The 1957 novel The Hard Guys, written by John B. Sanford, is why we read books. Originally published in 1935 as The Old Man’s Place, it’s a tale in the rural drama category dealing with three morally challenged men who take over a broken down upstate New York farm belonging to one’s father. This trio are mean as snakes, with hair-trigger tempers and dangerous dreams. Their already fractious relationship is further strained when a mail order bride scheme lures an innocent beauty to the farm. She’s regarded as property—but whose? As the men battle over her she’s under constant threat of being raped. The two main questions in the story become whether she can avoid this fate, and whether one of the three men actually has a conscience. We won’t say more because if you decide to try the book you should go in knowing little. The Hard Guys is an intense, harrowing read, and Sanford—who eventually won a PEN/Faulkner Award and a Los Angeles Times Lifetime Achievement Award—is a powerful writer who understood that poor education, arrogant entitlement, and violent tendencies are a poisonous brew.
