It captured the race, immigrant, monied, and cultural changes that griped New York as cars were beginning to roll down the streets and planes and Houdini were both beginning to float, briefly, in the air.
Doctorow captures a swift and direct channel of New York's energy, contradiction, growth, insecurity, isolation as America transformed between the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is the big uncle to late 90s Philip Roth ('I Married a Communist', 'American Pastoral'), Don DeLillo ('Libra', 'Underworld'), Gore Vidal ('Empire, Hollywood') & Norman Mailer* (Executioner's Song & Harlot's Ghost) novels which seem to all bend a little to the wind that blew out of this syncopated, tight, urgent historical novel. Yes, in fact it is the killer historical novel of the Ragtime era. So my first book of 2014 isn't even on my to-read list. Syncopated, tight, urgent historical novel I am motivated to see Milos Foreman's film version, too, though that seems to represent only a small part of the novel as a whole from what I've read. Though it was written before folks began to think of how a book would "Play" in audio, it is one of the few novels that I will have enjoyed more in audio than paper format I think.
I am going to buy a paper copy, and I know that I will listen to the audio again. I felt like I was sitting at his feet listening as he invented the tale.
#Ragtime el doctorow chapter summary professional#
So - he is not a professional narrator with stage voices- but in this case author narration works wonderfully. Doctorow begins by telling us that he is going to "say" us a novel. Too good for my words, anyway! I downloaded this because it was cheap and I was dimly aware that was supposed to be a good novel (but must confess that I am a Can Lit and Brit Lit fan and not so much interested in Americana - so I didn't approach the listen with great expectations.) I think it one of the most fascinating novels I've ever come across! I can't believe I was given a degree in literature and history without being advised to read this imaginative cross pollination somewhere along the way.
Time magazine included the novel in its Time 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923-2005.
Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.Ī rich tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in a unique historic context. Almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. The novel interweaves fictional characters with actual historic events and figures. Ragtime, a classic work of historical fiction first published in 1975, details the lives of three families in early 20th-century New York.
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