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Ragtime: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best…
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Ragtime: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels) (original 1975; edition 2007)

by E.L. Doctorow (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
6,2221231,552 (3.85)379
Ragtime (1975) by E.L. Doctorow. This is both an unusual novel and a fantastic reading treat. I’ve never read such a novel and I can fully understand why it is considered a modern classic. Capturing the feel of America just prior to WWI it tells a story about a successful New Rochelle, New York family and the events that take them from stiff respectability to opening them up into a multicultural blend of many walks of life. There is harsh racism and injustice. Of the rich floating above the strife that they cause, only noticing it when uprisings must be quashed.
Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford all interact with some member of the family while a poor Jewish immigrant makes good and rises up in the American dream. Freud dislikes America and Americans and flees the country as soon as his tour of it is over. Emma Goldman stives through rabble-rousing to make unions strong and the life of the average person better. Historical characters walk side-by-side with whole cloth creations to such a degree it is difficult the fiction from the fact.
And what novel of the start of the 20th century would be complete without Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke whose assassination was the impetus that allowed the world war to occur.
While this is a serious novel depicting many discrepancies in America of that time (which remind us of the very same things happening now), it is also great fun to read. He took the drab facts of history, and in a trick Houdini himself might have marveled over, using esoteric alchemy, created a golden story for all time. I found this novel completely compelling, to such a degree that I put aside all other matters just to bathe in the richness of this vision. ( )
  TomDonaghey | Feb 15, 2023 |
English (115)  Spanish (2)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Danish (1)  Italian (1)  Dutch (1)  Portuguese (1)  All languages (122)
Showing 1-25 of 115 (next | show all)
3.75. Great to read if you love the musical. ( )
  Fortunesdearest | Feb 2, 2024 |
Did not finish ( )
  lkadin | Dec 12, 2023 |
I just finished this and liked it fairly well. Much of it, especially in the beginning, was not so much a story to follow---more like a list of everything the narrator could think of that went on during the time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, just lots of snippets of information without a lot of depth. By the middle of the story though, I began to see everything come together and the three families' stories ended predictably but satisfactorily entwined.

I love reading anything about this period of time. Many of my turn of the century favorites made cameos: Houdini, Emma Goldman, and Lavinia Warren, to name just a few.

So many times I found myself laying the book aside to Google a story and see if it was true. Turns out, much of this is fiction surrounded by lots of historical characters and settings. Some of my favorite parts included the story of Charles Victor Faust and the very violent baseball game, Evelyn Nesbit's generosity, and JP Morgan's crazy ideas about Egypt and the afterlife.

I probably won't read this one again, but I don't regret the time I gave to it. One more off my 1001 list! ( )
  classyhomemaker | Dec 11, 2023 |
Doctorow is a gifted writer, especially when it comes to characterization, descriptions, and dialogue. At its core this book is an extended commentary on America: especially as it comes to dealing with our various struggles and fascinations. What is more impressive is how he tells this using an ensemble cast that combines real life and historical figures.

The best, and perhaps spiritual heart, is the Coalhouse Walker story. He encapsulates all that he wants to say--especially with his encounters with racism, class conscious boundary crossing, ventures into crime, and encounters with real life people.

If there's one knock, it is that that story doesn't pick up until the middle of the book. I also think the two families could've been given equal care. But that is a minor complaint. He balances all the fictional characters well, in addition to giving cool moments for people like Harry Houdini and Booker T. Washington.

