A Review of Chris Helvey’s Afghan Love Potion

Spalding U. grad Chris Helvey is the author of more than a dozen novels and multiple short story collections. This reader thinks his most recent novel, Afghan Love Potion, is also his best.

On his website, Helvey advises, “Think of me as a writer who tends toward southern grit lit and dirty realism.” The story moves swiftly, arousing our emotions, and features lifelike, passionate characters who act, and speak, like real people—characters readers can empathize with easily, especially protagonist, Curt Jordan.

The title refers to the improvised explosive device (IED), or roadside bomb, that severely wounded young Curt Jordan. Like Hemingway’s Nick Adams in Big Two-Hearted River, Jordan comes home trying to somehow put the horrors of war behind him. It’s not easy, though, when you’re horribly disfigured, blind in one eye, deeply traumatized, and profoundly disillusioned with life.

According to Elmore Leonard, the plot (what happens in the story) is like real life, if you skip the boring parts. To skip those parts, Helvey puts Jordan in a tough spot and keeps him there. Helvey’s dramatic question (why what happens) draws readers forward through seeming endless complications to a satisfying finish. The dramatic question here, As in To Kill A Mockingbird, is can the protagonist recover his faith in the human capacity for good despite numerous incidents that expose the evil side of human nature?

Helvey uses a sense of place, or setting, to affect both the action and the emotional landscape of his story. Again, like Hemingway’s hero, Jordan feels that the only way he has any chance of regaining his sanity is by isolating himself from the rest of humanity. Of course, this is also what Thoreau did in 1845 when he decided to live a simple, semi-solitary life at Walden Pond.

Instead of starting over in his family’s home in smalltown Burnsville, Jordan opts for a cabin in a deserted area of the woods. Like Nick Adams, he is unconsciously seeking to survive the burned-out ruins of his life by finding spiritual renewal in rich green nature. It’s not that simple to accomplish and ironically, this choice involves Jordan not only with a victim of nearby criminals but also with a woman he slowly learns to love.

Having captured our interest, Helvey keeps us interested by ratcheting up the suspense. At the climax, Jordan learns something life-changing from a choice he makes. This brings us to the denouement, where Helvey draws together the strands of the plot and matters are resolved in a way that is both inevitable and unexpected.

Southern grit lit and dirty realism indeed.