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| AUTHOR: | E. L. Doctorow |
| CATEGORY: | Book |
| MANUFACTURER: | Harper Perennial |
| ISBN: | 0060975954 |
| TYPE: | Modern fiction, Classics, Historical, Historical - General, Schultz, Dutch, Literature - Classics / Criticism, 1900 or 1-1935, Criminals, Fiction, New York (N.Y.), Schultz, Dutch,, Biography/Autobiography |
| MEDIA: | Paperback |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
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Customer Reviews of Billy Bathgate: A Novel
Always reliable Doctorow I had read "The March" and "Ragtime," so I figured "Billy Bathgate" would be excellent, and it was. On the surface, it's a simple story of the last few months of gangster Dutch Schultz's life. But Doctorow tells the story through the eyes of Billy Bathgate, a teenager who gets in with Schultz's gang as a go-fer. Doctorow's writing is, as always, superb, and more than just a recitation of facts, going deeply into the gangsters' world and their behaviors, and how they operated within society. <
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>I'm still not sure if Billy Bathgate was based on a real person or if he is entirely fictional, but telling the story through his experiences as a lesser member of the gang allowed an inside look at Schultz without disturbing the facts. <
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>A very readable and fascinating look into the New York crime scene of the 1930's.
Guilty pleasure with literary merit
We've all read scores of stories in which a young, spunky kid makes his way up the criminal ladder with his wit and little tricks...but this is by Doctorow, so it's done better than most. The book contains some of the standard themes inherent in the drama -- the thugs, the incredibly sexy woman that no one can resist, betrayal, and death. However, it often defies expectations and leads the reader to really share with Billy's emotions. All the scenes, whether they be about torture, sex, familial love, or childish musings, connect to universal emotions.
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>The only problem I had with this book was the ending. I was thoroughly enjoying it and unable to focus on my work until I finished but towards the very end it just got...unimpressive. While everything did wrap up well, it seemed more like an easy or expected conclusion than one that was original and fitting to the characters themselves. But overall, it's a great read.
great crime story from a different angle
Billy Bathgate sucks you into a world of a down and out street wise kid who is seduced by a low level seedy mobster into being his protoge. The writting is crisp and the story sharp. Very entertaining and probably Doctorows best work.