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In the Course of Human Events
Battered, bruised, and bloodied by the economic collapse, Clyde Twitty has all but given up hope for the future. The factory has shut down, the pick-up needs repairs, and the place he calls home is the town the American Dream forgot. Right about now he could use some help. Enter Jay Smalls, a charismatic martial artist who exerts an intense magnetic pull. Under Jay’s brutal instruction, Clyde begins a series of increasingly frightening tests that draw him into a seedy underworld of bare-knuckle fighting, brazen criminal acts, homemade drugs, and homegrown extremism. Jay reshapes Clyde into a fearless fighter—and directs his burning anger at a deserving target: the government.
A thrilling debut novel—equal parts satire and morality play—that shines a sharp light on the radical underbelly of the floundering American Midwest. By tracing the violent rebirth of a desperate man, In the Course of Human Events explores the ugly nature of hate, the mechanics of radicalization, and the atomic power of having someone believe in you.
A thrilling debut novel—equal parts satire and morality play—that shines a sharp light on the radical underbelly of the floundering American Midwest. By tracing the violent rebirth of a desperate man, In the Course of Human Events explores the ugly nature of hate, the mechanics of radicalization, and the atomic power of having someone believe in you.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 17, 2014
4 people are currently reading
403 people want to read
About the author
Mike Harvkey
2 books16 followersMike Harvkey is the author of the novel, IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS (2014) and researcher-reporter for the #1 bestselling true crime book, ALL-AMERICAN MURDER (2018), by James Patterson and Alex Abramovich. Mike’s writing has appeared in Esquire, Salon, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Fiction Writers’ Review, Nylon, Mississippi Review, Zoetrope All-Story Magazine, and Alaska Quarterly Review. He teaches in Columbia University's Creative Writing MFA Program in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
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July 10, 2017
This is how it ends. I toss this book to the wind and admit defeat. It's been awhile since I dnf'd a book but this sucker earned the right. I usually can give no craps about formatting, spelling errors and what not when I'm reading (esp. an ARC copy) but this...raising his middle fifnger to the fifeld. and these juicy tidbits Even if Clyde had possessed the money to fifx it's many problems .
(At first I thought it was just the words with f in it and that it was an honest mistake but then they were just random misspellings and I ain't got time for the headache.)
Not rating because I'm not always a hateful biotch. (Just most times)
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.
April 27, 2014
This is a first novel that Publishers Weekly blurbed three times, I suspect because the author worked there pretty recently. (Not many books would get that much attention!)
This is not the type of novel I would normally read, but I decided to try it anyway. It is the story of a guy down on his luck in a small town that industry has vacated and nothing is left except the Wal-Mart and the meth industry. I lived in a town like this for four years in nowheresville Indiana, and started my time there with a two-week stint working at Wal-Mart, so I KNOW this world. The author gets that soul-sucking atmosphere perfectly - the low pay, the brainwashing, the feeling that you should be grateful because it isn't as if you have any other options, the desperation to leave as soon as you get to work every day. It's no way to live, but for a lot of people, it's the only legal option.
Clyde, our downtrodden protagonist, takes the part-time bad-pay job at Wal-Mart to try to keep his mother's home from foreclosing. In the course of his other part-time job (because nobody ever has just one when they are trying to make ends meet), he meets Jay, who "sees his potential" and starts training him in a bizarre hybrid of martial arts and white supremacy. From that point onward, the novel was a bit of an eyeroller for me. The characters were too unbelievable and the situations too heightened to be realistic, whereas the first part of the novel really nailed it. I think that is why the publisher summary describes the novel as "part satire," because it is ridiculous indeed. But is it ridiculous in an effective way that satisfactorily critiques these types of beliefs and extreme behavior against the government? That's a good question. For me, it lacked the subtlety that it needed to do so, but I can understand the attempt he is making. I know he did a lot of research on neo-Nazi groups across the United States (the NSA must have the author on a few lists now based on his internet history!) but Clyde's quick journey into an inner circle plotting serious destruction was where a lot of the story fell apart for me. Maybe I just don't know how widespread and organized the movement is, and in that case, mea culpa. I do live just a few miles south of the "South's Largest Confederate Store," so I'm not blind to the fact that racists exist (before you jump on me and explain that southern pride is not the same as racism, this store is very clearly about white southern pride.) There's a pretty far distance from a confederate flag to an Oklahoma City bombing, and I would have liked that explored more deeply in the novel.
