Literary Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

[sun surfer]

This is the MR Literary Club selection for May 2015. Whether you've already read it or would like to, feel free to start or join in the conversation at any time! Guests are also always welcome.


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So, what are your thoughts on it?

[sun surfer]

I have already read this awhile ago and I really liked it. It's in that spot where it's been long enough that I don't specifically remember the entire thing but that I remember enough not to want to re-read it yet, though I haven't seen the film that Hamlet noted so I'll try to watch it this month.

[caleb72]

I finished this book yesterday. I did enjoy it, but I didn't get a "wow" feeling about it. I was lost as to what the author was trying to achieve with the novel to be honest.

But there were quite a few things I enjoyed.

I liked the interplay of some famous people and events of that era with a storyline involving a particular "Family".
I liked the eventual weaving of Tateh's storyline with that of the "Family".
There was at least one crude, but very funny moment in the first half of the novel that almost had me laughing out loud.
I liked the writing - not too dense, not overly simplistic. It was a nice read.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make of the work itself - what its aims were. I didn't get a feeling that it sat in any Top 100 list, but I might have missed the point.

If it was all about the cleverness of involving so many events and famous characters into a plot, then I concur - it was a clever display. And it was entertaining.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I have been so busy with work & travel that I haven't had time to post much this month. Interesting points, Caleb! I have been wondering also what made this novel so significant in terms of awards. I read that many authors were competing in this time period to reinvent and write the Great American Novel. This novel got recognized in that attempt. However I don't really know what the identifying characteristics are that make it so. I think that I just am not exposed to enough literature from this period to have a better understanding. I hope somebody can offer some enlightenment!

I am enjoying the book. About 70% complete. The history is fascinating. I like how real people and fictional characters are blended together. It's also an interesting technique that the upper-class family is nameless and identified by their relation to each other.

[Bookworm_Girl]

I just finished the book this afternoon and now I'm digesting its themes. It was clever and entertaining. It started out slow and then sure packed a lot into the final 1/3 of the book!

I enjoyed listening to ragtime music while I read this book. I highly recommend Scott Joplin Piano Rags performed by Joshua Rifkin in the 1970s. This album was very popular and inspired new interest in Joplin's music. It also ties into the time period theme.

Doctorow writes his book in a style similar to the ragtime music - slow, steady, measured, yet full of energy too. He is attempting to capture that time period in American history in the 1900s when you can tell that change is building up, before the after-effects of WWI and the Roaring Twenties & Jazz Age when culture finally shed the restraints of the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The different characters of the Family represent different tolerances to this coming change. Father seems trapped in the past, Mother has an awakening and adapts, while Younger Brother represents the next generation (phrased without giving away spoilers yet of his fate!).

[Bookworm_Girl]

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article about this time period in American history.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_era

[ccowie]

I've not been able to post much lately. I've been extraordinarily busy with work over the past few months, took a teaching gig at the University and was injured rather badly playing hockey - surgery is scheduled for June 23. And of course, it's playoff time and I just can't miss a single game.

Anyway, I just began reading Ragtime yesterday and I'm about 40% in. So far I'm really enjoying it. People may not like me for saying this so I'll apologize in advance like a good Canadian. Albeit obvious that this is written with certain 70's sensibilities, it doesn't have any of the predictable sentimentality that I so disliked in two Steinbeck novels we recently read. It's a deeper reflection on a difficult time in history with real characters. I complained about the cartoonish characters in Cannery Row. By contrast these characters are completely believable.

I'll be traveling lots over the next few weeks, which will provide me with lots of airport and airplane reading time. Looking forward to reading the rest and delving into the thoughts of others.

I thought that this was a alright book. Entertaining, but ultimately like a meal of a bowl of whipped cream. I did like the melding of real and imaginary characters. In fact that kept me busy (Yeah for the Internet) seeing what could have been real and what was fiction.

Reading while listening to Scott Joplin sounds nice. Unfortunately I have little ability to so multi-task. I can listen to and enjoy music, or I can read while comprehending, but not both at the same time.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

I thought that this was a alright book. Entertaining, but ultimately like a meal of a bowl of whipped cream. I did like the melding of real and imaginary characters. In fact that kept me busy (Yeah for the Internet) seeing what could have been real and what was fiction.

Reading while listening to Scott Joplin sounds nice. Unfortunately I have little ability to so multi-task. I can listen to and enjoy music, or I can read while comprehending, but not both at the same time.

I keep the volume really low or I'll start concentrating on it too much if it's music that I really like!

[ccowie]

Just finished a busy conference in Ft Lauderdale and now taking a little vacation. Finished this last night. I loved this book! I think I'll have to track down the movie when I get home, but I'm sure it won't be able to do the book justice.

[paola]

I also just finished it, and loved it - I was immediately taken by the almost dry writing style, in short sentences, and tricked by the style which seemed to suggest that real characters got proper names, while fictional one only a description, until, that is, we find Sarah and Coalhouse Wilkie.

As a foreigner, I am sure I've missed a lot of hidden references, irony and mocking as my knowledge of American history in general, and of the time period covered in particular, is scant to say the least, but to me the book painted a fascinating, troubling and fraught snapshot of those "ragtime" years.

The book is of course extremely political - not just in contrasting the worlds of the have, the have nots and of those who are trying, not for the maybe unlikely words that are put in some characters' mouths (most notably in Younger Brother's at his last exchange with Father), not only of course in J.P. Morgan's quest for perpetuity or in the whole Coalhouse episode - but in the development of two characters in particular, Mother, who blossoms through the pages, Father, who wilts, and Tateh, who struggles and makes it. Great read, cannot remember who nominated it, but thanks nonetheless!

ccowie: I have been in a similar spot for a while now - best of luck with your surgery!

[fantasyfan]

For those interested, the film gets quite mixed reviews. Malten gives it 3 out of 4 stars while Time Out claims it is a failed attempt to transfer an "over-rated" novel to the screen. James Cagney does get praise for his performance.

I was somewhat disappointed with the novel itself. It certainly does create a vivid portrait of that era in American social history. At the same time, I really didn't find some of the quite exaggerated characters particularly believable. I felt the same about the fictionalised events.

Perhaps I shouldn't have read the Penguin introduction to the book which seems to imply that Ragtime is on a par with Moby Dick as "The Great American Novel". Opinions will always differ, and many will inevitably disagree with me, but I just can't see Ragtime as being anywhere near the class of Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, or, for that matter, Huckleberry Finn despite the creative lapse in the final chapters of that book. Of course, I do realise that my attitude is more a reflection of my limited critical apparatus than of the book.

All that said, I am glad to have read this book and it galvanised me to look up those characters who actually existed. Further, it does explore some quite significant themes such as racism and the spiritual vacuum in that society.