Everybody Ready For Doctorow's New Novel?

[Paladin]

I don't think that anybody does a better job of producing compelling historical fiction than E.L. Doctorow ("Ragtime," "Billy Bathgate"). His latest novel,"The March," will be in bookstores on 9/20. It's an epic handling of Sherman's destructive march across Georgia, in an effort to bring the Civil War to a speedier conclusion. Reviews have been stellar: John Updike did everything but back flips in a recent "New Yorker," and another reviewer called it "a Civil War 'Canterbury Tales'". Lots of vivid characters, both fictional and historical----including Coalhouse Walker, who is the father of a character in "Ragtime," the piano-playing Coalhouse Walker, Jr.

I'm content to let most books make it to the local library or to paperback, but I believe I'll have a copy of this one the day it comes out. Will be interested to see what the Neo-Confederate movement thinks of it......

[bertha katzenengel]

1. Looking forward to it for its content...

...but it takes me several pages to get acclimated to his style. My problem though - certainly not the author's.

[kweerwolf]

2. I drifted away from reading Doctorow for a while ...

... but after reading his "City of God" I jumped back on the bandwagon. A very powerful book (IMO) that deals with the Holocaust and memory.

"The March" sounds fascinating. I'm going to look for it now.