Ragtime by E. L Doctorow (a long review)

Is that the guy's real name?

Well the book does not say one way on another.

This book is set on the first page in 1902 in New Rochelle, NY. The first family we meet is never named. The family is called Father, Mother, Mother's Brother, and Son. We follow them in snatches throughout the book. The last family we meet is also never named, the father is a poor Jewish man and his young daughter. He is called Tateh. So fathers play a big role.

In between Doctorow intersperses famous people of the time including Pierpont Morgan, Henry Houdini, and the characters in the "Trial of the Century" Stanford White, Henry K. Thaw, and Evelyn Nesbit. Looking in Wikipedia a lot of the smaller characters also lived. Doctorow wishes to create a story around these characters and more importantly describe the ethos of this time and place.

I think he does a very good job of describing the culture but in so doing he also reveals his own prejudices. He is certainly an atheist but also somehow believes in a karma type fate. I am reminded of some modern movies. His culture is godless, warping it quite a bit.

Perhaps the eccentric views he has Morgan espouse also reflect the author's views. It is not clear. But the waspish views of Father and Mother and the extremely legalistic moral views of Tateh are also described.

A major conflict that fills the last half of the book does not seem to have an basis in fact but serves to bring all these other characters together is the tragic plight of Coalhouse Walker, Jr. His car is vandalized simply because he is a negro. He goes on a vengeful rampage which kills many people and finally gets himself killed. If this in fact happened surely it would be on the internet.

It is a touching story that we are led to believe, because of all that comes before, actually happened. That is very misleading. Doctorow would like us to believe that it could, even should, have happened. White people had it coming.

Anyway the book ends with our poor Jewish artist Tateh moving out to California and getting rich in pictures, specifically creating the "Our Gang" comedies using his personal experience as inspiration. That is nice but a bit unsatisfying because his name is never mentioned. Searching in Wikipedia the creator of Our Gang was Hal Roach who may be Jewish but it doesn't mention. He was born in up state New York but seems to have spent a lot of time in Alaska before moving to CA. So Doctorow's Tateh is only very loosely based on Roach, that is why he is never named I guess.

So Ragtime starts out describing that might have happened but perhaps jumps over into impossibility after a while unless you subscribe to a very cynical view of life. Perhaps I do or perhaps I don't but I did not get joy in having my nose rubbed in it.