Ragtime - by E L Doctorow (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

First published in 1975, Ragtime changed our very concept of what a novel could be--a singular tapestry hailed as "an extraordinarily deft, lyrical, rich novel that catches the spirit of the country" (The New Yorker) between the turn of the century and the First World War.

Selected by the Modern Library and The Guardian as one of the 100 best novels of all time

The inspiration for the Tony Award-winning musical!

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.

Review Quotes

"Doctorow's tapestry of an America rapidly losing its innocence is brilliant."--People

"One of the ten best books of the decade!"--TIME

"Brilliant . . . A resonant book of manifold ironies and rare charm."--The Boston Globe

"An extraordinarily deft, lyrical, rich novel that catches the spirit of the country . . . in a fluid musical way that is as original as it is satisfying."--The New Yorker

"As exhilarating as a deep breath of oxygen . . . a remarkable achievement. . . . Doctorow has found a fresh way to orchestrate the themes of American innocence, energy, and ambition."--Newsweek

"Excellent . . . One devours it in a single sitting."--The New York Times

"An extraordinary fictional tapestry. . . . Once in there's no possible way out except through the last page."--The New Republic

"Ingeniously structured . . . beautiful . . . Likely to be read a second time and more."--The Cleveland Plain Dealer

About the Author

E. L. Doctorow's works of fiction include Welcome to Hard Times, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Loon Lake, World's Fair, Billy Bathgate, The Waterworks, City of God, The March, Homer & Langley, and Andrew's Brain. Among his honors are the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle awards, two PEN/Faulkner awards, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal. In 2009 he was shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize, honoring a writer's lifetime achievement in fiction, and in 2012 he won the PEN/ Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, given to an author whose "scale of achievement over a sustained career places him in the highest rank of American literature." In 2013 the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him the Gold Medal for Fiction. In 2014 he was honored with the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.