One small complaint that I think would have been solved by more drafts is that sometimes details are dropped or unexplained. Rocket fuel. What the heck is it? The author makes incredible pains to have Clyde mix it up and drink it and spill it and put it in the fridge every single day but never tells us. And what led up to the events at the end? Because they were unexplained, the quick shift to the final dramatic scenes felt rushed and a bit forced. I liked the way the book ended after the climax was over, but it only serves to continue one person's story without explaining the others.
Harvkey narrates the story in the same worldview of the characters. It isn't just Jay and Dale and JD using the n- word or the f- word or claiming that Jews are running the country - these concepts bleed over into the background narrative. This made me pretty uncomfortable because there was never a voice outside of the hate speech. Uncomfortable... but effective.
This is not the type of novel I would normally read, but I decided to try it anyway. It is the story of a guy down on his luck in a small town that industry has vacated and nothing is left except the Wal-Mart and the meth industry. I lived in a town like this for four years in nowheresville Indiana, and started my time there with a two-week stint working at Wal-Mart, so I KNOW this world. The author gets that soul-sucking atmosphere perfectly - the low pay, the brainwashing, the feeling that you should be grateful because it isn't as if you have any other options, the desperation to leave as soon as you get to work every day. It's no way to live, but for a lot of people, it's the only legal option.
Clyde, our downtrodden protagonist, takes the part-time bad-pay job at Wal-Mart to try to keep his mother's home from foreclosing. In the course of his other part-time job (because nobody ever has just one when they are trying to make ends meet), he meets Jay, who "sees his potential" and starts training him in a bizarre hybrid of martial arts and white supremacy. From that point onward, the novel was a bit of an eyeroller for me. The characters were too unbelievable and the situations too heightened to be realistic, whereas the first part of the novel really nailed it. I think that is why the publisher summary describes the novel as "part satire," because it is ridiculous indeed. But is it ridiculous in an effective way that satisfactorily critiques these types of beliefs and extreme behavior against the government? That's a good question. For me, it lacked the subtlety that it needed to do so, but I can understand the attempt he is making. I know he did a lot of research on neo-Nazi groups across the United States (the NSA must have the author on a few lists now based on his internet history!) but Clyde's quick journey into an inner circle plotting serious destruction was where a lot of the story fell apart for me. Maybe I just don't know how widespread and organized the movement is, and in that case, mea culpa. I do live just a few miles south of the "South's Largest Confederate Store," so I'm not blind to the fact that racists exist (before you jump on me and explain that southern pride is not the same as racism, this store is very clearly about white southern pride.) There's a pretty far distance from a confederate flag to an Oklahoma City bombing, and I would have liked that explored more deeply in the novel.
One small complaint that I think would have been solved by more drafts is that sometimes details are dropped or unexplained. Rocket fuel. What the heck is it? The author makes incredible pains to have Clyde mix it up and drink it and spill it and put it in the fridge every single day but never tells us. And what led up to the events at the end? Because they were unexplained, the quick shift to the final dramatic scenes felt rushed and a bit forced. I liked the way the book ended after the climax was over, but it only serves to continue one person's story without explaining the others.
Harvkey narrates the story in the same worldview of the characters. It isn't just Jay and Dale and JD using the n- word or the f- word or claiming that Jews are running the country - these concepts bleed over into the background narrative. This made me pretty uncomfortable because there was never a voice outside of the hate speech. Uncomfortable... but effective.
