Weekend read: ‘The Harder They Come’

T.C. Boyle’s new book “The Harder They Come,” which came out yesterday, has it all: murder, an antihero, and an exotic local. Inspired by two articles Boyle read in the newspaper, the book follows an elderly man who is vacationing in Costa Rica when he suddenly finds himself having to murder a threatening assailant. He returns home a relunctant hero, as the news has reached his Northern California hometown.

That’s hardly the only murder in the book. The protagonist has a hard time coping with his new identify and goes crazy, killing two more people in his madman daze. With its psychologicial twists and turns, this book is classic Boyle.