Review: Crossing Over by Paul Clayton

While the ubiquitous political strife in recent years have had many authors re-envisioning the idea of America’s Second Civil War, Paul Clayton’s Crossing Over presents a refreshingly civilian take on the idea that’s part Old Man’s War, part The Road.

Deal alert: On the date of this review, Crossing Over is only $0.99 on Kindle!

The story

At a mere 174 pages, Clayton’s novella drops us into a United States that’s already on the verge of collapsing. Mike and Marie (last names are never given) are getting by in an country that’s quickly disintegrating. A hotly contested presidential election has simmering political tensions welling up to a rolling boil, to the point of blocks of states seceding from the Union and establishing their own governments and militaries (and before anyone accuses Clayton of trend chasing in the wake of the most recent presidential election, bear in mind this book was published in 2018).

While most of the fighting and violence have been far away from their quiet Minnesotan suburb where they live with their sixteen year-old daughter Ellie, they’re living with food staple shortages, no internet and limited electricity. After Mike is forced to shoot a transient discovered sleeping in his garage who attacks Marie, the family finally decides to pack their camper and make a break for the Canadian border. But winter is on the horizon, Mike and Marie are in their sixties, and Ellie is unable to function alone, being moderately developmentally disabled. Reluctantly, they leave their cul-de-sac behind, which was slowly being deserted as more of their neighbors flee. Little do they realize their problems have just begun.

The characters

For such a short novella (around only 30,000 words), a surprising number of people pass through the story as the family struggles through their life as refugees. Society falling apart as it is, Mike crosses paths with plenty of theives, muggers, rioters, and other assorted riff raff taking advantage of the upheaval. The other couples and families they come across who show themselves trustworthy become welcome spots of relief. Things are tense even when the plot is at rest. Absolutely everyone is looking over their shoulder for danger; from other families at the border encampments growing increasingly desperate, from human traffickers promising the moon, even overworked bureaucrats happy to leave them literally out in the cold if they don’t pony up a suitable bribe.

Mike is driven by his need to protect his family, and it truly shows in some of his more anguished moments when he’s faced with dwindling options. He whistfully pines for his wife, whom he shared a long and happy marriage with, as she slowly drifts into a thick depression, leaving him feeling completely alone in the ruins. He worries about his naive but beautiful daughter, a lamb among wolves he’s become all too well acquainted with. He has no military training and doesn’t even like guns. In him, Clayton writes an everyman protagonist whose heroism lies in his heart. To keep getting up after life and society have pummeled him into the ground, literally and figuratively. Mike’s heroism shines through all the more as he does so against the added challenge of advanced age, something  most authors don’t have the skill or bravery to explore as well as Clayton does here. He’s not an action hero; just a man who’s good to the marrow of his bones, in whom many a reader, and certainly any father will see themselves, regardless of age.

Marie is similarly well-written, a dedicated wife and mother who does her best to keep Ellie sheltered from the grimmer realities of the world. Early on she is a source of comfort to them both, and does her best to care for them as their cupboards grow emptier and emptier. She loves Mike, and worries that the strain of life is making him distant. Their relationship is realistic and goes through various ups and down as they face different challenges, but neither gives up on the other. When she insists on taking some French-Canadian smugglers up on their offer to walk them across the border and it gets revealed it was all just a trap for a robbery, Mike never blames her after they manage to escape with their lives and little else. She goes through sickness as winter sets in, and experiences bitterness, but never once does she entertain leaving him. It’s a couple dynamic that’s a breath of fresh air.

Ellie is the featured the least of the bunch, often understandably being made to frequently tag along with her mother on errands. She has no fear of strangers, and several times has to be reined in from simply walking off with some random person who’s nice enough to her. While the book mentions that she’s mentally about eleven years old, she comes across as even more childlike than that. Her fate at the hands of the brutal world that’s been set up is something that’s a source of constant stress for her parents, and I was relieved when a potential romantic interest in the form of Wisconsin militia member Gabe (who’s aware of her condition, but a good guy) is introduced as a potential source of relief for the family.

The world

While I made an earlier omparison to Cormac McCarthy’s grimdark masterpiece The Road, Clayton’s setting is not quite so horrible. It’s bleak, for certain, as the reader watches the residents of Mike’s hometown violently become stripped of their humanity, with politics being the poisoned root of it all. And while the story wisely avoids setting politics front and center, it does rather acknowledge its part in the shaping (and twisting) of the everyday human experience.  How people passing by on the street indifferent to one another can become violent enemies at practically the flip of a calendar day given the right circumstances, speaks more to the foolishness of anchoring politics as one’s sole identity trait than anything else. And while circumstances do get dark, as the weeks stretch to months just waiting at the Canadian border, Mike manages to never quite lose hope, literally crying out to God in the wilderness at times to help him go on, for his wife and daughter if nothing else.

The politics

The story by its nature has more political underpinnings than most featured on this site, but many rhetorical bear traps the plot could have easily fallen into are navigated well enough to keep things enjoyably neutral. There are factions, for certain: the opening chapter where Mike witnesses a protest and counter-protest turn violent have clear stand-ins for Patriot Prayer and Antifa. And it’s obvious Clayton is no fan of Antifa throughout the book; they beat up the elderly, steal, block roads, mug and even kidnap, all while chanting mindlessly about fighting racism and clad in all black. The overt demonizing of the faux-anarchist frappe-swilling fops that are Antifa is one hill Clayton seems content to die on, and that’s fine and dandy by this reviewer.

On the very first page we learn that the northeastern region of the country had joined national guards to form a group called the Liberty League, who in turn had thrown in with a guerilla faction known as the Revolutionary People’s Party and declared themselves loyal to the incoming (allegedly legitimately elected) president. The bloc of states south of them, from West Virgina down to Gerogia and as far out as Tennesee, were loyal to the (purportedly fraudulently deposed) outgoing president, calling themselves the Minute Men. That’s as deep as the lore gets, all explained on the first page. Names of presidents are not given, parties are never mentioned. And while it would have been so, so easy for a character to become an organ for the author’s personal beliefs, it never occurs. One brief argument Mike gets into with a fellow refugee on the subject treats both sides with respect, and serves more to highlight the destructive power of politics and its ability to drive a wedge between people.

Content warning

The family are set upon at several points by thugs and looters, and foul language is employed by various criminals as well as Not Antifa.  There are a couple of instances of intimacy between Mike and Marie handled classily. A slimy border processing employee propositions Mike for his daughter in exchange for expediting his paperwork, but it thankfully goes nowhere.

Who is it for?

If you’re a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, give this a shot. It’s mid-apocalypse; a story told from the ground as the smoke wafts up just before the world begins to burn. One criticism I do have of the story is that it’s ending is quite abrupt, something that’s earned Clayton his share of heavy handed one-star reviews. It is satisfying enough in its own right, but after all the action and tension the characters have just gone through, it’s wonder a few more pages weren’t spent allowing for a bit more closure and room to let out your breath. It actually had me wondering if it was meant to be a first in a series; Clayton himself told me it isn’t, but that he’d be open to it. I’d say the endpoint and indeed overall setting leaves the door wide open for a vast array of narrative opportunities. That small defect aside, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more human, tightly written drama for just .99.

Why read it?

Though I’d never heard of Paul Clayton before, he has quite a few impressive writing chops on his CV, and it shows here. The human drama is superb, the dialogue is about perfect. Clayton plumbs the depths of the soul and spares the reader nothing of what he finds. What he delivers is authentic without becoming misery porn. Paul Clayton has a new fan in me, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

Now write that sequel, Paul!