April 4, 2014
I was fortunate enough to get my hands on this book before it's release -- though, honestly, it feels more like it got its hands on me. This is simply some of the most powerful, precise writing I've seen. On a story level, it's plenty full of tension and the events that sweep up Clyde, the protagonist, move along with such an inexorable momentum that I was dragged right along with them. Maybe even more important, the story isn't easy. Harvkey tackles something really tough here -- the way that anger and frustration builds in a person, the way it can foul a good soul's interior and turn it towards some pretty terrible things -- and so this book isn't going to be for everyone, but then the best books seldom are. Something they almost always are, in some way, is brave. Which this novel is. I don't know that I'd have had the guts to write so honestly about such difficult subjects. I know that Harvkey does, and does so really, really well. Just on the sentence level, this is simply kick-ass. There's such punch to his prose, such an almost uncanny ability to paint a scene in a few strokes, to make a character come crackling alive in just a paragraph. And these characters absolutely crackle with life. Jay Smalls is one of the most unforgettable people I've ever met, in life or on the page. Jan, his wife, just as much so. And the janitor who Clyde befriends, his friend from Walmart: I found myself really loving these folks. And here's maybe the biggest testament to how much this book accomplishes: I found myself falling for people here DESPITE knowing that so much about them was so unsavory. That, for me, is one of the most powerful things that great fiction can accomplish. This does it, over and over. And does it along with something else, equally hard: humor. It's hard to imagine after all I've written above that this novel is funny. But it is. I found myself wincing and grimacing and cracking up in equal measure. When I wasn't just turning the pages because I was so caught up in the scene. This is a really great one. A hell of a debut.
April 12, 2014
In The Course of Human Events is more of a character study than just a novel that follows a steady plot. Not that it doesn't have a linear plot. It has a very good one. It follows the life of Clyde Twitty who has been engulfed by the ass end of the Great Recession. He lost his job. one that wasn't very promising to begin with, and sees no real future for himself. He falls under the influence of a charismatic martial art expert who strives on conspiracy theories and the kind of racial hatred that might attract someone like Clyde who feels he is forgotten and powerful in modern society. He becomes attracted to the ideas of Jay, an attraction that is egged on by more than a little interest in Jay's strong minded teen daughter Tina. Clyde becomes so immersed in Jay's true believer of a family that he is willing to endure abuse, give up his own family, and perhaps even commit himself to act of violence and racial hatred himself.
It is this intimate look at Clyde and how he becomes so entrenched in what most of us would call a self-destructive life style that makes this book so interesting. I would like to say Clyde is a far-fetched fictional set-up but I've seen too many young men and women dragged into this type of bigotry and extremism and know Mike Harvkey's terrifying and fascinatingly depressive novel is not that far from reality. Clyde's soon-to-be mentor is also a grim but realistic description of a man whose own beliefs are destructive to himself and all who follows him. I enjoyed this novel as a study in extremism and a primer on how a bright but alienated young man can easily be led into fanaticism and bigotry.
What I really like about this novel though is how Clyde comes to life in the author's capable hands. Even while becoming brain-washed into Jay's cultish family, Clyde has connections with the outside world that could help him gain balance: His old school buddy Troy, his uncle, a would be girl friend, and most importantly, a Mexican co-worker who, with all his faults, give Clyde questions about his assumptions of others who are not like him. While I find the ideas that Clyde is embracing repugnant, Clyde himself remains sympathetic. We want to think Clyde can escape Jay's control. Yet Clyde is falling deep into the socio-political rabbit hole that Jay has led him to and the results are what makes this book a tense page-turner. For those who like their reads realistic and are not afraid of down-beat themes, I would give this a high recommendation.
It is this intimate look at Clyde and how he becomes so entrenched in what most of us would call a self-destructive life style that makes this book so interesting. I would like to say Clyde is a far-fetched fictional set-up but I've seen too many young men and women dragged into this type of bigotry and extremism and know Mike Harvkey's terrifying and fascinatingly depressive novel is not that far from reality. Clyde's soon-to-be mentor is also a grim but realistic description of a man whose own beliefs are destructive to himself and all who follows him. I enjoyed this novel as a study in extremism and a primer on how a bright but alienated young man can easily be led into fanaticism and bigotry.
