Books & Books presents…
A *VIRTUAL* EVENT MICHAEL PATRICK F. SMITH
IN CONVERSATION WITH SHAWN HATOSY
to discuss Smith’s book The Good Hand
THE LIVE EVENT IS OVER BUT YOU CAN WATCH THE RECORDING HERE
READ AN EXCLUSIVE Q&A WITH THE AUTHOR
Like thousands of restless men left unmoored in the wake of the 2008 economic crash, Michael Patrick Smith arrived in the fracking boomtown of Williston, North Dakota five years later homeless, unemployed, and desperate for a job. Renting a mattress on a dirty flophouse floor, he slept boot to beard with migrant men who came from all across America and as far away as Jamaica, Africa, and the Philippines. They ate together, drank together, argued like crows, and searched for jobs they couldn’t get back home. Smith’s goal was to find the hardest work he could do—to find out if he could do it. He was hired on in the oil patch where he toiled fourteen hour shifts from summer’s 100 degree dog days to deep into winter’s bracing whiteouts, all the while wrestling with the demons of a turbulent past, his broken relationships with women, and the haunted memories of a family riven by violence.
THE GOOD HAND is a saga of fear, danger, exhaustion, suffering, loneliness, and grit that explores the struggles of America’s marginalized boomtown workers—the rough-hewn, castoff, seemingly disposable men who do an indispensable job that few would exalt: oil field hands who, in the age of climate change, put the gas in our tanks and the food in our homes. Smith, who had pursued theater and played guitar in New York, observes this world with a critical eye; yet he comes to love his coworkers, forming close bonds with Huck, a goofy giant of a young man whose lead foot and quick fists get him into trouble with the law, and The Wildebeest, a foul-mouthed, dip-spitting truck driver who torments him but also trains him up, and helps Smith “make a hand.”
Smith brings musicality, sharp dialogue, and meticulous characterization to THE GOOD HAND and writes with great heart, humor, and the broken-in details of lived experience, providing a vivid window into the world of working-class men during the Bakken fracking boom in North Dakota. While ultimately this is a book about the value of hard work, male bonding, father-son relationships, and the boomtown mentality, it is also a book, as proven by the example of Michael, about how to become a “good hand” at writing and at creating something—about the value of artistry and creativity as good work.
This “affecting snapshot of blue-collar America in a singular place and time” (Booklist) marks the debut of a talented writer whom we are sure to hear more of.
Signed personalized copies available. If you’d like your copy of The Good Hand to be signed to you leave that information in the comments of your order.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Patrick F. Smith is a folksinger, playwright and current Artist in Residence at The Studios of Key West. His plays, including Woody Guthrie Dreams and Ain’t No Sin, have been staged in Baltimore and New York. As a musician, he has shared the stage with folk luminaries such as Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, as well as several prominent indie rock bands. Smith has also worked as a stage actor, a bartender, junk hauler, furniture mover, book store clerk, contractor, receptionist, event producer, driver, office temp, stage hand, waiter, security guard, set fabricator, legal assistant, grocer, oil field hand, and now writer. THE GOOD HAND is his first book.
ABOUT THE MODERATOR:
Shawn Hatosy currently appears as Andrew “Pope” Cody on TNT’s family crime drama Animal Kingdom. He is in production on the 6th & final season and is also one of the show’s directors. Among Hatosy’s acting credits are the films The Faculty, Anywhere But Here, In & Out, Factory Girl, The Cooler, Outside Providence, Alpha Dog and more. In the realm of critically lauded telefilms, Hatosy starred as John McCain in Faith Of My Fathers and played lead roles in Frank Pierson’s Peabody Award-winning Showtime drama Soldier’s Girl and the Emmy®-nominated Witness Protection. Originally from Ijamsville, Maryland, Hatosy currently resides in Los Angeles.