BELLOWS FALLS-Pulitzer-prize nominated author Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling will appear at the Rockingham Free Public Library Friday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m., reading from and discussing his work.
The event will be hosted by Bellows Falls artist and event presenter Charlie Hunter.
What happens when libertarians take over a small New Hampshire town, ridding virtually all local government just as the local bear population is exploding? What happens when the American medical system is supplanted by people who believe zombies are real? What happens when paranormal investigators attempt to harness the scientific method to prove the existence of ghosts?
Hongoltz-Hetling is fascinated by such questions, and his three contemporary nonfiction books A Libertarian Walks into a Bear, If it Sounds Like a Quack, and The Ghost Lab delve deeply into the results. “His writing is at once very funny, extremely thought provoking, and deeply unsettling,” wrote organizers in a news release.
As a reporter for the Valley News a daily newspaper serving the Upper Valley region of New Hampshire and Vermont, Hongoltz-Hetling got his start with a beat that included Grafton, New Hampshire. The events he covered would become fodder for A Libertarian Walks into a Bear.
In the story, a group of libertarians hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, New Hampshire, a barely populated settlement with one paved road.
The libertarians slashed public funding for pretty much everything: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions. The citizens built a tent city in an effort to get off the grid, which caught the attention of Grafton’s neighbors: the bears, who smelled food and opportunity.
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear contains gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, “the ultimate story of a quintessential American experiment — to live free or die, perhaps from a bear,” says the synopsis on Amazon.
Books will be available for purchase from Village Square Booksellers at this free event.
For more information about this and other programs, call 802-463-4270, visit rockinghamlibrary.org, or stop by the library at 65 Westminster St.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.