Hartsburg, USA: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mizner (Political Animal) goes micro in his second novel, encapsulating sometimes awkwardly the current American political landscape in a dying Ohio steel town's school board election. Hartsburg used to be a bellwether community that voted correctly on every presidential candidate, but a conservative shift shattered the town's decades-long streak of infallibly picking the winner in 1992. Long frustrated with the "thumpers," local newspaper columnist and failed Hollywood screenwriter Wallace Cormier decides he has to do something after his beloved main street cinema is turned into a church. His plan? To run for the school board against Bevy Baer, a churchgoing mother of five who wants to push an agenda of creationism and zero tolerance. Both candidates get help from veteran political consultants, and things get ugly: rumors circulate about Wallace's mother's sexual activity, and a scandalous film surfaces that reveals a lot about Bevy that she's been trying to hide. While Mizner overuses generalizations and stereotypes about liberals and conservatives, the thin secondary characters are countered by an earnest depiction of the candidates' humanity and depth of conviction. The novel ends up being much more sad than funny, more straight that satirical, and it offers an apt examination of divides that aren't as cut and dried as red vs. blue. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"[An] engagingly warm novel that humanizes the country’s culture wars…[Hartsburg] could have been a slapstick satire, as it details a school-board campaign pitting a born-again Christian with a questionable past against a failed screenwriter who has returned to his Ohio hometown, bringing some of his Hollywood values with him. Though Mizner has fun with his characters, he is more concerned with illuminating them than with making fun of them...This is fun to read.”  —Kirkus, starred review

 

"The story is sad and funny, pathetic and compelling by turns. It shows, as voters everywhere have learned, that all politics are local. Recommended." —Library Journal

 

"Hartsburg, USA is smart, funny, and provocative, a closely observed, big hearted novel about small town America. David Mizner’s eye for detail and compassion for his characters, make this book bigger than the red state/blue state debate or democrats and republicans. He dives into the complexities and contradictions of his characters’ political and personal lives with bold prose and a fierce wit. David Mizner is a young novelist to watch and Hartsburg, USA is a novel to savor."—Lisa Glatt, author of A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That

"David Mizner’s novel, built around a school board election, is about nothing less than the soul of American democracy. This is a wry and moving story that manages to be funny, enthralling, and about real issues all the while keeping us on tenterhooks about a hotly contested election at its heart. Mizner’s feat—allowing red state readers to care about wholly convincing blue state characters, and bringing red state characters vividly to life for blue state readers—is an unusually accomplished piece of fiction, impossible to put down, highly relevant to us all today."—Neil Gordon, author of The Company You Keep and Sacrifice of Isaac

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (August 21, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596913266
• ISBN-13: 978-1596913264
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #405,486 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable and perceptive book, November 8, 2007

By	Korha - See all my reviews

HARTSBURG, USA is a typical town in Midwest Ohio, once the political bellwether of the nation but now gripped in slow economic decay as factories and jobs move away, and where the only thing really growing is evangelical Christianity. In this context comes a hotly contested election for the local school board: on one side is Bevy Baer, a conservative born-again Christian mother of five, and on the other is the liberal journalist and failed screenwriter Wally Cormier. The two of them, diametrically opposed to each other, become intensely invested in the race far beyond the actual stakes, banners are raised on both sides, and in the process the election becomes a sort of referendum on which set of beliefs--and what kind of person--the people of Hartsburg really want for their community. The race is at turns passionate, hilarious, and not a little unsettling (it eventually turns personal and very dirty). The depth and the seriousness of the conflict is revealed in Baer's words: "Think about values you hold dear, values that are central to who you are. Values that are who are you... now imagine a teacher telling your child that those values are wrong. Imagine a teacher telling your child that you are wrong."

