My third Doctorow book. First was The March, then Billy Bathgate and now Welcome to Hard Times. The man is one versatile writer. The whole idea of rebuilding this small town where you know all the weirdos in the community is fun. It's a simple tale in some ways, but the Bad man from Bodie represents so much more. I believe this is similiar to The March, in that it's a quirky, enjoyable story that takes the reader on a wacky ride. At the same time, there's so much underlying meaning besides the events and characters... ( )

A cowboy with no name rides into town. He enters the saloon; the swinging doors bang in his wake. He orders a drink, guzzles half the bottle, then reaches for the nearest prostitute. Without a word, he takes her upstairs and assaults her. When the girl’s lover intervenes, the stranger kills him. Then the cowboy steals a horse. Then he single-handedly runs all the frightened citizens out of town. Then he sets fire to the town and burns it to the ground.

Welcome to Welcome to Hard Times, the first novel by E.L. Doctorow. Published in 1960, it’s a grim look at the Old West. There’s nothing pretty inside these pages; but once you start reading, I dare you to set the book down again.

The cowboy with no name is known simply as the Bad Man From Brodie and once he destroys the North Dakota town of Hard Times (those events listed above all happen in the first chapter, by the way), he rides off into the horizon…momentarily leaving the rest of Hard Times’ diverse set of characters to pick up the pieces. Welcome to Hard Times centers on how the town (if that’s what you can call a few ramshackle board-and-tarpaper buildings) is rebuilt from its ashes.

It’s also about how the oppressed citizens rebuild their hope in the wake of complete disaster. Like his other novels (Ragtime, World’s Fair), Doctorow celebrates the endurance of the American spirit. If you’ve read his other novels and come to Welcome Hard Times expecting to see historical figures like Billy the Kid or Wyatt Earp woven into the narrative, you’ll be disappointed. Doctorow didn’t start that practice until Ragtime. Here, the Old West is pure invention and it’s pure terror. I’ve never met a literary cowboy as fearsome as the Man From Brodie—think Jack Palance in Shane….then multiply him by ten!

The novel was made into a movie starring Henry Fonda in 1967. I’ve never seen it, but reading the book—with its mythic clash between good and evil—reminds me of other cinematic westerns like Once Upon a Time in the West and Unforgiven. Interestingly enough, Doctorow was inspired to write this first novel after working as a script reader for Columbia Pictures in the late 1950s, an era when cowboy movies were all the rage. However, Doctorow cleverly turns the horse opera stereotype on its head. If you're not a fan of sagebrush prose, don’t let the notion that this is a "western" dissuade you from reading this short, intense book. It is so much deeper than the typical fare of its genre.

I read Welcome to Hard Times long before I’d heard of Doctorow’s other (more popular) novels. I knew from that first chapter of violent destruction that I was in the hands of a great writer. This is novel that grabs and won’t let go! ( )