Report on Edgar Lawrence Doctorow and His books Ragtime and Billy Bathgate

(590 words)

Report on Edgar Lawrence Doctorow and His books 'Ragtime' and 'Billy Bathgate'

E.L.Doctorow was born on the sixth of January 1931 in New York City

later he was an lecturer in different publishing companies

he wrote same fiction and real novels, crime stories like 'Loon Lake', historical

stories like 'The Book of Daniel' a fictional reconstruction about lawsuit against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg on the point of view of the imaginary son of them

he was against the western novels and show this genre ironically in a mirror, he meant this was a national selfdeceive

more and more he wrote real, critical stories about the life in the neighbourhood, for example 'Billy Bathgate' a poor little boy in the Bronx, without father and with a mad mother or 'Ragtime' a story about different immigrated Jewish families from England, Italy and a black family from southern states an d the problems of

integration in American society

- for this great novels he got same awards for example 'National Book Award' and the 'National Book Critics Award'

- today he is one of the famous fictional novel writer in America and had much success to write without separation of fictional and real-historical actions, more with an

entanglement fictional and real actions in His stories

- he gave a historical point of view of the American growth with post-modern way of narration

'Ragtime'

this book is about the immigration in the of the turn of the 20th century to the 21st

the main figures are wellknown people in later life, for example Henry Ford (car- producer), Harry Houdini (wizard), Siegmund Freud (teacher for behaviour) and same more, these persons met them in story and told the others their fictions and facts, just like the black revolutionary Coalhouse Walker Jr., His career as a Ragetime- pianist, His engagement against racism, help for suppressers with engagement to bring the Jazz to one of American lifestyle successes

and against this one hand Emma Goldman´s action to aspirate to an organic-real society and on the other hand Henry Ford´s aspiration to a mechanical society

and at the end the integration of all these thing in the American way life

- this book was published in 1981 as a movie and had an big influence on media after the Watergate-Affair

'Billy Bathgate'

is a little poor boy, lives in the Bronx, had no father, had a mad mother and a girl friend and much dreams of a better life in 1935

so he had an idol, its the gangsters boss Dutch Schultz, the gangsters boss lives in glamour with a model, a black limousine and bodyguards all what had Billy dreamt

with His childlike charm, Billy conquer the heart of the gangsters boss

- it seems as His dreams come true, but he recognises that His star, Dutch Schultz, sets down

- a public prosecutor looking for the gangsters boss about tax fraud and the other Italian Mafioso wanted to kill him, the gangsters boss escape out of the City and go to the countryside

so Dutch Schultz turns from a gentlemen-gangster to an brutal killer and in this influence Billy grows up, Billy had a love affair with Dutch Schultz´ model

as they come back to New York City Dutch Schultz is killed by the other Mafioso and Billy is the last in the gang and so he inherits all the money from the gangsters boss

now he dreams can came true