Welcome to Hard Times

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 show more 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! show less

A western without a hero.

In High Noon Gary Cooper stands alone against a gang of outlaws, the town sheriff acting the classic role of hero. This is what audiences expect of westerns, especially westerns starring the likes of Gary Cooper.

But what if the small western town, alone on the prairie, has no hero to defend it? What if the bad man rides into a town with no one brave enough or able enough to stop him having his way? What damage could he do?

Welcome to Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow opens with the arrival of a Bad Man from Bodie, a loner who single-handedly destroys the small town of Hard Times, burning down two buildings, killing half its citizens. When the men of the town realize they are no match for the bad man, they hide out on show more the prairie waiting for him to leave.

Afterwards, the survivors try to rebuild. The narrator, Will Blue, takes in a now orphaned 10-year-old boy, Jimmy Fee. Together they nurse Molly, a prostitute and the sole survivor of the local saloon, back to health. Will becomes the de facto town mayor in his attempt to bring Hard Times back from oblivion. The nearby mine is still active, workers still come into town on Saturday nights looking for fun. Soon a new saloon opens, a shopkeeper arrives, a banner is hung across main street in the hopes that the state governor will build a road through town up to the mine. Things are looking good.

"Welcome to Hard Times."

But Molly holds a grudge. She blames Will for failing to stand up to the Bad Man from Bodie. Though he presents himself to the world as her husband, though he probably does love her and he wants to be a father to Jimmy Fee, she cannot hide her venom. He knows that she hates him in spite of everything, that she's waiting for the bad man to return so she can take her revenge, that she has convinced Jimmy Fee he should do the same.

Welcome to Hard Times is a meditation on evil, cowardice and revenge, all themes common to westerns, common to literature in general. This is Mr. Doctorow's first novel. It's scope is narrower in space and time than his later novels; the cast of characters is small, but the town of Hard Times and its handful of citizens provide room enough to keep the reader enthralled. They are a classic western cast: a reluctant hero, a former saloon-girl, an orphaned boy looking for a father figure. Mr. Doctorow takes this cast and subverts them: the hero is racked with guilt and cowardice, the saloon-girl has a heart of stone, the boy turns against the father figure. However, this subversion serves to make them all much more human than the classic tropes they are based on. They are more like us than we want to admit. show less

The Bad Man from Bodie, well he far surpasses being just ’bad’. Evil incarnate is more like it! In the first chapter, he rapes and kills and burns the town to the ground, causing the living residents to pack up and flee! The first dang chapter!
The rest of the book is the attempt to rebuild the town of Hard Times. It’s a well paced story, with a vein of dark humor flowing through it. It’s written by Blue, the de facto mayor of the town - both versions. Sort of like his diary. I found myself rooting for this ragtag group of ‘settlers’! Even the Russian!
But not Molly. She was a terrible person and I could not understand her or her behaviors. I didn’t like her at all. Not one bit.
A tragic western tale if there ever was one. show more And a dang fine read! show less

E. L. Doctorow's first novel starts out as a sophisticated riff on the conventions of the Western. A small prairie town with a stereotyped collection of characters is destroyed by a passing outlaw. A few survivors stay and gradually a new town springs up fueled by rumors of jobs connected to a nearby mine. Ultimately, the town is destroyed again and almost all of the main characters die gruesomely. Told in first person by the dying town "mayor", (an improbable convention that one simply has to accept as a given), the book centers around his desperate hopes for the town's success and his complicated relationship with a former prostitute and a young boy orphan. Vivid characters and situations that could easily have been steered towards show more comedy, lead instead to a conclusion of Shakespearean blood-letting and tragic catharsis, ending badly even for the few survivors. show less

A gritty, heartbreaking response to the quintessential western in which there is a hero who rides off into the sunset at the end, this novel is a meditation on how a person is supposed to deal with real evil and whether it is really always heroic to take a chance and be hopeful, particularly when you are taking a chance with other people's lives. It is also a terrifying and not-at-all-romantic glimpse at what it must have been like setting up a life in the wilderness. E.L. Doctorow turned out to be a master of writing about the American experience and about the things America is nostalgic about as a people. I was amazed at how skilled he was at that even in Welcome to Hard Times, his first novel. Highly recommended to anyone, even if show more you don't like westerns. show less

Well-written novel about the difficult build up of the Wild West. Depressing and sad tale of the town of Hard Times (and hundreds like it) which lured cowboys, store-keepers, saloon owners, cattle herders, farmers, blacksmiths, miners and prostitutes, families and single men with a belief in a crazy American dream of success.

These folk had to quickly build shelter because the winters were killingly brutal and harsh, and the summers were wicked and dangerously hot. These small towns depended on income from those working in nearby mines, along with regular deliveries of basic necessities i.e. wood, liquor, boots, calico, food, guns and ammunition, and letters from the east to local businesses. For women, especially those single or show more widowed, life was even more challenging. Very few job opportunities, so many without choices turned to prostituion which generated income from the miners and other local men.

And add to that the frightening lawlessness characteristic of the WILD West; the outlaws. They came, ransacked towns, raped, and killed anyone in their paths.

I enjoyed this read, found it meaningful. Found it amazing that Blue, the 'Mayor,' was so emotionally invested in the town of Hard Times despite the deplorable events. Also wonder how many of these towns included an ethnic mix of folks.

I definitely recommend this book. show less

Hard Times is the name of a town in the barren hills of the Dakota Territory. To this town there comes one day one of the reckless sociopaths who wander the West to kill and rape and pillage. By the time he is through and has ridden off, Hard Times is a smoking ruin. The de facto mayor, Blue, takes in two survivors of the carnage–a boy, Jimmy, and a prostitute, Molly, who has suffered unspeakably–and makes them his provisional family. Blue begins to rebuild Hard Times, welcoming new settlers, while Molly waits with vengeance in her heart for the return of the outlaw. Here is E. L. Doctorow’s debut novel, a searing allegory of frontier life that sets the stage for his subsequent classics.