Hard Rain Falling

Don Carpenter (1931-1995) was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up on the West Coast. He served in the air force during the Korean War, attended the University of Portland, and received a B.S. from Portland State College and an M.A. from San Francisco State College. Carpenter, his wife, Martha, and their two daughters settled in Mill Valley, near San Francisco, and he became good friends with the local writers Evan Connell and, especially, Richard Brautigan. His first book, Hard Rain Falling, was published in 1966 and was followed by nine other novels as well as several collections of short stories. Carpenter also wrote for the movies and television and spent a good deal of time in Hollywood, the subject of several of his novels. Plagued by poor health in his later years, he committed suicide at the age of sixty-four. »

George Pelecanos is the author of sixteen novels and was a writer, story editor, and producer on the HBO series The Wire. »

By Don Carpenter
Introduction by George Pelecanos

Don Carpenter's Hard Rain Falling is a tough-as-nails account of being down and out, but never down for good—a Dostoyevskian tale of crime, punishment, and the pursuit of an ever-elusive redemption. The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon. Jack befriends Billy Lancing, a young black runaway and pool hustler extraordinaire. A heist gone wrong gets Jack sent to reform school, from which he emerges embittered by abuse and solitary confinement. In the meantime Billy has joined the middle class—married, fathered a son, acquired a business and a mistress. But neither Jack nor Billy can escape their troubled pasts, and they will meet again in San Quentin before their strange double drama comes to a violent and revelatory end.

Reviews

Don Carpenter could be hilarious, and he could break your heart, and he could write about ego and frailty as well as anyone on earth. I loved him like crazy.
— Anne Lamott

Hard Rain Falling is a unique read; violent, tender, inexorable, and melancholic; a beat-era book of disaffected young men devoid of On the Road euphoria but more poignant and gripping for its fatalistic grounding. The small lives contained herein are indelible.
— Richard Price

Carpenter’s masterpiece, long out of print, is the definitive juvenile-delinquency novel and a damning indictment of our justice system that is still relevant today.
— George Pelecanos, The Village Voice

Don Carpenter is a particular favorite of mine. His first novel, Hard Rain Falling, might be my candidate for one of the best prison novels in American literature.
— Jonathan Lethem

One of America’s finest novelists.
— Richard Brautigan

Format: Paperback
Retail Price: $16.95
Price: $12.71 (25% off)

Sep 8, 2009
336 pages
ISBN: 1590173244
9781590173244
Literature in English
NYRB Classics

Find us on Facebook