Ragtime

A Novel

Paperback, 336 pages

English language

Published May 8, 2007 by Random House Trade Paperbacks.

ISBN:
978-0-8129-7818-6
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(1 review)

Published in 1975, Ragtime changed our very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century and the First World War.

The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. 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.

5 editions

Amazing and Relevant in November 2024

This is an odd book, and I mean that in the best possible way. It is not really plot driven - there are several disjointed stories linked together. It is not really character driven -- unless you consider the Ragtime era (roughly 1900-1917) to be the main character. It mixes historical figures and events along with fictional ones -- but in a way that you learn a lot about the real history and zeitgeist of that era. But it all somehow works spectacularly -- i was engrossed in the book and read it very quickly. The writing is amazing -- very clear, concise sentences that work together to be vivid thought provoking. it was written 50 years ago about a time 125 years ago..but it is extremely current and relevant as it is about culture going through great changes.

This was the first book I have read by Doctorow, and …

Subjects

  • Doctorow, E. L. - Prose & Criticism
  • Fiction
  • Fiction - Historical
  • Historical - General
  • Fiction / General