“If we don’t fight, then what are we doing?” — Jeff Boyd

How do you write fiction about contemporary America when reality itself is stranger than fiction? Where “alternative facts” is policy and “truth” has been nationalized? Jeff Boyd sees fiction as refuge. His new novel Hard Times — named not after Dickens but Curtis Mayfield — is set in a South Side Chicago school where an innocent student gets shot and nobody can agree on what happened.
Boyd taught in a school like this. His father was a cop. Is the American Dream over? Did it ever exist? Boyd isn’t quite sure. “As much as it feels impossible, some part of me always wants to believe.” His characters fight — backs against the wall, but they don’t give in. That’s Curtis Mayfield in 1975. That’s Jeff Boyd in 2026. The times are hard. A time , once again, for novelists to seize back reality.

Five Takeaways
• How Do You Fictionalize an Unbelievable Reality? Fiction is a refuge. The novelist can provide answers the news cycle can’t.
• Not Dickens — Curtis Mayfield. The 1975 song from There’s No Place Like America Today. America might be great — but for whom, exactly?
• A Policeman’s Son on George Floyd. The black officer who stood by. Boyd can’t see anyone as a monolith. His cop character shows the complexity.
• Fate vs. Agency. Boyd’s characters fight against the line from where you start to where you end. The novel asks whether the line holds or breaks.
• The Fight Goes On. Cards stacked, backs against the wall, but they don’t give in. That’s Curtis Mayfield. That’s Jeff Boyd.

About the Guest
Jeff Boyd is the author of The Weight and Hard Times. A former Chicago public school teacher and Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate, he lives in Brooklyn.

References
Hard Times: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Times-Novel-Jeff-Boyd/dp/1250348455
The Weight: https://www.amazon.com/Weight-Jeff-Boyd/dp/1668007258
Jeff Boyd: https://www.jeffsboyd.com

About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:
00:00:00 Introduction: Hard Times from Dickens to today
00:01:19 Not Dickens — Curtis Mayfield
00:02:44 The Obama era and the fall back into hard times
00:05:32 How do you fictionalize a reality stranger than fiction?
00:08:44 Autobiography: teaching in a Chicago school
00:10:18 Fate, predestination, and fighting the line
00:12:49 The novelist as God — do your characters surprise you?
00:15:02 A student is shot: the journalist-novelist
00:15:33 Social realism in the Dickensian tradition
00:18:45 Chicago stereotypes and the beauty between blocks
00:22:19 A policeman’s son on George Floyd and the black cop who stood by
00:25:27 Teaching as the most underappreciated job in America
00:27:57 Money, class, and Black Chicago beyond the stereotype
00:29:43 Trump, alternative facts, and who controls the truth
00:32:19 The American Dream: is it over?