It’s 1906 in New Rochelle, NY. There’s a family consisting of Father, Mother, Mother’s Younger Brother, Grandfather, and a child called “the little boy.” Father is set to travel with Admiral Peary to reach the North Pole. Meanwhile, Harry Houdini crashes his car outside their home. Mother takes in a young black woman and her baby, and the woman’s boyfriend, Coalhouse Walker Jr., comes courting. America is also captivated by the saga of Harry Thaw murdering his wife Evelyn Nesbit’s lover, Stanford White, at Madison Square Garden, known as the “Crime of the Century.”

Ragtime often appears on lists of the top 100 novels. Its greatness supposedly lies in blurring the lines between fantasy and historical fact, weaving real and fictional characters together. Well, objectively, that’s true. Real-life characters like Houdini, Freud, Ford, and Morgan appear throughout. Some are still remembered today, while most aren’t. But it’s not clear why they’re in the story. Freud appears in one chapter, dislikes America, and leaves. What was the point? We learn a bit about the others, but the relevance to a larger story was lost on me.

I thought Ragtime was a waste of time and actively terrible in some places. There’s one interesting story involving Coalhouse Walker Jr., his car, and his vengeance. But it seemed anachronistic, imputing 1960s counterculture and upheaval into 1906. I considered giving the novel two stars for that portion, but I couldn’t get past a certain subplot. Real-life anarchist Emma Goldman is giving Evelyn Nesbit a massage that seems to be progressing sexually until a hoarse cry comes from the walls and Mother’s Younger Brother falls into the room with a rampant penis. It’s a gross and ridiculous scene. In 1975, this was considered a valid setup for Nesbit to start a love affair with Mother’s Younger Brother. It’s emblematic of the ridiculous way men wrote about women and sex in that era. I had a hard time taking anything in this book seriously after that insane scene.
I read Ragtime as part of my attempt to read all of the Pop Chart 100 Essential Novels. A couple of years ago, five books were dropped from the list to add five more recent novels. Two of the dropped books were from the 1970s, Dog Soldiers and Falconer. Both were flawed but better than this novel. I can’t believe Ragtime survived that cut. Not recommended.

Historical fantasy, in the old-school style. It's important to note that there's no actual magic here. However, E. L. Doctorow manages to bring together some of the most fascinating characters from the Ragtime Era, just before World War I, in a wild and extravagant manner.

Adding Archduke Ferdinand, Houdini, Freud, J.P. Morgan, Emma Goldman, Henry Ford, and a truly remarkable but fictional Coalhouse Porter (a jazz musician with a major grievance throughout the story), the novel turns into a who's-who of famous historical figures (including Teddy Roosevelt!) making appearances throughout the narrative.

I quite enjoy this creation. In fact, I'm more than a little intrigued to see how these characters deviate from the real people in this fantasy setting. If I were truly dedicated, I would have to read about a dozen full biographies to untangle this undeniably entertaining and chaotic novel. :)

It's well worth the read! :)

Apparently, there seems to be a plot within this book, yet I remain unconvinced.

It is a sort of kaleidoscope novel where everyone in 1906 seemingly knows everyone else, and they are all the famous figures. So, you have Harry Houdini crossing paths with Evelyn Nesbit (the famous murderer), Emma Goldman, JP Morgan, Teddy Roosevelt, and Emiliano Zapata.

We center around the family of a local financier and a jazz musician, and things occur, or perhaps they do? But for me, this feels rather empty in many aspects.

When I initially began the novel, I was under the impression that it would be like a USA Trilogy kind of thing, where Dos Passos presents numerous little vignettes that are connected by virtue of being housed within the same novels but not in the same narrative.

There are plenty of excellent examples of novels in which unconnected pieces are brought together in a thematic order, and fragmentations are part of the overall landscape, and that is perfectly fine.

Sometimes, like in, say, The Sound the Fury, the pieces are all connected through a metahistory, even if the individual pieces are highly distinct from one another (especially in comparison to As I Lay Dying, where the pieces tell the continuing and overlapping parts of the same narrative), or something else like VS Naipaul's In a Free State, where what seem like disconnected short stories function together in this manner.

But instead, this novel shoves them all together in a kind of decollage of everything newsworthy and historical that occurred in a given space and pastes it into the same plot, much like a Billy Joel song.

