Customer Reviews

Witness at Hawks Nest

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Dwight Harshbarger's novel provides a compelling account of working people caught in a horrible event in American industry. At many levels this is an important book. My stance, agreeing with the other reviewers, is to highly recommend this novel for its treatment of how a good man is drawn into a terrible situation. The story of a worker's growing awareness of his own responsibilities to himself, his family, and his co-workers is haunting. The characters face enormous challenges, experience failures, and some seek redemption. It is a beautifully written account of how many good people were lost as a powerful corporation pursued profit. The characters and their humanity are developed by a writer who keenly observes people, communities, customs, dialogue, and organizations. The story is set in another time and place in American history but its message of corruption and redemption is timeless. It rings true today. Read this book and witness the tragic consequences of corporate greed and how an individual finds the strength to reveal the facts and fight for justice. Read this book.

Witness at Hawk's Nest is the story of a good man, who begins to realize he has become complicit in a tragedy.

The making of the Hawk's Nest tunnel by Union Carbide provided work to hundreds of people during the darkest days of the Great Depression. It was a godsend to workers, white and black, who otherwise had no work and no other prospects. What could possibly be wrong with something as great as this that could do so much for so many?

In telling us the fictional story of one man, Orville Orr, Dwight Harshbarger offers us a way to see the human side of this great enterprise, and from this perspective, we can begin to see its human costs. Orville Orr is a man who has always done his duty. He finds work as a deputy sheriff at Hawk's Nest, responsible for rousting the workers each day so that they will get to their jobs on time. But he finds that the workers are becoming ill and dying off in increasing numbers. He becomes deeply troubled. Where does his duty lie?

It takes courage to see the truth and to tell it. The real story of Hawk's Nest, which turned out to be one of the worst industrial disasters in American history, almost never became known. Corrupt interests sought to suppress it. We are indebted to brave people over the years, who struggled to bring this tragedy to light. And now we are indebted to Dwight Harshbarger for telling us this story in all its human dimensions and for showing how the unassuming bravery of one man can make a difference in the world.

Harshbarger gives us a vivid sense of time and place, of what life was like in this part of West Virginia during the Great Depression. It comes from a deep knowledge and love of the people and the place. The story he tells is heartfelt and beautifully written, and when you pick up this book, you will not want to put it down.

"Witness at Hawk's Nest" was such a riveting story that I had difficulty putting it down. The author's descriptions of the characters made them seem real. Their conversations made me feel I was right there listening to them. His account of how a huge corporation caused the deaths of so many unsuspecting people brought me to tears. This book is a must read for people everywhere.

Witness at Hawk's Nest is a story of one man's realization of corporate greed and the sacrifice This fictionalized account of a historical event is the story of a unwitting hero embroiled in a bigger than life disaster.

Harshberger gives Witness at Hawk's Nest clear imagery, believable characters, and uncanny realism of the life and times of Orville Orr during the Great Depression. Orville finds himself working security at one of the most deadly industrial sites in American history. Who could believe a great corporation like Union Carbine and the West Virginia officials are killing laborers? Hawk's Nest was one of the few places a man could find work and when they started dying of respiratory failure, the company covered up the hazard and hired more laborers. And Orville discovers he is not only mixed up in the crime but complicit in it.

This book revealed what really happened while building this tunnel and the sacrifice the families gave while only trying to survive the depression. So sad to see how corporate greed became the main objective.

Dwight Harshbarger has taken the terrible facts of the worst industrial tragedy in America and made of them a compelling story with complex characters and a fast paced plot. It's a great read and although you know how the tragedy plays out, you can't stop reading. And, sadly, it makes me realize that corporate greed is not new and that it has always had terrible consequences in the lives of West Virginia's citizens. Still does today.

"Witness at Hawk's Nest" is a fascinating historical novel that reveals a little-known but important industrial tragedy. Also, and more compellingly for most readers, it is an 'everyman's story' about striving, loss, awareness and redemption. Through Orville Orr, the fictional main character, Dwight Harshbarger pulls us into one man's experience of conflict between his individual need to survive the Great Depression and his growing awareness of an amoral, destructive corporate undertaking.

"Witness" is easy to read and one cares about the characters. The meticulous historical research greatly enhances the book. Harshbarger skillfully weaves these facts into the story, inviting us to understand and care abou how mining is done, how workers are or aren't protected and how companies exploit workers' needs in order to meet their production goals. It's especially meaningful to meet some of the real people who worked in the tunnels.

It's surprising that this story is not better known. Perhaps because it happened in a part of the country that's often ignored, or because it was covered up in the name of progress. Whatever the reason, it's a story that bears telling, both to honor the men who died and to remind us that where greed, need and opportunity collide, bad things happen.

Read this book. You will enjoy it as fiction and appreciate it as a vibrant telling of a difficult chapter in our history.

Witness was fascinating. I didn't want it to end, yet I couldn't put it down. It contained every aspect of an excellent novel.----As a child growing up in the 40's and 50's not far from Hawk's Nest,several members of my family worked at Union Carbide. But I'd never heard of the tunnel disaster. Was it intentionally "something we don't like to talk about"? Perhaps it was purposely kept quiet. To me Hawk's Nest was a beautiful park to visit on a Sunday afternoon with an overlook and picnic places.
However, thanks to Dwight Harshbarger, who has brought to light some of these mysteries, we can come to recognize the perils and tragedies that can happen as a result of the lack of safety concerns of the workers in industrial corporations.
Waiting for the next one, Dwight-------

This was a wonderfully fresh historical novel that puts a relatable face on a tradgedy that little is really known or understood by the
general public. A must read. Very hard to put down.

Witness at Hawk's Nest is a compelling read where fact and fiction collide. Through Harshbarger's carefully crafting of his character Orville Orr who struggles between status-quo and conscience, the reader become transfixed as the horrors of Hawk's Nest unfold. Harshbarger focuses on the human impact surrounding Union Carbide's misuse and abuse of West Virginia's ecology and its people.

A novel of great environmental relevance for our time, Witness at Hawk's Nest exposes that which has long been hidden and forgotten and lets fiction reveal truth. In our current climate of global urgency, this book is a must-read for everyone.

Tayve Neese