Hard Rain Falling

In the introduction, author George Pelecanos recounts being urged by writer Chris Offutt to read Don Carpenter’s 1966 novel, Hard Rain Falling. Pelecanos describes the book as a revelation, calling it populist fiction at its finest and perhaps the most important unheralded American novel of the 1960s. He summarizes the plot, beginning with the prologue that details the lives of protagonist Jack Levitt’s parents, Harmon Wilder and Annemarie Levitt, in eastern Oregon.

The narrative follows Jack from his time as a teenage runaway in Portland in 1947, through reform school, jail, and eventually to San Quentin prison. Pelecanos introduces key characters, including Jack’s friend Denny Mellon and Billy Lancing, a gifted young Black pool player. He notes that Jack and Billy become lovers in San Quentin, a development that would have been shocking at the time of the novel’s publication. A tragedy involving Billy ultimately sets Jack on a different path. Pelecanos concludes by quoting Carpenter’s atheist worldview from a 1975 interview, suggesting that with this novel, the author achieved a form of immortality.