich and convincing private world. As they traverse a landscape none of them control, their haunting stories illuminate the violent American battle with otherness., Set in Northern California and rooted in actual events, The Harder They Come is a meditation on violence, specifically in the context of American history and culture. The text examines the connections between three damaged and explosive yet sympathetic people., Boyle has long been one of the most exciting and intelligent storytellers in the United States. His upcoming novel describes a mentally ill young man involved with a group of violent anarchists., Boyle's tart and exuberant powers of description, of people and places, and his cheerful black humor are as exhilarating as ever., The Harder They Come is the 66-year-old Boyle's 15th novel, displaying his characteristic energy, smart cultural references and talent for physical description. It's the emotional element that takes second place here, though, leaving an unfinished feel to the work., [S]tunning… It's gripping, funny and melancholy… The Harder They Come is a masterly - and arresting - piece of storytelling, arguably Mr. Boyle's most powerful, kinetic novel yet., ...The pendulum swings back to high-adrenaline zaniness and pertinacious, destructive misfits. Individualism remains central, but unlike San Miguel, it's far from contemplative. It is a juggernaut, twisted to borderline psychotic., ...A full-throated Harley Davidson of a novel... using some of fiction's least fashionable attributes, social realism, pointed action...to brilliantly dissect America's love affair with violence…[Boyle's] prose manages to be both vivid and sharp, patient and pressing.. Boyle's writing never loses energy or descriptive power., [M]arvelous… thrilling, intense... [T]he story and the characters...are amazing. Early in his career, Boyle could be pointlessly intense... His late style...is something to behold; it has the same verve and pace, but in service now to an adroit realism., T.C. Boyle is a master at exposing the American psyche in his fiction. His new novel The Harder They Come is yet another stunning example, an engaging portrait of family, violence, and anarchy., When precisely...does T.C. Boyle sleep? In the 35 years since his first book came out, Boyle has published 14 novels and more than 100 stories. The Harder They Come is the usual T.C. Boyle...circus of serious-minded zaniness., Boyle is a genius at capturing social microcosms and excavating emotions simmering beneath the surface of contemporary America...A gripping and revelatory tale., A maximalist scribe of gothic melodrama, Boyle takes you on a manhunt through Californian pot groves, grisly Caribbean cruises, and Orwellian animal shelters before landing in horribly familiar territory: a disillusioned psychotic white guy with a gun. Still, plenty of sex, booze, and satire to lighten things up., [T]hrilling… Boyle can paint a scene in vibrant colors…. [with] characters, who, to his credit, occupy a dark space between psychosis and Americana..., The Harder They Come has no solutions to the delusions and dysfunctions it portrays. But it taps memorably into something deeply skewed in the American psyche., This new work of fiction from Boyle presents a fractured threesome: a 70-year-old ex-Marine, his troubled son and the son's older girlfriend-a right-wing anarchist. A dark novel, The Harder They Come explores violence and the American psyche., New York Times-best-selling author T.C. Boyle explores the volatile relationships between an aging veteran, his unstable son, and the son's much older lover in The Harder They Come ., The latest from a prolific and acclaimed novelist, The Harder They Come is a family saga that maps the relationships between the three people at its heart, as their potent mix of violence and paranoia urges them toward tragedy., ...Boyle tellingly explores the anger, paranoia, and violence lurking in the shadowlands of the American psyche. A powerful and profoundly unsettling tale., In his 15th novel, the author of The Tortilla Curtain and Drop City probes the psyches of three combustible characters... Sparks will fly., Like the best of his work, Boyle's no-frills narration makes for a fascinating journey up to the final page., T.C. Boyle again explores his favorite territory, the American psyche, in, a gripping novel about an aging Vietnam vet and his mentally unstable son, out in April.