The Unwilling by John Hart

 

John Hart is one of my very favorite authors.  The man's writing is smooth as velvet.

Well, velvet with razor blades...

I am a John Hart completist.  I have read everything he has written since day one.  I haven't loved all his books (you can skip The Hush, I don't know WHAT he was thinking), and this one was a hard read.  If you got through Iron House ok, you'll be fine here.  But the violence and the killing and the disturbed brain of the killer will stay with you.  Fair warning. Hart is originally from my state of North Carolina and this book gives a shout out to the city where I live - Charlotte!  Although, I must say Mr. Hart, you must know that we do not call it downtown, sheesh.  In Charlotte, it is Uptown! ;-)

That being said, we have here a story of two brothers, young men who have already had more than their share of heartache and trouble.  There were three brothers once, until Vietnam.  Now, one is newly released from prison and one is struggling to know who he might become as he faces high school graduation.  When Gibby's brother is released from prison, of course bad things start happening (gruesome murder, gun dealers, drugs, and a missing girl - you know, the usual) and the community, including the Chief of Police, start to suspect Jason.  Oh, and did I mention that the Chief happens to be their Dad?

If I paid attention correctly, this story takes place over the course of about one week, which was a shocker when I realized that at the end - such a whirlwind!  I liked how we get varying viewpoints - even the killer's - although I did not really see the need to make Gibby's parts in first person.  So the mystery here is not so much WHO but HOW and WHY.  The relationship between the brothers, the relationship between father and sons, and between the men you are forced to live with and survive in prison (some seriously messed up stuff here), as well as the brilliant motif of the diving cliff all the teenagers hang out under at the quarry on Senior Skip Day all make for a "deep dive" into the psyche and into a novel I could not put down.  One of my new things to do this year (I refuse to call it a resolution) is to take notes as I am reading - so I remember what I want to say about a book.  My notes on this one, and I quote my own self, say 

"Seriously reading this so fast I ain't got time for no notes....."

Hart also has a knack for writing teenagers.  I laughed out loud at one comment that Gibby's best friend makes to him in a life or death situation, which I cannot quote because it is a spoiler, but I think the world would be a better place if everyone had a friend like Chance.  And there is a point near the very end where I think - HA!  Sons know their fathers as well or even better than fathers can ever know their own sons.  Or selves. 

I had a lot of questions at the end of this book, which makes me even more convinced this novel would make for invigorating discussion.  It might be a bit too violent for some in my book club, but we have read more John Hart books than any other author in our 18 years together, and this one is one of his best.

PS - The Acknowledgements are in the front of this novel.  I love that.  I always read the Acknowledgements and appreciate that he gives all the people who helped birth this novel a push by placing them at the start, where more people will hopefully read them.  It takes a village!

PPS - I almost did not want to read this because of the mention of Vietnam, but am so glad I did.  That era, and the years following, have had such a huge impact on Americans, including my own father who was a Captain in the Air Force in Vietnam when I was born.  The trauma of war, no matter what war, is long lasting, painful in so many visible and invisible ways, and important to acknowledge.  I love a good title, and Hart's title here comes from a quote from an unknown soldier:

"We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful."