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Oct. 2, 2005 E.L. Doctorow's latest novel, The March, about General Sherman's march through Georgia has been getting a considerable amount of publicity. I have always been fascinated with this decisive campaign and enjoyed Lidell Hart's biography of Sherman which primarily focused on Sherman's daring invasion and dismantling of the Confederate bread basket. So because of the subject matter, I was interested in reading The March, but then I heard more about the author and decided it would be beneficial to my own writing to read some of his earlier work. E.L. Doctorow is known for writing some of the best prose of any living novelist, and I'm hoping that after I read a few of his novels, the quality will influence my work. I chose to read Ragtime (also an excellent movie), and Welcome to Hard Times--a work Norman Mailer called "the best western ever written." After that kind of endorsement I had to read Welcome to Hard Times first to see how it compared to Lonesome Dove and Little Big Man--the two best westerns I've ever read. I wasn't disappointed. The very beginning of the novel brings dramatic change to the small mining town of Hard Times. The Bad Man from Bodie--a metaphor for death, destruction, and the devil--sweeps in and single handedly tortures and rapes the town whores, kills several people, and burns the whole town down. And he rides away with a stolen horse. After they bury the victims, most of the survivors want to leave, but the narrator, Blue, wants to stay. The following dialogue is a classical bit of wry wit: "No sense to that," Ezra said, "unless you're fixin' to stay." "I am." I had hoped he was too. He looked at me: "Town's gone, Blue." "Now I don't know," I said. "We got a cemetary. That's the beginnings of a town anyway." Blue than gives his reasons for staying and reading this caliber of writing is just pure pleasure. And I said:" Ezra, all my life I have been moving along. I have trailed cattle from Texas to Kansas, I have whacked bulls for Russell and Wadell, I have placer mined for myself through Black Hills, I have seen minstrel shows in Cheyenne and played poker in Deadwood and Leadville and Dodge, I have moved from one side of the west to the other, like a pebble rolling in the pan, and if you think this place here is not much country I can tell you none of it is." Or how about this gem? "I don't know where the buzzards come from, but they're never late." The plot keeps the reader in suspense as well. The bulk of the novel is about the rebuilding of the town of Hard Times, and Blue's attempted pay back to Molly. Molly is the surviving town whore who was tortured and burned, while the men including Blue were too cowed to save her. Blue takes care of her and nurtures her and is rewarded with her contempt. The reader knows that the Bad Man from Bodie will return and a number of candidates arrive in the town who might challenge him. There is Zar--a Russian pimp and whiskey dealer--and Jenks--a goofy sharp shooter who is appointed sheriff; but Molly is also training the orphaned Jimmy Fee as her protector much to the disgust of Blue who is a pacifist at heart. The ending is a powerfully written orgy of violence. Reportedly, E.L. Doctorow writes in a completely different voice for every book he writes which is what I try to do. I look forward to reading Ragtime and The March. ------------ About the author Mark Gelbart: My book, Talk Radio, is a black comedy about a radio talk show host who gets kidnapped and psychologically tortured by a loser. www.mark-gelbart.com Email: agelbart@aol.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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