Ragtime
E. L. Doctorow, 1975
A flag-making family, a chorus-girl scandal and Houdini collide in 1902 America, told in prose as syncopated as ragtime.
E. L. Doctorow
Before fiction, Doctorow was editor-in-chief at Dial Press, where he acquired and edited novels; he later put real and invented characters on the same page without distinction.
Feels like wonder, love and freedom.
A fortune built on flags, fireworks and the business of patriotism.
In 1902 Father built a house at the crest of the Broadview Avenue hill in New Rochelle, New York. It was a three-story brown shingle with dormers, bay windows and a screened porch. Striped awnings shaded the windows. The family took possession of this stout manse on a sunny day in June and it seemed for some years thereafter that all their days would be warm and fair. The best part of Father’s income was derived from the manufacture of flags and buntings and other accoutrements of patriotism, including fireworks. 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. Books by E. L. Doctorow
Authors with a similar feel
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
BookFeed is a feed of real passages from real books. It learns what moves you and finds your next book.
Open BookFeedFree, no sign-up.