E.L. Doctorow

Since I seem to lack the resilience to bounce back with any speed to my previous pre-cancer, healthy condition of medium-to-high energy, and have been forced into what you might call a palliative existence, it has left me ample time to read and write. I am thankful that, although my body may be failing, my mind is as active as ever, probably over active. When I find an author I like, I like to read all or most all of that author’s works. Thanks to Kindle, for a few bucks and the touch of a finger, this is possible without leaving my recliner.

When I was still living and working in Colorado, a small group of co-workers had an informal book club. It was almost as popular as the Football Pool. We would read books and discuss them over lunch, passing them around like narcotics. Doctorow’s “Ragtime” and “Billy Bathgate” were two popular discussion topics.

At this year’s Super Bowl, one of the halftime themes was “Ragtime.” My mind flew back to our book club and E.L. Doctorow. A simple Kindle search revealed a slew of books written by Doctorow. What the heck? I picked one and went for it.

I selected “The March.” Doctorow likes to pick moments in history and write fictional narrations surrounding them. “The March” is General Sherman’s march to the sea during the Civil War. There are a lot of racial overtones in the story and social/political innuendoes. A major character in “The March” is a surgeon who becomes famous for his surgical techniques and rapid field amputations without anesthesia. Little did I know that this surgeon would appear in another one of Doctorow’s novels.

The surgeon reappears in “The Waterworks” although not as a famous surgeon, but as a villain. Quite unique. I’m not sure I’ve run across this switching of personas from book to book in literature before. Within a book, yes, i.e., “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” It’s to Doctorow’s credit as a talented, creative writer.

“The Book of Daniel” gripped me in the gut like the Jaws of Life. Once again, it’s a fictional story surrounding true events. During WW II there was a husband and wife from New York City who were found guilty of treason and executed. They had allegedly sold plans for the nuclear bomb to the Soviets. This woman is the only woman in the history of the U.S. who has been executed for treason. “The Book of Daniel” is told from the perspective of their two children, a boy and a girl, who have to go through their parents being executed by electrocution. To extricate myself from the sinking feeling of the story, and answer some questions, I read the book twice. The highest compliment for any author.

Then “City of God” “Loon Lake” “Andrew’s Brain” “World’s Fair” “Welcome to Hard Times” and “Homer and Langley”--what a kill. Once again, taken from true events, Homer and Langley are two brothers, one of them deaf and blind, who refuse to move out of their wood-frame house as New York City grows around them. They become folk heroes, are involved in the Beat Generation and Vietnam War Protests. I’ve known people like this. All of Doctorow’s books I can relate to wholeheartedly.

Of course I couldn’t stop without rereading “Billy Bathgate” and “Ragtime.” In “Ragtime” Henry Ford and JP Morgan form a two-man club. They both believe in reincarnation, and are convinced that the reason they are so smart is that they have lived previous lives. “Billy Bathgate” is Doctorow’s greatest book. I dunno why he insists on writing dialogue without the use of quotation marks, but that’s his shtick.

I have not even mentioned all the other books Doctorow wrote of essays, short stories, and biographies. BTW: I’ve read all these books just since the Super Bowl. I’m saying E.L. Doctorow, in my estimation, is the greatest American author of the 20th/21st Century. If you gotta be ill, put your mind to work.

Have a good story? Call or text Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526 or email him at curtswarm@yahoo.com. Curt is available for public speaking.