Customer Reviews

Thunder on the Mountain: A Novel of 1936 (Hemlock County)

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Poyer has written his best novel to date, and I've read almost all of the twenty published. Set in the Northwestern Pennsylvania oil fields during the great labor conflicts of the Thirties, it details the struggles of the working man as well as the dilemmas facing management during the development of organized labor. The characters are finely drawn and the action and the suspense continues throughout the novel. I knew labor leaders from that era and lived through that period. The mood of this novel is absoluetly authentic. The character of Doris Golden stepped right out of that movement. Red Halvorsen, the hero, is a young Tom Joad who gradually understands corporate coruption and class struggle, and has to choose sides. Both male and female characters are gritty, believable, and alive. An excellent read for all ages, will take you far into the night before you can put it down. Daily life in the Thirties comes alive here. Not simply history, not stuffed with technical material or trivia at the expense of character, but loaded with interpersonal struggles, a fast-moving plot, and even a touch of romance. A first-class novel.

I think an author has done his job when I want to enter the pages of his novel and talk to his characters. That's a testament to the complexity and realism of the personas you meet in this book, and to the vividness and high stakes of the struggles they face. Aside from that, no writer I know has a keener eye than Mr. Poyer for details that create verisimilitude. I was not alive in 1936, I have never been to Pennsylvania, never been to an oil field or oil refinery, and never participated in a hard-fought wildcat strike. But after reading this book I felt like I had been there.

Years after reading this novel, I vividly remember many scenes from it. A gifted amateur boxer fights a real pro for high stakes. Poyer simultaneously describes the surroundings, the fighters, the action, and the strategy at a breakneck pace, but with crystal clarity. None of the fights I've seen in the real world were as vivid to me as the one I read about in this book. This novel puts you in the time and place and surrounds you with realistic characters. The characters do NOT act, talk, and think like modern Americans - they are people of their period in history, and again, all the details feel right. You sympathize with the characters on both sides of the conflict (with one exception, a somewhat two-dimensional villain). Excellent.