This is the crux of the American red-blue divide. Can fundamentally different sets of values be brought together, or even coexist? Perhaps fittingly, the author David Mizner seems to suggest two answers, on two levels. The first is the one expressed by Baer and the other characters: that liberals and conservatives are at war, and the only way to win is to destroy the other side. At the end of the novel, there is no sense that the political chasm has come any closer to being bridged, nor have any of the characters really changed or come to a new appreciation of things. Cormier is still a "free to be a latte-drinking liberal" and Baer's faith in her family and her religion is stronger than ever. The War in Iraq, the constant depressing subtext to the story, continues to drag on with no end in sight. Without giving away who wins, Hartsburg has a new school board member, but the town is still there, still in decline and with the same bitter personal and partisan battles sure to be waiting ahead. What then, has really changed? The differences are irreconcilable and inevitable, Mizner seems to tell us, the conflicts not imagined but very real, on abortion, gay rights, the war on terror--that uncomfortable reality which is the Culture War, the Political War, which must have both a winner and a loser. (Incidentally there are some useful political lessons to be had here: people ought to fight for what they believe in--"it's not essential that voters agree with what you believe in; they respond to belief itself".)

The second answer to the question of living in a plural society that Mizner suggests is a more hopeful one, and it comes from the way he writes the book itself. The author has an eye for telling detail, a fierce wit, and most importantly a deep sympathy for his characters, who are sometimes thin but never caricatures. His prose descends occasionally into melodrama, as if he is straining too hard, but for the most part it is graceful and serviceable. The book reads quickly and is paced well. While the large cast of secondary characters suffers from a lack of individual space and thus development, the two main characters, Cormier and Baer, are vividly, convincingly, and equally drawn. Cormier reminds one of his journalist colleagues that "not every story has two sides," but that is precisely what Mizner does in this book, in a presentation that is nothing less than--well--fair and balanced (though his progressive leanings are still obvious).

Despite being built around a political campaign, the book is not about politics, not truly. Mizner, a perceptive writer, cannot ignore the humanity of his characters, and that elevates HARTSBURG, USA to a much more fundamental level than the book jacket might suggest. By the end which person won the race is almost beside the point, and the lengths they went to win it seem absurd and ridiculous. What matters, Mizner seems to say, is something that transcends the labels of liberal or conservative: to be a good parent, a good friend, a good person. Though they do not see it, though they do not recognize it, there is far more that Cormier and Baer share in common than they do not; their differences seem nearly trivial in the face of it. In this sense, then, perhaps different values can coexist--the differences of neighbors, who might not always agree with each other, not even on the big things, but who still speak the same language and work for change, and for salvation, within the same system.

This, then, is the recognition by Mizner that the world is much bigger and much deeper than the so-called culture wars: that America, the idea of America, is much greater than our stilted, us versus them political discourse. In the final pages Bevy Baer reflects on a memory of her past, which becomes a metaphor for the novel in general, for this country, for life: "And that's all it would be: a moment. You couldn't separate the joy from the pain of knowing that the field, and the night, would come to an end."

I enjoyed this book, and I recommend it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars well-worth reading - timely and thoughtful, November 8, 2007

By	Nancy P. Marr (NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

The other comments are right - would a story of a small town school board election be worth the time to read it? the book is much more than that - it is an exploration of how people think and feel, how they are more than the stereotypes you think they are, and how events have their own energy but are shaped by real people - suspense builds up toward the end, and it is very real suspense, about who will win the election - and I worried about how I would feel if my person lost - but the ending is magnificent - the election seems less important than the two candidates and their relationship, with each other and the town - the writing is trim and energetic, yet warm and humane - the characters grow and become more interesting - and it is a subject that is important in our country at thiis time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Mad Dash of Reality, with Love, October 24, 2007

By	E. Irvine - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having read Mizner's previous novel, I expected to enjoy this latest work. What I didn't expect was to be so engrossed I couldn't put it down. The characters are strongly sketched and real, the community alive with the sadness and promise of change, and the behind-the-scenes views of today's politics right on.

So often, in politics large and small, we forget that the other side has its own story to tell. David Mizner helps bridge the gap of understanding between right and left, with humor and more than a mad dash of reality.

If you enjoy a good read with the lessons neatly tucked in rather than thrown in your face, this is an excellent choice.