[ZDG]≡ PDF Free The Time It Never Rained Elmer Kelton 9780812574517 Books

The Time It Never Rained Elmer Kelton 9780812574517 Books

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The Time It Never Rained Elmer Kelton 9780812574517 Books

Long before anyone had heard of online shopping or even personal computers for that matter, I had a favorite bookstore, the largest in Chicago, part of a local chain. Squeezed out by discounters, the store, and the entire business went belly up about twenty years ago, when Amazon had barely been born. The store had a category of books it called "Men's Adventure," all paperbacks, and populated by the books of two authors, Louis L'Amour and somebody named William Johnstone, who wrote the Man Mountain books. That was it, two authors. There wasn't a lot of demand for western novelists in the City of Big Shoulders, I guess.

I never dipped into Johnstone, but read a few L'Amour books after 60 Minutes did a segment on him, and it was revealed that he was Ronald Reagan's favorite novelist. Great Presidents can be lousy critics. I gave up on L'Amour after I realized I could not distinguish one story from another, one hero from another, or one brutally written page from another. I had not read a western novel since, with the exception of some by Larry McMurtry, who is thought of not as a western writer, but a general novelist, probably because many of his books are so long. The paperback editions of his novels rested in a completely different area of that old bookstore.

It was a writer in my favorite political magazine who penned a blurb praising The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton, and its theme of self-reliance that spurred me to read the book. Even then, I could not imagine how the story of a Texas drought would keep my interest. I was wrong, guilty of urban conceit, and should probably be punished by being docked wages for a day or two. Good thing I work for myself.

This is a great novel, with a wonderfully stubborn and decent lead character, Charlie Flagg, determined to see the drought through without help from the government. The idea of accepting help from the feds is anathema to Charlie, and a violation of his personal beliefs. There are also interesting parts of the book too, dealing with the treatment of Mexicans by whites, perhaps the first book since McMurtry's Hud to cross the subject of interracial relations between the two.

Kelton wrote with a simple, direct elegance, unhurried, sometimes even spare. The author I can most compare him to was not a novelist at all, but Ulysses S. Grant, whose Personal Memoirs evoke the same style. Both men wrote of what they knew best, Grant war, Kelton the West. The man whose strategy won the Civil War was a reluctant author, writing the Memoirs only because, broke and dying, he wanted to provide for his family. Kelton, a writer all his professional life, fought in, but never led in a war, and never made it into the history books. The thing he did was stir the reader's heart and teach us to respect and love the real working cowboy, not the ones swathed in dramatic mythology. For Elmer Kelton, that was enough.


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The Time It Never Rained Elmer Kelton 9780812574517 Books Reviews

