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Ragtime

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Ragtime

Written by: E. L. Doctorow
Narrated by: E. L. Doctorow
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About this listen

 Ragtime, a classic work of historical fiction first published in 1975, details the lives of three families in early 20th-century New York. The novel interweaves fictional characters with actual historic events and figures.

The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. Almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow's imagined family and other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.

A rich tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in a unique historic context.

Time magazine included the novel in its Time 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923-2005.

©1997 E. L. Doctorow (P)1997 E. L. Doctorow Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Jewish Heritage Literary Fiction Psychological New York

What the critics say

"Doctorow does a fairly nice job reading his justly celebrated portrait of 1906 America. He has a sandy, pleasant, lightly accented voice and a fine sense of the dramatic." ( AudioFile)
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What fun to slip into the Ragtime era. The novel is grand while keeping an intimacy... The form its written in is so exciting and imaginative! Reading Ragtime made me imagine my own era as similar in being both spectacular and devastating. And what a soundtrack!

Ragtime

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It's a very boring story, Doctorow, might be a celebrated author but in my opinion, his writing style is stale and does not capture my attention; other people I discussed this novel with coincidently felt the same. Take it as you will, if you have to read this for a uni assignment or is a course reading, nearly 8 hours is not palatable. You may be better off getting a physical copy and reading the assigned part of the book. The story itself like every other piece of art is subjective, others may like this novel, however for me it was very lengthy and redundant, and other stories may capture its essence in a better manner.

Boring story

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