Highly recommended. ( )
  JuntaKinte1968 | Dec 6, 2023 |
When, in the future, I am world-famous (famous, of course, for exceptional goodreads reviews), I will not very much appreciate being ventriloquized in this fashion, which Doctorow employs on Houdini-Goldman. Our author appears to misapprehend Michael Kohlhaas, the attraction of which is not, "righteous revenge fairy tale," but rather, "spontaneous legal imbroglio," the climax of which, rather than the execution scene, is that episode in which Master Himboldt, who has just been introduced at the beginning of the sentence, forbids his servant from untying the knacker's horses. ( )
  Joe.Olipo | Sep 19, 2023 |
I read this one a while ago, and don't recall any details. ( )
  mykl-s | Aug 12, 2023 |
This book presents a plot involving a disparate group of characters but most clearly it presents America pre WWI is all its diversity as well as its flamboyant embrace of possibilities, ( )
  snash | Jun 28, 2023 |
That was... surprisingly good. ( )
  Eavans | Feb 17, 2023 |
Ragtime (1975) by E.L. Doctorow. This is both an unusual novel and a fantastic reading treat. I’ve never read such a novel and I can fully understand why it is considered a modern classic. Capturing the feel of America just prior to WWI it tells a story about a successful New Rochelle, New York family and the events that take them from stiff respectability to opening them up into a multicultural blend of many walks of life. There is harsh racism and injustice. Of the rich floating above the strife that they cause, only noticing it when uprisings must be quashed.
Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford all interact with some member of the family while a poor Jewish immigrant makes good and rises up in the American dream. Freud dislikes America and Americans and flees the country as soon as his tour of it is over. Emma Goldman stives through rabble-rousing to make unions strong and the life of the average person better. Historical characters walk side-by-side with whole cloth creations to such a degree it is difficult the fiction from the fact.
And what novel of the start of the 20th century would be complete without Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke whose assassination was the impetus that allowed the world war to occur.
While this is a serious novel depicting many discrepancies in America of that time (which remind us of the very same things happening now), it is also great fun to read. He took the drab facts of history, and in a trick Houdini himself might have marveled over, using esoteric alchemy, created a golden story for all time. I found this novel completely compelling, to such a degree that I put aside all other matters just to bathe in the richness of this vision. ( )
  TomDonaghey | Feb 15, 2023 |
Well-written sketch of early 1900s New York and racial interactions. As would fit the title it has a relaxed pace and is descriptive rather than action-oriented. ( )
  cziering | Nov 27, 2022 |
Better half way thru. ( )
  MadMattReader | Sep 11, 2022 |
Rich in historical fiction, Ragtime will parade past its readers men like Sigmund Freud, Winslow Homer, Henry Ford, Harry Houdini, J.P. Morgan, Theodore Dreiser, and Booker T. Washington.
All walks of life thrive within the pages of Ragtime. The sideshow freaks of the Barnum and Bailey circus, the curse of the Egyptian mummies, the advent of the Model Ford, the destruction of Tammany Hall, sexual fainting was a thing, segregation was strict in parts of the country, there was human trafficking by a different name, Robert Peary's quest for the Arctic, L.L Bean boots, the Stanford White shooting, Charles Dana Gibson was asking the eternal question, the anarchist Emma Goldman, even Emiliano Zapata. At the center of this turn-of-the-century drama is ten years of one family. Their business is fireworks and flags and while they are profitable in business, they are poor in happiness. Everyone is undergoing personal strife. It isn't until a seemingly abandoned black child wanders into their midst, followed by the depressed mother and musician father when things start to perk up. ( )
  SeriousGrace | Jul 1, 2022 |
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. ( )
  stevetempo | Jun 17, 2022 |
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. ( )
  hardlyhardy | May 15, 2022 |
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. ( )
  CathyChou | Mar 11, 2022 |
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. ( )
  LuanneCastle | Mar 5, 2022 |
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. ( )
  janerawoof | Feb 24, 2022 |
Loved this book. It has been my favorite for years! ( )
  SheriRichey | Oct 29, 2021 |
strange novel pre WWI family and intercrossings with various famous people and a black man driven mad by injustice
  ritaer | Aug 16, 2021 |
This was an engrossing, thoroughly enjoyable book. The intertwining of fictional characters and historical figures kept me wondering, how much is real and how much is fiction? If you are a history buff, you will do a lot of fact checking. It makes the story even more enjoyable. It also sends a strong message about racism and the dignity of humankind. ( )
  Chrissylou62 | Aug 1, 2020 |
Historical fantasy, the old-school way. No actual magic, mind you, but E. L. Doctorow finds some of the most interesting characters of the Ragtime Era right before WWI and throws them all together in a wild extravaganza.

Add Archduke Ferdinand, Houdini, Freud, J.P. Morgan, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford, and a truly fantastic but made up Coalhouse Porter (a jazz musician with a massive bone to pick throughout the tale), and the novel becomes a who's-who of famous historical personages (including Teddy Rosevelt!) popping up throughout the tale.

I rather like this invention. I'm actually more than a little curious to see where they all go off the rails in fantasy versus the real people. If I was really serious about it, I would have to read about a dozen full biographies to untangle this undeniably fun mess of a novel. :)

Well worth the read! :) ( )
1 vote bradleyhorner | Jun 1, 2020 |
Americana at its best. The modern writing style and treatment of characters is very anachronistic to the actual time when it's set; which I liked.
The writing has a dreamlike, staccato nature to it, which makes you read it unlike regular fiction.
It was educational to read about this time in American history I didn't know much about. ( )
  raheelahmad | Mar 22, 2020 |
Best book I've read in 4 years. ( )
  kvschnitzer | Dec 8, 2019 |
maybe 1.25 stars. it took me a while to see the value in this, and while i did by the end, i still didn't really like it. i thought that in general the writing wasn't at all good, the characters weren't at all fleshed out, there was necessary (or at least helpful) information left out all over the place, and i never really cared about anyone.

i mean, maybe part of that is intentional - the white american family never is even named (we are just given their role in the family: "Mother, Father, Younger Brother," etc), which shows how typical and uninteresting they are - they are every white family of that class in that time. and he succeeded in my not caring about them at all and not being at all interested in what happened with them or to them. the immigrant jewish family was also not interesting to me, but i think that was more because the space given them was disproportionately low, and by the time i had any interest in their story, they were gone. the only story i had an interest in whatsoever was that of coalhouse walker, the black man who refused to accept the injustice meted out by the people and the time. though it wasn't coalhouse himself i was interested in, but his cause, and i would have appreciated more of the discussion between his view and booker t washington's, but we didn't get much of that. then again, it's all, in the end, a white man's view of the time and that argument. (maybe that's part of what is missing for me about this book - i do feel white people need to evaluate their privilege and issues of race, but it's less valuable to me to read it done this way. i'd rather hear from people of color when talking about race. but again, i don't want to discourage white people from exploring it all.)

this felt like a book about an issue (race relations) all muddled up with name dropping and an attempt to put as many historical figures as possible randomly together in a book. (there were: jp morgan, evelyn nesbit, henry ford, emma goldman, harry houdini, sigmund freud, and others. for - what seemed to me - no reason.) they added nothing and frankly got in the way of the story it seemed he was trying to tell. this was all over the place for me, and more annoying than anything else, unfortunately.

a passage that shows he can really write, and that i wish there were more examples of: "The cars jumped under his feet. The moon raced with the train. He held his face up to the sky between the cars, as if even moonlight could warm him." ( )
  overlycriticalelisa | Oct 6, 2019 |
Brilliant stylistically: great remote narration, indirect speech, long paragraphs, but very short and direct sentences. The first half of the book is all about sex. The second half is about vengence. You cannot remove the Coalhouse Walker narrative from the context of the 1960s and 1970s: it gains much more meaning from recognizing that context. I read this at the same time that I was reading The Secret History of Wonder Woman, and there was a lot of intersection. ( )
  AmyMacEvilly | Sep 2, 2019 |
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Penguin Australia

2 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141188170, 0143566377

 

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