"The Time It Never Rained" seemed to start out a little like "The Grapes of Wrath," but Steinbeck never lived in a dusty West Texas town and never developed characters like these. I remember my grandfather being as stubborn as characters in this book; a local banker who was as well-meaning and just as eccentric as the one Kelton brings to life; the prejudice of small-town folk, and the pride of small-town folk. I recall when people took care of each other and scratched out a living for themselves, rather than sit around waiting for the next government check, paying them for something they were not going to do anyway. Kelton's story moves slowly -- maybe too slowly for some -- but this is small-town Texas where nothing moves very fast, and this is hot Texas drought - where nothing moves unless it has to! I can't say that I really "liked" the book, but while Kelton's characters, physical setting, and events may be fictional, the people, the dry Texas dust, and the things that go on around a small Texas town are very, very real!
I've read this book at least 4 times. Parts of it could be the story of my childhood during the great seven year drouth in southwest Texas in the 50s. My Grandpa and my Daddy were made from the same mold as the main character, Charlie Flagg. It's a story of sticking to your principles in times of hardship and of taking care of yourself. It's a story of the love of the land and of changing times. It's a fine story of self reliance.
If you ever want to know what it's REALLY like to be a rancher living in tough times, this is the book for you. Kelton is almost like James Michener; you know he's basing this book on real-life events and real people he knew. He just knows too much, too deeply, for that not to be the case. And his protagonist Charlie Flagg, while not without his flaws, is a deeply admirable man. As in all good westerns, he lives by a code, and he'll succeed or fail, live or die, by that code. The world could use more Chalie Flaggs.
This is a modern western -- no gunplay, no range wars, and the only Comanche Indian in it has been dead for eighty years -- but it does take you very realistically into another world. I'll say this You must have to love the land and the animals raised on it an awful lot to try to wrest a living from what can be such a harsh, unforgiving Nature (and with the government most definitely not on your side either). Very good book (even if it does leave you talking in laconic, folksy-colorful West Texas jargon for a couple of days).
Another great book from Elmer Kelton. For some reason, the way that this book is described, with the main character's refusal to accept government help, really just doesn't sound all that interesting to me. But it was actually very compelling once I started it. Just to think about what a rancher went through during this drought--Kelton really makes you feel it. They would actually use flamethrowers to burn the spines off of prickly pear cacti so that their cows could eat them and not starve to death. Then ending I totally did not expect, either. Highly recommend!
This story is very personal to me and my family. My father was a rancher in West Texas during this terrible drought, and was one of a few who managed to hang onto the land. Many ranchers were forced to sell out. I was a teenager during this period and fully understood the great stress, both emotionally and financially, caused to my parents and my community. Elmer Kelton's "The Time It Never Rained" absolutely accurately portrays ranch life in the 50s, the drought, and the effects on all who lived through it. When the book was first published, I knew of many who did not want to read it because the drought had been just too painful to relive. I did read it then, and have recently reread it. I realized that younger generations in my family have no understanding of what their grandfather/great-grandfather endured to save the ranch for them. Consequently, I have purchased copies for each of them and hope they may gain a greater appreciation of their heritage by reading it.
Long before anyone had heard of online shopping or even personal computers for that matter, I had a favorite bookstore, the largest in Chicago, part of a local chain. Squeezed out by discounters, the store, and the entire business went belly up about twenty years ago, when had barely been born. The store had a category of books it called "Men's Adventure," all paperbacks, and populated by the books of two authors, Louis L'Amour and somebody named William Johnstone, who wrote the Man Mountain books. That was it, two authors. There wasn't a lot of demand for western novelists in the City of Big Shoulders, I guess.

I never dipped into Johnstone, but read a few L'Amour books after 60 Minutes did a segment on him, and it was revealed that he was Ronald Reagan's favorite novelist. Great Presidents can be lousy critics. I gave up on L'Amour after I realized I could not distinguish one story from another, one hero from another, or one brutally written page from another. I had not read a western novel since, with the exception of some by Larry McMurtry, who is thought of not as a western writer, but a general novelist, probably because many of his books are so long. The paperback editions of his novels rested in a completely different area of that old bookstore.

It was a writer in my favorite political magazine who penned a blurb praising The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton, and its theme of self-reliance that spurred me to read the book. Even then, I could not imagine how the story of a Texas drought would keep my interest. I was wrong, guilty of urban conceit, and should probably be punished by being docked wages for a day or two. Good thing I work for myself.

This is a great novel, with a wonderfully stubborn and decent lead character, Charlie Flagg, determined to see the drought through without help from the government. The idea of accepting help from the feds is anathema to Charlie, and a violation of his personal beliefs. There are also interesting parts of the book too, dealing with the treatment of Mexicans by whites, perhaps the first book since McMurtry's Hud to cross the subject of interracial relations between the two.

Kelton wrote with a simple, direct elegance, unhurried, sometimes even spare. The author I can most compare him to was not a novelist at all, but Ulysses S. Grant, whose Personal Memoirs evoke the same style. Both men wrote of what they knew best, Grant war, Kelton the West. The man whose strategy won the Civil War was a reluctant author, writing the Memoirs only because, broke and dying, he wanted to provide for his family. Kelton, a writer all his professional life, fought in, but never led in a war, and never made it into the history books. The thing he did was stir the reader's heart and teach us to respect and love the real working cowboy, not the ones swathed in dramatic mythology. For Elmer Kelton, that was enough.