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!).