Welcome to Hard Times

Blurb

Welcome to Hard Times is the debut 1960 novel by American author E.L. Doctorow. It is centered in a small settlement in the Dakota Territory named Hard Times. After a reckless drifter comes into Hard Times and terrorizes the town with rape, murder and arson, the survivors lead an effort to rebuild. A major theme throughout the short novel is the relationship of the characters and evil, represented by their fear of "The Bad Man from Bodie". A review by the New York Times relates the book to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness:
Perhaps the primary theme of the novel is that evil can only be resisted psychically: when the rational controls that order man's existence slacken, destruction comes. Conrad said it best in "Heart of Darkness," but Mr. Doctorow has said it impressively. His book is taut and dramatic, exciting and successfully symbolic.