Ragtime by E.L. Doctorow

This was my IRL book club's January discussion choice. The category was Historical Fiction.



Let me way with near 100% certainty that I would never ever ever never ever have read this book had it not been for my book club. Which = yay for going out of my comfort zone!



Told in a fast paced omniscient narrative, it is a flight through the 1910's and the antics of about 10 "main" characters.


This was a fun book to read, but I had such a love hate relationship. It felt lacking in character development, but that seems to have been the author's intention. Having a main character named "Mother's Younger Brother" isn't necessarily something you immediately get attached to.



But somehow... You do...



It's a levelly paced read... Not many ups and downs.... So much is constantly happening that there aren't too many lolls, but at the same time... the highs don't give you that rushing feeling either. I feel like this would be a good book to read over a long period of time because you can be jerked right into it, but you aren't dying to read it while you are away from it. Is that a compliment? I'm not entirely sure...



The coolest part, by far, was the historical figures. Harry Houdini and Piermont Morgan are right there alongside the nameless families who we are following. I have an affection for Henry Ford that I probably never would have, and a deep desire to learn more about these people - if not only to see where fact turned into fiction. The characters were definitely the driving force of the book. Though I do wish the fictional characters would have been more developed.



Can you tell that I'm having a hard time reviewing it?



Verdict: B - The language was beautiful and it is clear that the author did all sorts of research and spent a long time weaving all of these historical figures together with the fictional ones. It was a fun read while I was in it. Unfortunately, I'm just not entirely sure it was for me.