How I Learned to Hate in Ohio: A Novel

Written by David Stuart MacLean

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

A brilliant, hilarious, and ultimately devastating debut novel about how racial discord grows in America

In late-1980s rural Ohio, bright but mostly friendless Barry Nadler begins his freshman year of high school with the goal of going unnoticed as much as possible. But his world is upended by the arrival of Gurbaksh, Gary for short, a Sikh teenager who moves to his small town and instantly befriends Barry and, in Gatsby-esque fashion, pulls him into a series of increasingly unlikely adventures. As their friendship deepens, Barry’s world begins to unravel, and his classmates and neighbors react to the presence of a family so different from theirs. Through darkly comic and bitingly intelligent asides and wry observations, Barry reveals how the seeds of xenophobia and racism find fertile soil in this insular community, and in an easy, graceless, unintentional slide, tragedy unfolds.

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio shines an uncomfortable light on the roots of white middle-American discontent and the beginnings of the current cultural war. It is at once bracingly funny, dark, and surprisingly moving, an undeniably resonant debut novel for our divided world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jan 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781713552031

David Stuart MacLean

David Stuart MacLean is a winner of the PEN Emerging Writer Award for Nonfiction and author of the award-winning memoir The Answer to the Riddle Is Me. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Ploughshares, Guernica, and on This American Life. He has taught creative writing at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and the School of the Art Institute; is co-founder of the Poison Pen Reading Series in Houston; and was a Fulbright Scholar to India. Raised in central Ohio, he now lives in Chicago. How I Learned to Hate in Ohio is his debut novel.

Reviews for How I Learned to Hate in Ohio

[ryanjaymce · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great narration, quick read, and the message really came together in Part 3

[zoharlaor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

How I Learned to Hate in Ohio by David Stuart MacLean is a novel which take places sometime in the 1980s about a friendless teenager and his foreign friend. Mr. MacLean is a an award-winning writer from Chicago, this is his debut novel.Baruch “Barry” Nadler is a freshman in high school with the impossible goal of finishing his high-school career unnoticed. When a new kid shows up, a Sikh teenager named Gary (Gurbaksh), the two become friends.Unlike Barry, Gary is outgoing and mischievous. However, Barry begins to see how classmates, family, and the town people react to a Sikh family in town.I didn’t know what to expect from How I Learned to Hate in Ohio by David Stuart MacLean, but I figured a novel set in the 80s, which I remember too fondly, revolving around racism and xenophobia, which I remember not fondly, will be interesting. The story is told from the point of view of a bullied American teenager, whose eyes are suddenly opened to the hidden character of those around him.The novel could be considered a dark comedy for the most of it. Barry is nicknamed “YoY o Fag” by his classmates, and just exists for the sake of finishing school in one piece and leaving. When Gurbaksh, the Sikh shows up, Barry’s life changes and they boys face issues they chose to previously ignore.The book is very enjoyable and easy to read. The chapters are short and poignant capturing the mentality of a teenager unsure about himself, learning about life, sees his parents in a different light, and starting to realize that the girls are even more mysterious than they seem previously.This is a book that’s meant to be discussed, there are many issues which, unfortunately, we see playing out in real time during 2020. The book puts a spotlight on issues none of us want to believe exist, but we know that they do. The story could be told in any small-town, not just Ohio. Could be in New Jersey, California, Texas, or the Dakotas.The book’s first part is clever and tight. The second part of the novel becomes darker as it moves along dealing with homophobia, racism, and xenophobia in a small American town. This would be an excellent choice for a book club since there are many themes that could be discussed.