What I really like about this novel though is how Clyde comes to life in the author's capable hands. Even while becoming brain-washed into Jay's cultish family, Clyde has connections with the outside world that could help him gain balance: His old school buddy Troy, his uncle, a would be girl friend, and most importantly, a Mexican co-worker who, with all his faults, give Clyde questions about his assumptions of others who are not like him. While I find the ideas that Clyde is embracing repugnant, Clyde himself remains sympathetic. We want to think Clyde can escape Jay's control. Yet Clyde is falling deep into the socio-political rabbit hole that Jay has led him to and the results are what makes this book a tense page-turner. For those who like their reads realistic and are not afraid of down-beat themes, I would give this a high recommendation.
January 22, 2017
First: 4.5 stars.
The cover is apt. The novel itself is a punch in the face--a nimbly worded, completely addictive punch in the face. Almost every character drew knee-jerk feelings of revulsion out of me at some point. These strong reactions immediately made me want to trace them to their roots, and I found myself uncomfortable, being forced to observe and acknowledge the intellect, disenfranchisement, and frightening tenacity of dangerous people with whom I have extreme differences of philosophy.
This book felt important. The fluctuating and sometimes satirical motif of the American dream made me meditate on why we as people--and, in this case, Americans--want what we want and how threatened we all feel by that we do not understand or share.
I felt so much anger and fear while reading but still felt a sense of loss when something bad happened to a character I hated. The language itself was precise and alive, whether describing a childhood memory or a pit of sludge and excrement. Above all, Harvkey draws his characters with dignity, giving them the space to be fully who they are without casting judgment. This allowed me to take them and the problems they posed, suffered from, and instigated seriously and to consider how we all affect each other as we share this country and planet.
The cover is apt. The novel itself is a punch in the face--a nimbly worded, completely addictive punch in the face. Almost every character drew knee-jerk feelings of revulsion out of me at some point. These strong reactions immediately made me want to trace them to their roots, and I found myself uncomfortable, being forced to observe and acknowledge the intellect, disenfranchisement, and frightening tenacity of dangerous people with whom I have extreme differences of philosophy.
This book felt important. The fluctuating and sometimes satirical motif of the American dream made me meditate on why we as people--and, in this case, Americans--want what we want and how threatened we all feel by that we do not understand or share.
I felt so much anger and fear while reading but still felt a sense of loss when something bad happened to a character I hated. The language itself was precise and alive, whether describing a childhood memory or a pit of sludge and excrement. Above all, Harvkey draws his characters with dignity, giving them the space to be fully who they are without casting judgment. This allowed me to take them and the problems they posed, suffered from, and instigated seriously and to consider how we all affect each other as we share this country and planet.
May 12, 2016
Sometimes discipleship looks like the Apostle Paul pouring his knowledge, wisdom & time into his child in the faith, Timothy. Sometimes it looks like Jay Smalls grooming & seducing a directionless Clyde Twitty. Clyde is in need of purpose, & he discovers the pride in catching the attention of a strong leader, who is willing to invest in him, & improve his sense of self. Sadly for Clyde, he was being courted by a charismatic devil.
The story sucked me in, & just when I thought it would continue in a direction that I would become weary of, Harvkey pulled back; applying pressure & releasing at the right moments. And his pithy style matched the tone for this particular narrative. This is a guy's story; no room for fluff or refined verbosity. It's gritty. And his character development - my word, his characters! - are so fleshed out, I could almost see them. I might even know some of them. They might be some of my extended family (shudder.) The ending is chilling, in classic horror tale fashion - like something out of Alvin Schwartz's, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" - along the line of, "...the call was coming from inside the house!"
Definitely rough. Uncomfortable. But engrossing, & lingering. I keep thinking about it days after finishing it.
The story sucked me in, & just when I thought it would continue in a direction that I would become weary of, Harvkey pulled back; applying pressure & releasing at the right moments. And his pithy style matched the tone for this particular narrative. This is a guy's story; no room for fluff or refined verbosity. It's gritty. And his character development - my word, his characters! - are so fleshed out, I could almost see them. I might even know some of them. They might be some of my extended family (shudder.) The ending is chilling, in classic horror tale fashion - like something out of Alvin Schwartz's, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" - along the line of, "...the call was coming from inside the house!"