A ragin' feelin' I had during the first half of "Ragtime" was truly remarkable. Oh-my-gawd, this may possibly become my favorite novel all year. Yeah. That overwhelmingly delicious feeling I achieved last year during my "Where'd You Go Bernadette"/"The Godfather" double whammy was reproduced. It was as if it, almost organically, chose to focus on one specific era in U.S. history!

Ragtime is just so majestically beautiful. It takes on the whole of America between 1903 & 1915, aka the dawning of the 20th century. It displays an intrepid attitude that blazes and accelerates.

It is incredible; an accessible, long meditation, like a panorama-portrait described with broad, lush strokes. It is accessible unlike Saramago or Garcia Marquez. It's funny and very clever with its use of scales. For everything in literature is worth a mention: from a simple shadow on the floor to the features of the general populace of the great American metropolis - this novel has it all.

And when the scale becomes unfathomable, Doctorow maintains one singular strand in a huge tapestry that has many strands, it seems. He chooses to fix the novel past the faux-majesties of the new money set (where Gatsby existed) and the slum-wretched-poor (the days before the grapes of wrath) in a factual story of a black man robbed of his property, his basic human dignity, and consequently of his revenge on the white cowards.

"Ragtime" is entertaining, wholesome, very educational, and I would urge every American History teacher to add it to the syllabus. It describes a macrocosm effectively and the factoids are invigorating. Plus, the prose, well, it's endearing, unforgettable, good-great-amazing.

America's Storyteller

E.L Doctorow's novels are a remarkable blend of history, imagination, character development, a keen sense of time and place, and exquisitely controlled and paced writing. His relatively early work, "Ragtime" (1974), remains his most renowned.

The story is told from the perspective of Young Boy, whose parents are Father, a prosperous manufacturer of fireworks and flags in New Rochelle, New York, and Mother, a increasingly dissatisfied housewife. Mother's younger brother is infatuated with Evelyn Nesbit and becomes an expert in explosives in Father's business.

This family's story intertwines with that of Tateh, a Jewish immigrant from East Europe, struggling as a silhouette artist in New York City with his young daughter, while Mameh has abandoned them for a life of prostitution.

There is also Sarah, an 18-year-old black woman with a child who comes to live with Mother when Father is away. We later meet the baby's father, Coalhouse Walker, a pianist who studied ragtime with Scott Joplin. Coalhouse becomes a central character, his dignity and violent rage driving the story.

However, these fictional characters are just part of the story. Doctorow masterfully weaves in the tales of historical figures from early 20th Century America, such as Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, and many others.

"Ragtime" presents a vivid picture of a United States marred by racism, poverty, and violence, yet it is also a work of great musicality, lightness, and depth. Doctorow's portrayal of New York City in all its aspects is particularly outstanding.

In conclusion, "Ragtime" is the work of a great American storyteller, and both the book and its author are certain to become American classics.

Robin Friedman

The compilation of the translations of Professor Najaf Daryabandari and the historical years of interest (before World War I) was really charming;

the book is full of real and fictional characters, which is what makes it so appealing, and the way these individuals are related to each other is enjoyable; Henry Ford (the owner of the Ford Company), Morgan (a famous capitalist), Einstein, Freud, but also

Goldman (the leader of the American anarchists), Harry Houdini (a famous escape artist) are present in the story.

Many topics are covered in the story, such as blacks, socialists, anarchists, capital and drugs, the working class. And despite this multiplicity of characters and topics, it is never disjointed.

Overall, it gives a good historical view of America in those years.

Ragtime is also a kind of music specific to blacks.

Ragtime is a truly very enjoyable novel that delves into turn of the century America.

The central plot element here is a modernized retelling of Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas. One doesn't necessarily need to have prior knowledge of Kleist's work to fully enjoy this novel.

In a way, I think it slightly undermines that story as it has to share the spotlight in Ragtime with a plethora of other elements. And to my personal taste, Doctorow doesn't project the same intense moral outrage as Kleist. However, making race equivalent to the late medieval/early modern social structure is still a powerful statement.

This is a lean, dry, and witty book. The plot elements and characters are chopped up and interspersed with historical figures. We see Houdini learning to fly an aeroplane and being mistaken for its inventor, Freud and Jung going through the tunnel of love together at a Coney Island fairground, and Emma Goldman speaking up for truth and justice.

The fictional characters are mainly nameless, reduced to simple labels. There is a great deal of humor and sharp observation throughout. It presents a vivid picture of the USA before the First World War, pieced together from broken fragments of scandal and celebrity, injustice and struggle, innovation, invention, and misunderstanding.

