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Ragtime Paperback – 1976

by E. L. Doctorow (Author), Carol Yeh (Illustrator)

341 customer reviews

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Editorial Reviews

Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books; 1st Illustrated Edition edition (1976)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553010409
ISBN-13: 978-0553010404
ASIN: B001Z3B8UW
Package Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 341 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,086 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3622 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > TV, Movie, Video Game Adaptations
- #16068 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics
- #35435 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary

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Kate

As important today as it was when written.

January 25, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Written in 1974 about the period of early 1900s and in some ways pertinent today. I actually highlighted portions.

"The laboring man would be protected and cared for not by the labor agitators, said one wealthy man, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom had given the control of the property interests of this country."
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels) (p. 40). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

"For several years the Association of Police Chiefs of the State of New York has passed a resolution calling for the licensing of automobiles and automobilists. If that were the law today we could track the brute down. The Chief as he spoke emptied the drawers of his desk. He puffed a cigar. He walked out with the reporters. The next day a bill to license automobiles was introduced in the State Legislature."
Doctorow, E.L. Ragtime: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels) (p. 170). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

The first quote is apropos of recent debates about raising the minimum wage and providing health care. The second may provide context for why automobiles are regulated and registered and guns sales & ownership don't have to meet the standards imposed for autos.

There is always a strong valid reason for why certain books and/or authors become classics, and the timeliness of the messages is certainly a measure. In the pre-publication (1974) years among the most discussed issues were whether women could be fired for becoming pregnant (employers still routinely asked women about plans for a family), maternity benefits, and birth control and family planning because of issues of overpopulation leading to today's debates on the impact of the migration of whole populations due to wars and climate change.

5 people found this helpful

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Bartleby

Classic from my youth

March 22, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read this book as a kid and was blown away by it. Who knew you could use real people in fictional settings? Who knew you could address the reader directly? And of course anything with Houdini in it made me sit up and want more. I re-read this recently to see if it held up over time, and was pleased to see that it did. I still think teachers of English and US History could probably get a lot of use out of this book with high school students. There's a strong theme of justice that runs throughout, which might appeal to young people. Language and sexuality warning.

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Eileen Auerbach

A fascinating series of individual stories melded together in a jigsaw puzzle of a plot

September 2, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I really enjoyed reading this book. The timeline and various story lines are not linear and could possibly be a little hard to follow for some reasons. You get a strong sense of time and place of this novel set in the early part of the 20th century. The subplots are lyrically presented and, while the details of the characters are few as in a series of short stories, they coalesce by the end in a high tension collage. I'd highly recommend it.

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December 12, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book takes a little while to warm to, but once it gets going, it’s fascinating. Doctorow weaves real and fictional characters together without the use of cheap coincidences, which so often occur in books of this genre. I saw the film years ago, and later the Broadway show. As well-done as they both were, I think the source material may be even more entertaining (but you’ll have to sing to yourself).

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Book Addict

Awesome how he takes actual events and weaves them within ...

November 11, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Awesome how he takes actual events and weaves them within the story. God bless Professor JoAnn Hamilton for making us read this book. Far better than the movie, of course. This is a book I will re-read. Never thought I'd be one of those type readers, but I now understand the value in doing so; like the Bible, you always learn/understand/realize a little more when you re-read anything.

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". . . as if history were no more than a tune on a player piano"

December 13, 2010

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This was the first novel by E.L. Doctorow that I read - about 30 years ago. In more recent years, I have read four others; I liked each of them to varying degrees, but after each I mentally noted that it was not the equal of RAGTIME. I decided to check those mental notes and also perhaps gauge whether my tastes or critical facilities have evolved by re-reading the novel. Conclusion? I like RAGTIME even better now than I did half a lifetime ago.

It is a great story, a mixture of fact and fiction set in the Ragtime era (roughly, 1906 to 1914) and centered in the New York City area. The novel evokes its period and place as well as the best historical fiction. It also spotlights what probably was the defining social issue of the time - the conflict between capital and labor, the wealthy and the poor. But what makes RAGTIME special is the narrative style: prose that is simple and pared down, yet taut and propulsive. While the story might have minor flaws, not so the prose. It is a stylistic tour de force.

The central characters of the novel are all fictional. But a handful of historical figures - Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, Evelyn Nesbit, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, and Charles S. Whitman - have significant roles in the novel and are each given highly imaginative character re-constructions. (The portrayal of J.P. Morgan in Chapter 19 - "He was a monarch of the invisible, transnational kingdom of capital whose sovereignty was everywhere granted." -- is superb.) And then there are a slew of additional historical figures who make cameo appearances, from Sigmund Freud to Admiral Peary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Big Bill Haywood, even Charles Victor Faust.

RAGTIME, like almost all of Doctorow's novels, raises questions about how far should an author go in mixing fact and fiction, history and fantasy. In his most recent novel, "Homer & Langley", I thought Doctorow went too far, but I don't feel that way about RAGTIME, which arguably is even looser in its distortions of history. How can I explain that seeming contradiction? I think because the central characters of RAGTIME - the anonymous narrator and his family, Tateh and his daughter, and Coalhouse Walker, Jr. - are all clearly fictional. Given that, it is easier for me to accept that, yes, Emma Goldman could have been big sister to Evelyn Nesbit, J.P. Morgan could have discussed the secrets of life with Henry Ford, and Harry Houdini could have shown off his flying skills in his Voisin biplane to Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie.

In any event, RAGTIME certainly should be read by anyone interested in the art of historical fiction, as well as, I think, anyone who wishes to be conversant with the best American fiction of the past half century.

9 people found this helpful

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Susan Gayle

Wow- couldn't put it down. Loved it.

March 21, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Wow - couldn't put this down. He weaves the story using specific details and stories of the period, clearly highlighting what that period of history was all about - and how foolish our society is ultimately. I loved this wonderful and cynical book.

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