Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Doctorow, E. L. - Wirt Williams (review date 25 September 1960)

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Wirt Williams (review date 25 September 1960)

SOURCE: "Bad Man from Bodie," in New York Times Book Review, September 25, 1960, p. 51.

[In the following review, Williams outlines the conflict and theme of Welcome to Hard Times.]

"Once again, the legend of the Old West has been rescued for a serious literary purpose," say the publishers of this first novel by a philosophy major. Inevitably, they invoke The Ox-Bow Incident—a practice followed by many reviewers, who seldom fail to pronounce the work at hand the first serious fiction about the West since—well, almost always since The Ox-Bow Incident (e.g.: The Authentic Death of Dendry Janes, Carrington, A Distant Trumpet, Warlock). It is time to acknowledge that the "serious Western" has established itself firmly on a sub-genre of fiction. Welcome to Hard Times is an exfoliation on a quite sturdy branch.

Thematically, E. L. Doctorow's short novel is...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Wirt Williams (review date 25 September 1960)
   2. Gwendolyn Brooks (review date 10 July 1966)
   3. Stanley Kauffman (review date 5 June 1971)
   4. Joseph Catinella (review date 17 July 1971)
   5. Patrick Parrinder (review date 4 April 1985)
   6. Richard D. Beards (review date Summer 1985)
   7. Marvin J. LaHood (review date Winter 1987)
   8. Michelle M. Tokarczyk (essay date Fall 1987)
   9. John G. Parks (essay date Winter 1991)
   10. Derek Wright (essay date 1993)
   11. Stephen Matterson (essay date Winter 1993)
   12. Stephen Cooper (essay date May 1993)
   13. Ann V. Miller (essay date Summer 1993)
   14. Stephen Fender (review date 27 May 1994)
   15. John Whitworth (review date 28 May 1994)
   16. Jonathan Franzen (review date 19 June 1994)
   17. Simon Schama (review date 19 June 1994)
   18. Mark Shechner (review date 10 July 1994)
   19. Andrew Delbanco (review date 18 July 1994)
   20. William Hutchings (review date Winter 1995)
   21. E. L. Doctorow with Michelle M. Tokarczyk (interview date Winter 1995)
   22. Michael Wutz (review date Spring 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. E. L. Doctorow