Customer Reviews

Welcome to Hard Times

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is Doctorow's sleeper novel. It hasn't received much critical attention in comparison to his other works, but this one is a real gem. It provides us with a picture of what kind of hardscrabble existence the western settlers actually endured, as opposed to the sanitized images Hollywood has provided us. The only other author I've seen perform this so effectively is Harte Crane. The characters are stereotypes (the bullying villain - the noble prostitute - the unwilling hero, etc) but Doctorow invests the plot with enough quirky twists and injects enough black humor to keep the reader from noticing how one-dimensional the characters are. And they do undergo transformations, which keeps them from remaining so one-dimensional. If you are a Doctorow fan or are just looking for a diverting, yet intelligent read, give this one a try.

For the better part of the novel he has no name, he is simply referred to as the Bad Man from Bodie. And in Welcome To Hard Times harrowing first few pages he single handedly rapes, vandalises and burns an entire town. He never says a word. He is, as one character descibes him "a force of nature, like the weather", an inexplicable destructive force that strikes at random.

Those who survive the Bad Man's wrath choose to leave, to seek better fortune elsewhere. Only the town's unofficial mayor Blue, a local Indian healer, a half burnt prostitute and a murdered carpenter's son stay behind. Blue is the narrator, and it is not some angry venomous determination to fight back that makes him stay to found a new town, but a defeatest acceptance of their fortune. If life has to go on, then this burned down town is as good a place as any.

Doctrow's debut novel is a grim and dirty slice of bleak frontier life. A novel that sets out to destroy the myths of heroism in the old west. In Welcome To Hard Times heroism results in death and cowardice merely delays it. The only kind of accomplishment to be proud of is survival. As Blue narrates how the new town of Hard Times comes into being, how the Russian's bordello has brought prosperity and how the money is ever flowing, his tone is unmistakably regretful. The tragic outcome is never in any doubt, we are left to ponder who will be left behind next time a force of nature strikes.

Like Robert Altman's film McCabe & Mrs.Miller, this is a novel with no illusions about the period. Relishing the grim pictorals of Buzzards feeding on the dead, fire burning over ice, it marches to its inevitable end. The downfall is never in question, only one thing can make these character's life worse. Hope.

We each have our conceptions of how the west was in that period when America was coming into itself, and the American or newly minted immigrant, with all his ideals and aspirations, was exploring hitherto unconquered frontiers in search of wealth and opportunity. This is a somber work, and for that reason, refreshing and real.

Blue is a leader of sorts, also kind of a coward, but human in all respects. He rises and falls with the town he exists in. He ekes out a position of modest respect, while also inciting a level of revilement in those with whom he desires closeness. He is in a way a tragic character, but fully human. The Bad Man of Bodie is the dark force of evil in the story, hovering around ready to destroy the meager gains that Blue and his fellow settlers find. One senses Blue's disappointment and self-loathing in his recounting of the rise and fall of the inconsequential town and a rueful sense of what could have been, personally and socially.

This was a very entertaining read; thoughtful, subtle and as satisfying as a cold beer on a hot day.

I've read all of Doctorow's work, but I keep coming back to Welcome to Hard Times. This slender volume is immense in its ambition, and focuses on elemental questions of courage and cowardice, the problem of evil, and its almost irresistable power. Set in the Dakota Territory in the late 19th century, the novel examines our highly sentimentalized American West through a post-modern lens. Doctorow lays open romanticized notions to expose the raw, ugly reality beneath. As always, Doctorow is almost poetic, and his characters simultaneously repulsive and attractive. If you've not read Doctorow, start here.

