In reading this I have just realized that in my mind’s files Joe and Sam are in the history section. I swear I read their obits at some point. I mean, it really happened, right? Right?
The times I have met my idols and been able to say "thank you for what you made" have been few, but so joy-welling. For me the door you describe was first opened by that last verse of "Mr. Tambourine Man" about being silhouetted by the sea, etc. Here's to the hopes of youth realized by the steel of maturity.
You're entirely right about the two paths and his way between -- and whether you said it to him or just babbled, your work says it perfectly and I bet he heard it that way...but even if he didn't, we do. Thats some rare tragic magic you guys have pulled off.
Kavalier and clay blew my mind. I loved that book. Doctorow may have been inspired or influenced by Upton Sinclair‘s Lanny Bud series which took his main character from the 1938 through the early 50s, meeting all kinds of real life people.
Thanks for this. I too remember when Ragtime came out (though no adults were reading it in my house) and the huge impression it made at the time. When I came to read it, about a decade a later, I found it of a piece with the postmodernists I was reading at the same time, and I've always understood him as focused on many of the same concerns as Pynchon, e.g., and the postmodernish 70s-80s Roth.
Ragtime and Kavalier and Clay are two of my favorite books of all time. The closest I got to Doctorow was graduating from his alma mater. Thanks to both of you for opening those doors.
how beautiful and how human ... thank you for this, michael
In reading this I have just realized that in my mind’s files Joe and Sam are in the history section. I swear I read their obits at some point. I mean, it really happened, right? Right?
The times I have met my idols and been able to say "thank you for what you made" have been few, but so joy-welling. For me the door you describe was first opened by that last verse of "Mr. Tambourine Man" about being silhouetted by the sea, etc. Here's to the hopes of youth realized by the steel of maturity.
I love love love Doctorow. Loon Lake changed me. I come back to Billy Bathgate again and again. His quieter, smaller works are my favorites.
Also, damn, I’d pegged the famous döppleganger writer in Wonder Boys as Updike, not Doctorow!
No, Q was based on someone else. I’ll never tell.
Haha!
You're entirely right about the two paths and his way between -- and whether you said it to him or just babbled, your work says it perfectly and I bet he heard it that way...but even if he didn't, we do. Thats some rare tragic magic you guys have pulled off.
Kavalier and clay blew my mind. I loved that book. Doctorow may have been inspired or influenced by Upton Sinclair‘s Lanny Bud series which took his main character from the 1938 through the early 50s, meeting all kinds of real life people.
Thanks for this. I too remember when Ragtime came out (though no adults were reading it in my house) and the huge impression it made at the time. When I came to read it, about a decade a later, I found it of a piece with the postmodernists I was reading at the same time, and I've always understood him as focused on many of the same concerns as Pynchon, e.g., and the postmodernish 70s-80s Roth.
Ragtime and Kavalier and Clay are two of my favorite books of all time. The closest I got to Doctorow was graduating from his alma mater. Thanks to both of you for opening those doors.
I remember reading RAGTIME when the movie came out. Thirteen-year-old me's mind got blown.
Legend