About this title: Doctorow's novel takes place in turn-of-the-century New York, and mingles real-life and fictional characters. The plot involves the Evelyn Nesbit-Stanford White intrigue, but also includes a black musician and his girlfriend, a Jewish peddler on the Lower East Side, and a coterie of wealthy Anglo-Saxons in pursuit of wealth. Time magazine called RAGTIME one of the 10 best books of the 1970s, and it was made into a successful musical.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Publishing Group, New York, New York, U.S. A
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780449214282ISBN:0449214281
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780394469010ISBN:0394469011
Description: Good in good dust jacket. DJ has small tears around edges, binding is slightly tilted, pages are clean and unmarked. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 270 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Good. 0553026003 SS--This mass market paperback book is in good condition! ! Some creasing of the spine. This is a solid used book that looks to have been read and enjoyed a time or two...standard signs of wear from reading. Has store stamp on top border. SMOKE FREE HOME! Do not settle for worn, torn, throwaways. Pay a few pennies more for a nice copy! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books Inc., New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780553149708ISBN:0553149709
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Penciled name on first page. Spine is lightly creased. Pages are tanned otherwise near fine. Cover is slightly worn at edges and a bit soiled. SYNOPSIS: RAGTIME is set in America at the beginning of this century. Its characters: three remarkable families whose lives become entrwined with people whose names are Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, Emiliano Zapata. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books, New York
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780553026009ISBN:0553026003
Description: Good. No Jacket. 6th printing. Wear to edges of soft ocver. Chip to top corner of soft ocver. Light fold lines to spine from reading. Page tanning form age. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House, 1975, 270 Pp.
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780394469010ISBN:0394469011
Description: Good in Good jacket. HARDCOVER; spine a bit cocked; small tears along edge of dustjacket and a couple of small stain spots on lower edge; minor shelfwear; o/w in good condition. read more
"I read this in college for a historical fiction class and remember liking it, so I decided to re-read it. This time, I enjoyed it a lot more. The novel revolves around a family in New Rochelle, New York, and their encounters with different characters, both fictional and historically inspired, at the turn of the 20th century. Written in four parts and forty chapters, the novel alternates between characters and tells a moving story about family, justice and love.
The novel is written in a peculiar fashion. The protagonist is an enigmatic figure, whose relationship with the family is tenuous. None of the characters in the family have names, but are instead referred to by their familial role (Mother, Father, Younger Brother). Furthermore, E.L. Doctorow does not use quotation marks to designate dialogue, and instead weaves all spoken word into each paragraph. It gives the book a historical feel, as one could argue that the typical conventions of novelistic dialogue would clash with the historical nature of his novel.
Among the figures who leave their mark on the family's lives are legendary escape artist Harry Houdini, progressive feminist Emma Goldman, psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, financial mogul J.P. Morgan, industrial entrepreneur Henry Ford, and several others. I especially enjoyed how Doctorow reduced these monolithic personages to poignant moments and illuminating details, exposing the real substance beneath their public facades.
I highly recommend this novel to anyone with a penchant for historical fiction."
"This a review for audiobook version of Creationists, read by the author.
Creationists is a collection of Doctorow's literary criticism assembled under the broad umbrella of "meaning-making" -- as Doctorow explains in his absolutely amazing introduction.
The introduction alone is worth owning the book.
Many reviewers here mostly seem critical of the "dry intellectualism" of the book and it's true the tone isn't a narrative the way Doctorow's novels are. Maybe hearing him read it made it more accessible, but rather than finding the book dry, I found myself pulling my car over over to the shoulder of the highway to take notes as I listened to this while driving.
Doctorow isn't attempting in these criticisms to offer a non-biased historical analysis -- he's making a kind of manifesto about the kind of writer he is. This is one of the best books by a popular writer about his craft that I've read since Stephen King's On Writing.
While the content of Doctorow's essays may have only appeal to lit-dorks, his introduction is a brilliant essay that carefully argues the value of the Humanities. If it was within my power, every high school and college student would be required to listen to Doctorow read his introduction of this book."
"This is my favorite book of all time (along with "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein). Doctorow takes a host of real people (some likeable and others not), and places them in a blender with a cast of fictional charactes that represent early 20th century America. There's the Latvian Jew-Tateh--who brings his daughter to the new world in the hopes of a better life. There's the Upper Middle Class white family, and then the black protagonist, Coalhouse Walker, whose story propels the book along to its conclusion.
Doctorow's genius is weaving this tapestry of disparate people together and having them collide with the likes of Emma Goldberg, Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, and even Emilio Zapata! He places them at the apex of American society--the Gilded Age--and watches them either succeed or fail in sometimes unexpected ways.
Coalhouse's tragedy paved the way for other's triumphs but at a price, always at a price...I loved the way Tateh morphs into a movie baron; once again-unexpectedly-but in the typical American ideal of hard work and a little luck.
This is a great work and ranks among the best books of the latter 20th century. It's my favorite book and can be re-read every few years."
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