Ragtime (1975)

What a wonderful work that captures the times of the early 1900’s so wonderfully. Great characters (some historical) and so readable a “Page turning.” I looking forward to reading more of his work. Highly recommended. ( )

E.L. Doctorow's “Ragtime” (1975) could be a history book that reads like a novel or a novel that reads like a history book. That it is actually the latter we know because it tells us that on the cover. Doctorow blends fact and fiction as well as any historical novelist, a plot coming into form only gradually. Historical figures like Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford, Booker T. Washington, Evelyn Nesbitt and Sigmund Freud are as much characters as the two families, one black and one white, that eventually take over the story.

The book is narrated by someone who is just a boy when all this takes place, and he identifies members of his family only as Father, Mother and Mother's Younger Brother. He does not give a name even to himself.

An elegant black musician named Coalhouse Walker comes each week to their house to try to convince their maid to marry him. They already have a baby boy. Sarah finally agrees to the marriage, then tragedy strikes. Coalhouse is persecuted by members of a fire department, who destroy his new Model T. He insists they restore it to its original condition, even though as a black man he has virtually no power.

Meanwhile Sarah is killed by the police when she is only trying to summon help, and Mother takes over the care of her child, which distances her from Father. In desperation, Coalhouse turns violent, backed up by several young black men and even Mother's Younger Brother, who after being rejected by Evelyn Nesbitt is ready to use his talent with explosives for Coalhouse's hopeless cause.

The period of history is just before the First World War, and Doctorow gives us the flavor of that time. This may be his best known novel, although it is hardly his best. ( )

I'll say this is one of the better books I've read in a while. It's a novel about U.S. people in the early 20th century, before World War I. The writing is brilliant. The story depicted many social problems/phenomena with very clever use of cynicism. Here's an example from chapter 1 describing the early 1900's that cracked me up:

" Patriotism was a reliable sentiment in the early 1900's. Teddy Roosevelt was President. The population customarily gathered in great numbers either out of doors for parades, public concerts, fish fries, political picnics, social outings, or indoors in meeting halls, vaudeville theatres, operas, ballrooms. There seemed to be no entertainment that did not involve great swarms of people. Trains and steamers and trolleys moved them from one place to another. That was the style, that was the way people lived. Women were stouter then. They visited the fleet carrying white parasols. Everyone wore white in summer. Tennis racquets were hefty and the racquet faces elliptical. There was a lot of sexual fainting. There were no Negroes. There were no immigrants."

There are a lot more where that came from, and the author often used real-life historical figures of the 1900's as actors of these cynical scenes. And of course, Negroes and immigrants played a heavy part in the story :P The novel focused on the injustice faced by the former, and the poverty experienced by the latter. A well-to-do White family crossed paths with the people experiencing the injustice and poverty, and members of this family reacted differently. Another favorite excerpt from the book, depicting two family members discussing the injustice they witnessed:

"Father said I hope I misunderstand you. Would you defend this savage? Does he have anyone but himself to blame for Sarah's death? Anything but his damnable nigger pride? Nothing under heaven can excuse the killing of men and the destruction of property in this manner! Brother stood so abruptly that his chair fell over. The baby started and began to cry. Brother was pale and trembling. i did not hear such a eulogy at Sarah's funeral, he said. I did not hear you say then that death and the destruction of property was inexcusable."

The story arc on the injustice faced by the Negro man Coalhouse Walker, and the way the arc ended, made me cry the way I haven't cried over fiction in a long time. ( )

A unique and wonderful perspective on pre-WWI America, Ragtime follows the experiences of a well-off and established white family, a family of Jewish immigrants, and a young African-American couple. These individuals are meant to represent larger groups and contexts within the culture. The way these individuals "bump into" each other and the results shows what was happening in America in those times. ( )

Intense evocation of early 20th century America. Populated with many famous names and a well-to-do family, along with Eastern European immigrants and a Black man, driving much of the action. Ragtime is probably a metaphor for the whole era--the time when ragtime music was popular. ( )