Haymaker

by Adam Schuitema

Overview

In a political culture infused with debates about personal liberties, the role of government, and even the definition of "freedom" itself, Haymaker tells the story of an isolated Michigan town that becomes the flashpoint for some of the principal ideological debates of our day. When a libertarian organization selects the town as its flagship community, hundreds of its members migrate and settle within the town's borders. The resulting clash with local townspeople is violent and impassioned, even as the line that divides the two sides increasingly blurs.

The story follows characters on both of these sides: an eccentric millionaire known as The Man in White, who is still viewed as an outsider even after living in Haymaker for thirty years; a policewoman trained in hostage and suicide negotiations who questions raising children in this new environment; a teenage girl devoted to basketball and her desire to leave home, who has a close but complicated relationship with her uncle, a local who fistfights outsiders in an annual challenge; a libertarian PR expert, just hoping to calm the storm; and the town's mayor, who owns a local diner and is raising a baby daughter as her husband becomes tragically unhinged. A town first settled by lumberjacks, prostitutes, and roughnecks, Haymaker's present becomes as volatile as its past.

Haymaker is a story about the failure of best intentions and the personal freedom of individuals to do good or to harm. This witty and politically charged novel will certainly appeal to Michiganders and Midwesterners, but will also interest those looking for an entertaining fictional account of a situation that could plausibly play out in one of the many small, remote towns in the country.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875807195
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	04/15/2015
Series:	Switchgrass Books
Edition description:	1
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Adam Schuitema is the author of the short story collection Freshwater Boys, and his stories have appeared in numerous journals, including Glimmer Train, North American Review, Indiana Review, TriQuarterly, Black Warrior Review, and Crazyhorse. Adam earned his MFA and PhD from Western Michigan University, is an associate professor of English at Kendall College of Art and Design, and lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife and daughter.

What People are Saying About This

Stuart Dybek

Adam Schuitema has followed his impressive collection, Freshwater Boys, with Haymaker, a novel in which the virtues of Schuitema's debut collection are on display-the lucid prose, memorable characters, and a stunning sense of place, all married to the novel's richly inventive twists and turns.

Robert James Russell

With Haymaker, Adam Schuitema has created his Winesburg, Ohio for a new generation: his writing is rich and succulent, painting a portrait of a place I wanted desperately to be real. Smart and topical, Schuitema's charmed world so deftly works its magic from the very first page, making us deliberate on this place, dream of it-a city populated by figments we recognize in ourselves, in those we've known. And like the title suggests, we're knocked back by the sheer magnitude of what he's done-of all that he's created, of all that he asks us to ponder-unable to leave its borders, wanting to join its citizens on the page.

Editorial Reviews

Haymaker is an entertaining book for people who like a little politics in their fiction.

National Review

Haymaker is as dazzling and overpowering as a Michigan winter and a powerful debut into the world of novel writing.

Rain Taxi

A read to pair with classic works of Paine, maybe a bit of Orwell and most certainly with Rand, Schuitema's first novel resonates as a real-life American example of the current and changing state of democracy, and what real Americans across demographics believe that term to mean. Yet, it reads as an engaging short story with a weaving, character-driven plot and not a word out of place.

Chicago Book Review

Schuitema has crafted a description of contemporary small-town life that is easily transferred anywhere in the United States.... A flat-out good read.

Foreword Reviews

Haymaker is an entertaining book for people who like a little politics in their fiction.

-- "National Review"

Haymaker is as dazzling and overpowering as a Michigan winter and a powerful debut into the world of novel writing.

-- "Rain Taxi"

A read to pair with classic works of Paine, maybe a bit of Orwell and most certainly with Rand, Schuitema's first novel resonates as a real-life American example of the current and changing state of democracy, and what real Americans across demographics believe that term to mean. Yet, it reads as an engaging short story with a weaving, character-driven plot and not a word out of place.

-- "Chicago Book Review"

Schuitema has crafted a description of contemporary small-town life that is easily transferred anywhere in the United States.... A flat-out good read.

-- "Foreword Reviews"

Thoughtful fiction with an unusual political twist on the theme of insiders vs. outsiders.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

From the Publisher

2015-02-03
Libertarians decide to take over the town of Haymaker on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but the locals have a decidedly different opinion about the wisdom of this move. The Freedom Congress, a libertarian organization of six members, has been looking for a congenial place to settle where they can put their political philosophy into action. After much study they choose Haymaker for its all-American flavor, its lax zoning laws and what they perceive as a culture amenable to libertarianism. The leader of the group is Gorman Tate, a ponytailed, charismatic figure who tends to stay in the background when they and some sympathetic followers move to Freedom Springs, as they dub their corner of Haymaker. Much more directly involved in Haymaker politics is Josef Novak, a Freedom Congress member who winds up running for mayor. While the local community is scarcely welcoming, there is nevertheless a variety of attitudes toward the newcomers ranging from begrudging respect to utter hostility. The hostility comes from Donnie Sarver, a young man who owns a towing business and whose dislike of the libertarian contingent borders on the xenophobic. Ironically, Haymaker prides itself on its independent past, for it arose from a tumultuous culture of lumbermen, "gamblers, prostitutes, and miscellaneous roughnecks"—each September the town celebrates this past in "Boomtown Days"—but this romanticized history can't really accommodate what the townspeople perceive as a very real threat to their future. Thoughtful fiction with an unusual political twist on the theme of insiders vs. outsiders.

Kirkus Reviews