Obit: writer E L Doctorow (1931-2015)

Subject: BS: Obit: writer E L Doctorow - July 2015
From: Wesley S
Date: 22 Jul 15 - 01:31 PM

From the New York Times:


E. L. Doctorow, a leading figure in contemporary American letters whose popular, critically admired and award-winning novels — including "Ragtime," "Billy Bathgate" and "The March" — situated fictional characters in recognizable historical contexts, among identifiable historical figures and often within unconventional narrative forms, died on Tuesday in Manhattan. He was 84 and lived in Manhattan and Sag Harbor, N.Y.

The cause was complications from lung cancer, his son, Richard, said.

The author of a dozen novels, three volumes of short fiction and a stage drama, as well as essays and commentary on literature and politics, Mr. Doctorow was widely lauded for the originality, versatility and audacity of his imagination.


Subtly subversive in his fiction — less so in his left-wing political writing — he consistently upended expectations with a cocktail of fiction and fact, remixed in book after book; with clever and substantive manipulations of popular genres like the Western and the detective story; and with his myriad storytelling strategies. Deploying, in different books, the unreliable narrator, the stream-of-consciousness narrator, the omniscient narrator and multiple narrators, Mr. Doctorow was one of contemporary fiction's most restless experimenters.

Subject: RE: Obit: writer E L Doctorow (1931-2015)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jul 15 - 02:24 PM

The complete article in the New York Times is certainly worth reading. What an interesting man!

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Obit: writer E L Doctorow (1931-2015)
From: Larry The Radio Guy
Date: 22 Jul 15 - 03:34 PM

Yes........a fascinating article. Thanks for the link, Joe.   Doctorow was a writer whose books have so often inspired me, reinforcing my belief that there is virtually no distinction between fiction and non-fiction in writing about events.......both are equally distorted. The 'truth' comes from the bigger ideas.

I was enamored with Ragtime, and it led me to read "The Book of Daniel"---one of my favourite all-time novels. If you're interested in the thinking behind the American paranoia about the Rosenbergs----and American paranois in general, it's quite the read.

Homer and Langley, from 2009, showed me that he lost none of his flair.

And I so look forward to reading his last novel---Andrew's Brain.

A loss to the literary world, no doubt! But his ideas live on. And as long as they do, he's not really dead (we can make up whatever we want about history.....in Doctorow's view).

Subject: RE: Obit: writer E L Doctorow (1931-2015)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 22 Jul 15 - 03:40 PM

Just about to re-read Ragtime. I also enjoyed Welcome To Hard Times. RIP Mr. Doctorow