E. L. Doctorow was a master of American fiction, whose works often wove history with fiction, exploring the American experience with remarkable depth. His style was characterized by fluid prose and a keen insight into the social and cultural forces shaping American life. Doctorow’s approach to writing involved a meticulous examination of the past, bringing it to life through compelling characters and powerful narratives. His works resonate with readers for their literary merit and his ability to capture the essence of the American story.
This collection features fifteen compelling stories, showcasing the author's signature narrative style and depth. Among them is "Wakefield," which inspired a film starring Bryan Cranston. The book reflects the author's literary prowess, known for works like Ragtime and The March, offering readers a rich exploration of themes and characters that resonate across different narratives. Each story invites contemplation and engagement, making it a must-read for fans of thought-provoking fiction.
Andrew is thinking, Andrew is talking, Andrew is telling the story of his life, his loves, and the tragedies that have led him to this place and point in time. As he confesses, peeling back the layers of his strange story, we are led to question what we know about truth and memory, brain and mind, personality and fate, about one another and ourselves.
This brilliant new novel by an American master, the author of Ragtime, The Book of Daniel, Billy Bathgate, and The March, takes us on a radical trip into the mind of a man who, more than once in his life, has been an inadvertent agent of disaster. Speaking from an unknown place and to an unknown interlocutor, Andrew is thinking, Andrew is talking, Andrew is telling the story of his life, his loves, and the tragedies that have led him to this place and point in time. And as he confesses, peeling back the layers of his strange story, we are led to question what we know about truth and memory, brain and mind, personality and fate, about one another and ourselves. Written with psychological depth and great lyrical precision, this suspenseful and groundbreaking novel delivers a voice for our times—funny, probing, skeptical, mischievous, profound. Andrew’s Brain is a surprising turn and a singular achievement in the canon of a writer whose prose has the power to create its own landscape, and whose great topic, in the words of Don DeLillo, is “the reach of American possibility, in which plain lives take on the cadences of history.”
Featuring six previously unpublished stories alongside a selection of classic works, this collection showcases the contemporary master of American literature. The narratives delve into the lives of individuals who narrowly miss the mark of ordinary existence, offering thrilling and thought-provoking insights. Readers will find a blend of unusual tales that highlight Doctorow's unique storytelling prowess.
Exploring the concept of a pervasive national ideology, the book delves into how societal beliefs shape our perceptions and behaviors without our awareness. It encourages readers to examine the underlying narratives that influence everyday life and challenges them to recognize the often-unseen frameworks that guide national identity and culture. Through insightful analysis, the text aims to illuminate the invisible forces at play in society, prompting critical reflection on the ideologies that govern our lives.
"Something close to magic." The Los Angeles Times The astonishing novel of a young boy's life in the New York City of the 1930s, a stunning recreation of the sights, sounds, aromas and emotions of a time when the streets were safe, families stuck together through thick and thin, and all the promises of a generation culminate in a single great World's Fair . . .
The hero of this dazzling novel by American master E. L. Doctorow is Joe, a young man on the run in the depths of the Great Depression. A late-summer night finds him alone and shivering beside a railroad track in the Adirondack mountains when a private railcar passes. Brightly lit windows reveal well-dressed men at a table and, in another compartment, a beautiful girl holding up a white dress before her naked form. Joe will follow the track to the mysterious estate at Loon Lake, where he finds the girl along with a tycoon, an aviatrix, a drunken poet, and a covey of gangsters. Here Joe’s fate will play out in this powerful story of ambition, aggression, and identity. Loon Lake is another stunning achievement of this acclaimed author. “Powerful . . . [a] complex and haunting meditation on modern American history.” –The New York Times “A genuine thriller . . . a marvelous exploration of the complexities and contradictions of the American dream . . . Not under any circumstances would we reveal the truly shattering climax.” –The Dallas Morning News “A dazzling performance . . . [Loon Lake] anatomizes America with insight, passion, and inventiveness.” –The Washington Post Book World “Hypnotic . . . tantalizes long after it has ended.” –Time “Compelling . . . brilliantly done.” –St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A masterpiece.” –Chicago Sun-Times
From Ragtime and Billy Bathgate to World’s Fair, The March, and Homer & Langley , the fiction of E. L. Doctorow comprises a towering achievement in modern American letters. Now Doctorow returns with an enthralling collection of brilliant, startling short fiction about people who, as the author notes in his Preface, are somehow “distinct from their surroundings—people in some sort of contest with the prevailing world”.A man at the end of an ordinary workday, extracts himself from his upper-middle-class life and turns to foraging in the same affluent suburb where he once lived with his family.A college graduate takes a dishwasher’s job on a whim, and becomes entangled in a criminal enterprise after agreeing to marry a beautiful immigrant for money.A husband and wife’s tense relationship is exacerbated when a stranger enters their home and claims to have grown up there.An urbanite out on his morning run suspects that the city in which he’s lived all his life has transmogrified into another city altogether.These are among the wide-ranging creations in this stunning collection, resonant with the mystery, tension, and moral investigation that distinguish the fiction of E. L. Doctorow. Containing six unforgettable stories that have never appeared in book form, and a selection of previous Doctorow classics, All the Time in the World affords us another opportunity to savor the genius of this American master.
Innocence is lost to unforgettable experience in these brilliant stories by E. L. Doctorow, as full of mystery and meaning as any of the longer works by this American master. In “The Writer in the Family,” a young man learns the difference between lying and literature after he is induced into deceiving a relative through letters. In “Wili,” an early-twentieth-century idyll is destroyed by infidelity. In “The Foreign Legation,” a girl and an act of political anarchy collide with devastating results. These and other stories flow into the novella “Lives of the Poets,” in which the images and themes of the earlier stories become part of the narrator’s unsparing confessions about his own mind, offering a rare look at the creative process and its connection to the heart.
