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Welcome to Hard Times
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Hard Times is a small settlement in the Dakota Territory until a violent stranger destroys it, killing, raping and burning before riding away. Blue, the town’s reluctant civic leader, remains among the ruins and takes responsibility for two survivors: the orphaned boy Jimmy and Molly, a prostitute determined to avenge what was done to her.
Blue encourages merchants, labourers and families to return, hoping that buildings and commerce can create a stable community where fear once ruled. Molly believes reconstruction only gives the outlaw something new to destroy when he returns. Doctorow’s debut uses the rebuilding of Hard Times to challenge frontier myths about courage, civilisation, violence and the authority claimed by men who cannot protect their neighbours.
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