Definitely rough. Uncomfortable. But engrossing, & lingering. I keep thinking about it days after finishing it.
August 23, 2014
Review pending.
February 14, 2017
very pertinent to day....
April 23, 2018
This book is all about racism and the evil of White America. I was told to read it by a student, and normally do read books they want me to read. But I cannot/will not read a book such as this.
May 23, 2021
Excellent, action packed read!
October 14, 2015
Tractor and Juggs set a spell, gabbing on "In the Course of Human Events."
Tractor: (swats at a June bug) "Damn gal, Mizzorah ain't even part of the union no more. I'd soon go to Mars as I would step one right foot in that state."
Juggs: "Weren't damn Jesse James kilt there? His train robbing self is the only soul that those from Mizzorah can hang their history on. That is a lick-fast-in-the-summer shame."
Tractor: "I red this here book after you gave it to me. That Clyde feller was all in with every damn thing.(scratches her in belly pot) That daughter gal rented room in his head and his loins in bed. Could of damn called him Gumby the way and all he was stretched crazy."
Juggs: (pulls on a plug of baccy) "Clyde Barrow you was talking on?"
Tractor: "No in. That sorrowful Clyde in the book."
Juggs (laughs and her heaving breasts bounce) "Okey-dokey. All in I will say is that he was a D-O-O-R-M-A-T."
Tractor: (eyes bugged out and staring at her chest) "I surely like to see you guffaw. Now the ringleader in this story tale is named Jay Smalls. One, there ain't not one damn body fighting Karate in Mizzorah, he ain't no damn ninja. Two, that authoree made his back name to show that he was small thinking and that all is plain enough to see without the hint."
Juggs: "We'll wrap this all up. The white superior boys had there big-the-hell-day in the 1990s - that's it. Now all they got is comic book 'bout them. They is like Mizzorah - beat through. Let's get down the road to Trappers joint and see if we can't drink ourselves into believing we beat them Yankees in the War of Oppression."
They leave.
Chris Roberts
Tractor: (swats at a June bug) "Damn gal, Mizzorah ain't even part of the union no more. I'd soon go to Mars as I would step one right foot in that state."
Juggs: "Weren't damn Jesse James kilt there? His train robbing self is the only soul that those from Mizzorah can hang their history on. That is a lick-fast-in-the-summer shame."
Tractor: "I red this here book after you gave it to me. That Clyde feller was all in with every damn thing.(scratches her in belly pot) That daughter gal rented room in his head and his loins in bed. Could of damn called him Gumby the way and all he was stretched crazy."
Juggs: (pulls on a plug of baccy) "Clyde Barrow you was talking on?"
Tractor: "No in. That sorrowful Clyde in the book."
Juggs (laughs and her heaving breasts bounce) "Okey-dokey. All in I will say is that he was a D-O-O-R-M-A-T."
Tractor: (eyes bugged out and staring at her chest) "I surely like to see you guffaw. Now the ringleader in this story tale is named Jay Smalls. One, there ain't not one damn body fighting Karate in Mizzorah, he ain't no damn ninja. Two, that authoree made his back name to show that he was small thinking and that all is plain enough to see without the hint."
Juggs: "We'll wrap this all up. The white superior boys had there big-the-hell-day in the 1990s - that's it. Now all they got is comic book 'bout them. They is like Mizzorah - beat through. Let's get down the road to Trappers joint and see if we can't drink ourselves into believing we beat them Yankees in the War of Oppression."
They leave.
Chris Roberts
October 17, 2014
Spoilers
Well, this was not what I was expecting. Not by a long shot. A book about a down trodden fella learning about martial arts and being taught to hate the government, okay this sounds pretty interesting...
It's a shame I wasted my time only to get halfway through the book and BAM what do you know, this book is about neo naziism. Had this been mentioned in the book jacket I wouldn't have brought it home from the library. While I abhor neo naziism and white power culture, I do know a lot about it due to my education. This book, while trying to seem informative as well as entertaining, is rather far fetched and ridiculous in it's attempt at realism.