Inevitably, it has to end with the promise of Hollywood and the mythologization of the past, of family, in a country where it seems not big enough for anyone to be able to escape their demons for long, yet still with odd and implausible chances of happiness for a fortunate few.

A truly enjoyable story that I read and finished in two days with great pleasure. Translated beautifully by Najaf Daryabandari.

Doctorow and Márquez

One element that made the story very captivating was Doctorow's style of narration, which constantly reminded me of Gabriel García Márquez. He creates a world full of people, each with a rich and eventful story that is a blend of historical reality and myth, and the narrative camera constantly moves from one person to another.

The prose also reminded me of Márquez: a lively and ultimately stunning prose that delves more into the actual realities rather than getting lost in the personalities' mindsets.

Al-Kalam Yajur Al-Kalam

And another element that made the story so enjoyable is the existence of an invisible thread between all the chapters. The author (unlike most authors) does not abruptly jump from one character to another without an introduction. Instead, there is always a connection between two chapters.

The father wants to go on a trip to the pole, boards a ship, and as the ship sets sail, the father's eyes fall on the ship of immigrants who are entering America. Now the narrative camera moves from the father to the immigrants. The next chapter describes the docking of the immigrant ship and their first encounter with America, and in this way, a beautiful connecting thread is established between the chapters, and in this regard, it reminded me of the book Al-Kalam Yajur Al-Kalam.

Rhythm is an American space without waste that beautifully and meticulously portrays all the features and social conditions in a specific period of time when the story takes shape, through various fictional and real characters. These characters are carefully thought out, selected, and created to present a more complete picture of different aspects of life, laws, and the hardships of immigrants in that era...

The combination of races and the mention of racial discrimination, and of course, alongside it, the acceptance of this coexistence and multi-racial nature by another group in a society, the demands of the petitioners, and finally the determination of a group to establish equal justice and law for all are the focal points of this book. The rhythm of the story is well-matched with the name of the book, "Leavened"

**Title: Ragtime**

Ragtime is a genre of music that became extremely popular in the United States during the first two decades of the 20th century.

It was composed by Scott Joplin and other notable musicians.

The term "ragtime" refers to the syncopated rhythm that is characteristic of this style of music.

Ragtime music was often played on the piano and was enjoyed by people of all ages and backgrounds.

It had a significant impact on the development of American music and influenced other genres such as jazz and blues.

Today, ragtime music is still widely loved and performed around the world.

It is a testament to the enduring power of this unique and innovative style of music.

I really loved the book a great deal. So much so that despite its very small font, I quickly read it to the end. The perspective was extremely good, as was the writing style. Just as Najaf Daryabandari himself had said, it was like cinematic films, and I had seen an example of it in "Please Don't Disturb." The way of character portrayal was very creative. There were some historical characters, and paying attention to their details made the story very interesting. The nameless characters like the younger brother were more of a type, and this was also interesting. The historical information given during the story added to the charm of the book.

The non-linear view of time that was easily noticeable in the first two or three sections was also interesting. Overall, I really loved the book. The narrative tone and writing style, with its short sentences and no particular judgment, was extremely good.

In my opinion, Paulo Coelho must have had a great regard for this book in "The Alchemist."

Well, and of course, we shouldn't pass over its excellent sentences and paragraphs! :)

It was extremely good.

The early nineteenth century seemed to be the main protagonist in this story. It was a time filled with numerous historical figures, ranging from Booker Washington to Emma Goldman, from Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Houdini, and even J.P. Morgan and many more. This book does an excellent job of providing the reader with a vivid picture of that era.

Beneath these historical figures in the story lie the fictional characters. Some have rather general names like Father, Mother, Boy, and Younger Brother, representing the white upper middle class of the time. Then there are Tateh and the Girl, who symbolize the immigrant Jewish family, and Coalhouse and Sarah, the young Black couple.

It is quite difficult to determine what this story is truly about, as these diverse characters constantly push their way into the narrative, with their paths crossing now and then. I believe the passages related to Houdini were the most captivating. I only wish that the other fictional characters hadn't been buried beneath a jumble of tales about historical figures, where the lines between fiction and reality become blurred.

This makes it a bit challenging for the reader to fully engage with and understand the fictional elements of the story. However, despite this flaw, the book still manages to offer an interesting and somewhat unique perspective on the early nineteenth century.