Actually I saw the movie many years back and, remembering that and recently reading another Doctorow book, I decided to pick this one up when I noticed it in a store. The tale of a ramshackle little western town on the edge of nowhere in the Dakota territory, deriving its lifeblood from a nearby mine, WELCOME TO HARD TIMES grabs us from the beginning with its brutal portrayal of the town's destruction at the hands of a monster of a man who is to remain nameless for much of the tale, a natural force more than a fellow human being. The Bad Man from Bodie savagely rapes and callously kills those in his path including the town whores, the barkeep, the carpenter, the undertaker, the hangers-on, leaving only a few scattered survivors in his wake, after burning the town around them to the ground. In the shadow of his departure, with little hope and much desperation, the handful of survivors rebuild, mainly for want of anything else to do. And the town, after a rigorous winter, prospers. But the mood throughout is ominous and the memory of the Man fron Bodie never far below the surface of the broken people he leaves behind. Doctorow writes with subtlety and irony and his telling is as tight as it gets. Yet I found the ending, deliberately muddled, I suppose, to mimic the sense of collapse, rather a letdown after the crisp narrative that comes before. All breaks down, in the end, in a sudden revelation about the sustaining source of the town's hopes and the Bad Man from Bodie returns without notice, just abruptly appearing in the maelstrom of collapse. This time is a little different from the first in the town's response to the Bad Man, or at least in how the self-proclaimed town mayor and narrator responds. But the results are no less redolent of life's despair and futility. Although the characters are more than the Western stereotypes they at first appear to be, they do not rise above their situations but are sucked sadly back into the storm that blows down upon them from the larger world outside. They are a sad lot and so, we sense, are we all, doomed to live out our lives in hope and desperate striving but never able to gain a foothold in the rock to take us above the level of the town of Hard Times and the life it offers us. This is a fable, writ on Western rock, of living and dying. More subtle and many-layered than the movie it inspired, in the end it is a book of hopelesness and of the raggedness of life itself.

SWM

author of The King of Vinland's Saga

As hopeless as a town that will always burn. Doctrow's novel is sleek and powerful, not just an American story, but the story of all society, building up and breaking down, of the dirty nature of the human soul, and the little spots of light that try to burn bright; a story in which the democratic mass is dangerous and the philosopher king is not as powerful as he aught to be, and the Bad Man from Bodie, like the Lord of the Flies, is not only always waiting to ride down from the mountain, but resides in most every human heart. Still, it is an essentially American novel and pays particular interest to deconstructing the Myth of the American West, a kind of anit-Shane.

This is probably my favorite novel of all time, and one of the few which I read regularly. While some might describe this as a no-nonsense Western, I disagree. It completely transcends the genre in the same way and with the same purpose as _High Noon_. In fact, I would call it the inverse of that story, for it is really about the cost of cowardice instead of the rewards of courage. Sadly, the central character is no Gary Cooper. This book contains larger truths about our frailness in the face of danger and, more importantly, the repercussions which follow the fear and pain into other generations and places. What happens can easily be extrapolated into other circumstances which happen to everyone everywhere. I recommend that this book be read for it's enthralling narrative and be appreciated for its universal theme.

The book is a spaghetti western in novel form featuring all the cliches and stereotypes of its type. It was Doctorow's first book and it kind of shows. The book opens with a nameless outlaw monster doing a bunch of mindless violence in the process of destroying the town. Then a pile of broadly drawn stereotypes with postmodern twists are brought in to rebuild the town. Then the monster comes back to destroy everything again.

In the end, the book portrays life as a meaningless cycle of violence. No matter what happens, the town will be destroyed and rebuilt in an endless futile struggle. Courage doesn't matter. Effort doesn't matter. In the end, the monster will simply arrive and destroy anything. The best anyone can do is accept the judgement of the monster and run away when he comes.

Its all very 1960s, very postmodern and very dark. But its also way too gimmick oriented. The middle section of the town rebuilding was far superior to the monster stuff at the beginning or the end. It would have been better if the town had destroyed itself or produced its own monster in the end rather than having the one from the beginning come back.

A good first novel and a decent western. But not much more than that.

I love Westerns and Doctorow, as expected, turns out a great one especially considering this was his first published book. Blue, a hyper responsible, self appointed mayor devotes himself to keeping town records. People naturally turn to him when a mean gunslinger hits town. He fails them, horrible things happen, lots of scared people scatter and desert the town of Hard Times. Blue takes the few remaining people under his wing including the badly burned and terrorized lady of the night and an orphaned boy. He welcomes newcomers and entices them to stay and help him rebuild the town. The problem everyone spends their time waiting for the bad man to return. A black cloud hangs over Hard Times even as it grows again and Blue scribbles about it. If you like Westerns I'd advise against missing this one.

This is certainly in E. L. Doctorow's style, but you can also see the rough spots obvious in the then new writer's work. It is a grim tale, but lacks some of the finesse that comes later. I enjoyed it for more for a flashback to Doctorow's growing abilities as a younger writer than I did if I'd judged it on it's literary style alone.