I just finished The March by E.L. Doctorow. I was excited to read it because Ragtime is one of my favorite books, and I really like Doctorow's style. His novels are fictional, but they are often driven by a compelling historical setting (the early 1900's in Ragtime, and end of the Civil War in The March). He has fictional characters interact with historical characters (often taking a good amount of authorial privilege in representing the historical characters in a way that fits into his fictional narrative). Historians blast him for being historically innacurate, but I never saw where he made any claims to historical authenticity. He is telling a story. He also tells the stories of a fairly large number of vastly different characters whose lives criss-cross within the backdrop of the historical setting. This technique is becoming all the rage in Hollywood right now (think Crash and Babel), but post-modern novelists like Doctorow have been doing it for decades.
Anyway, I really enjoyed The March. Good characters, good stories, interesting historical setting.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Are there any pictures in the book?
There are no pictures, but one of the characters is a photographer.
It sounds like a great book. I'm glad you enjoyed it. You probably would have finished it a lot sooner if you hadn't of had me talking to you so often while you read!
Post a Comment