The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton

Every now and then you happen upon a book that you never heard of before, and it is so good you are amazed that you hadn't heard about it. This is that kind of book.

Elmer Kelton is well known by those who read "westerns," books about cowboys,Texas Rangers, and so forth. This is his most prize-winning book (Spur Award from Western Writers of America and Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum), but I would not call it a "western" in the usual sense. Instead, it is a novel set in the West, with problems that will sound familiar to farmers and ranchers today.

Charlie Flagg is a stubborn, hard-working, courageous, somewhat-cantankerous rancher making a pretty good living on a ranch near San Angelo, Texas, until the historic drought of the early 1950s comes along. He is unrelenting in his efforts to adapt to a period of no rain, but also unrelenting in his refusal to accept federal assistance, taking pride in his self-sufficiency even though his banker tells him, "There's no way a man can still make it all by himself."

In the hands of a less-capable writer this novel could have been a formulaic tale of the last of a (perhaps) dying breed, the independent man of the West. But Kelton is a better writer than that. His Charlie is a fully realized character, faults and all.

The dialogue and even the narration is absolutely authentic for the place and time. Perhaps Kelton's very authenticity prohibited his acceptance as a novelist outside the West: one of his characters "tells a windy." Do people in other states even know what that means? I do, because I heard the expression all through my growing-up.

Another unusual aspect of the novel is its frank depiction of the relations between Anglos and those of Mexican descent in their shared land. Even though he is not guilty of some of the overt bigotry of his neighbors, Charlie is still guilty of "paternalism," thinking he has to take care of his resident ranch hand's family. By the end, though, even his thinking changes somewhat as times change.

The ending is not "happily-ever-after," but it is true to real life and to the spirit of the narrative. It provides hope, because we all know true Texans never give up.

Highly recommended for Texans and for anyone who wants to read a real picture of what Texans are like (or should be, anyway).