Honestly, I'm pretty angry that the real subject of this book was not included in the book jacket. I feel like the jacket told me a vague synopsis of a very different book.
Well, this was not what I was expecting. Not by a long shot. A book about a down trodden fella learning about martial arts and being taught to hate the government, okay this sounds pretty interesting...
It's a shame I wasted my time only to get halfway through the book and BAM what do you know, this book is about neo naziism. Had this been mentioned in the book jacket I wouldn't have brought it home from the library. While I abhor neo naziism and white power culture, I do know a lot about it due to my education. This book, while trying to seem informative as well as entertaining, is rather far fetched and ridiculous in it's attempt at realism.
Honestly, I'm pretty angry that the real subject of this book was not included in the book jacket. I feel like the jacket told me a vague synopsis of a very different book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 26, 2015
This was a book club selection and I had a hard time getting into it at the beginning. Having just visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and with Donald Trump spewing his negativity across America I was genuinely repulsed by the characters in this novel. One of the promotional blurbs on the cover called it a satire (which perhaps I don't understand) and one fellow said it made him laugh. From what's been happening in society today I think the kind of thinking reflected in this story is way too true.
Once I started I had to finish it to find out what happened and I won't put a spoiler here. Overall it was an interesting read, because it's important to know what kind of crazy people are capable of (and I don't mean serial killers in mystery novels).
Once I started I had to finish it to find out what happened and I won't put a spoiler here. Overall it was an interesting read, because it's important to know what kind of crazy people are capable of (and I don't mean serial killers in mystery novels).
August 1, 2015
Third book in a row that I read about people defying/not recognizing government authority. After the billionth review in PW I added this to my list - glad I did. I even dug the ambiguity of the ending. Some of the bits in the beginning were tough to slog through but overall a good & at times suspenseful read.
June 15, 2014
A timely tale of militias, neo-nazism and hate. The main character is a gullible, down-on-his-luck mid-western young man who,enthralled by the powerful personality of a man, Jay Smalls, finds himself buying into the White Supremacist mystique. It fell a little flat at it's attempts at satire and never really gave me the chills a story of this type would/should do.
June 17, 2014
This is more of a reaction than a review: I have to admit this book was difficult to read and the end left me staring straight ahead... But I am glad I read it. Clyde's character was human and relatable in his anger and how he became who he was. I don't agree with him- but I can see how he became who he was and his story was very sad and compelling to me.
October 15, 2014
I tried to like this book, but couldn't. At first I thought it was going to be funny, but it turn out to too goofy for my taste.
February 24, 2015
Interesting read on white supremacists and how they operate. Different from anything I have ever read. I just haven't come across too many fiction recommendations on white supremacists
March 5, 2015
Tense and terrific! Great ride.
Read
May 22, 2015Loved it, of course.
April 7, 2017
However many hours Clyde Twitty gets at Walmart, he’s smart enough to know he’s going nowhere, and he, like so many across this country (and planet), is angry, disenfranchised and hopeless enough to be ripe for cherry-picking tyrants like Jay Smalls, a karate master and White Supremacist who, appealing to Clyde’s need for self-worth and self-determination, begins to groom Clyde for ‘greater things.’ (Sound familiar? Look who was elected to lead the ‘free’ world.) Well, author Mike Harvkey descends down the rabbit hole alongside Clyde in this masterfully written, timely and hard-hitting novel that will leave you a little bit wiser and a lot more scared about the dangers of what kind of world we’re busy building by leaving people scrambling for their next meal or worrying how the hell they’ll afford to get that tire fixed. These characters make hard choices worse, but they’re not monsters, they're human--full, rounded, flawed and wanting. Some are certainly hard to stomach--and there's no more dangerous animal, but even those can be, on occasion, likable and sympathetic. Open the first page, and you'll be caught up in their path whether you want to be or not, because this author knows how to keep the pages turning. I was completely engrossed in this book all the way through, and haven’t stopped talking about it—In the Course of Human Events is one of those books that will resonate long after you turn the last page.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews