Ron Peters's Reviews > Ragtime

This odd but interesting novel was a pleasant surprise. I’ve seen the book described as both modernist and postmodernist. Because Doctorow concerns himself with the struggle to uncover meaning in history and societal flux it feels more modernist to me.

The tale is mainly set in and around New York City during the early twentieth century. I’m tempted to say that the life of New York plus-or-minus 1910 is the central character and plot (the bildungsroman of a city), but the book gradually pulls focus on the story of a ragtime pianist, Coalhouse Walker.

The main action centers on an upper-middle-class family (only referred to as Father, Mother, Mother's Younger Brother, Grandfather, and ‘the little boy’), their boarders (a young, Black single mother and her son), and the single mother’s beau, said ragtime pianist.

In short chapters, the book cleverly lays out a wide-ranging set of stories that interleave episodes from the lives of fictional characters with real-life celebrities (Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Booker T. Washington, and so on). The writing is excellent and engaging. It’s worth the read. Now I wonder what Doctorow’s Billy Bathgate is like…