Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow

As I was reading this book, I was amused because of the overlap in characters between this book and Assassination Vacation. Or course, Emma Goldman has a much bigger role in this book than in the previous one.

I enjoyed the fact that many of the main characters didn't have names; now I won't be faulted for not remembering them. The way the story moves from character to character was very well done, following one character until the next character could take the lead. It was almost like a square dance where you keep switching partners- and oh the blasphemy for saying that about a book that is also highlighting ragtime and the start of jazz.

I started the book because I needed to finish it before Thursday and the first night I was through to page 181, and I finished it the second night. It went quickly and gave me ideas to think about, and made me really think about how far we have come. We still have a ways to go in race relations, but at least we have made some significant progress.

Not sure if I would read it again, I'll probably pass it on.

1 comment:

Kristin said...

I think I own a copy of this book. I think I've owned a copy of this book for ages and just haven't gotten around to reading it. I'm not sure I will.