To open this book is to enter the perilous, thrilling world of Billy Bathgate, the brazen boy who is accepted into the inner circle of the notorious Dutch Schultz gang. Like an urban Tom Sawyer, Billy takes us along on his fateful adventures as he becomes good-luck charm, apprentice, and finally protégé to one of the great murdering gangsters of the Depression-era underworld in New York City. The … City. The luminous transformation of fact into fiction that is E. L. Doctorow’s trademark comes to triumphant fruition in Billy Bathgate, a peerless coming-of-age tale and one of Doctorow’s boldest and most beloved bestsellers.
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I just re-read E.L. Doctorow’s brilliant novel Billy Bathgate, and it’s even better than I remembered. Told from the viewpoint of a poverty-stricken teenager in 1935 who catches the eye of the notorious Dutch Schultz mob and is with them until their demise, it’s a tremendous experience.
Part coming-of-age, part dance-with-the-devil, part homage to a departed era, and part action novel, this one’s a feast for people who like the written word. Doctorow accomplishes a lot in this book, but one thing he does especially well is make deft references to events and thoughts and observations that happened earlier in the story. At the end of the novel you realize just how important it was to pay attention to the little things all the way through.
He also brings real people back to life as unforgettable characters. From Schultz’s brilliant right-hand man Otto “Abbadabba” Berman to his most talented hitman Bo Weinberg, from the deadly and unnamed nemesis who is unquestionably Charles “Lucky” Luciano to the volatile, crafty, and self-destructive Dutchman himself, they walk, talk, and rampage again in this story. I strongly recommend it.
One of Doctorow’s best
Read it years ago. Loced it then and love it now!
Doctorow at his game. Excellent prose, great characters, action-packed, witty … made me do some research on Dutch Schultz and his reign of violence.
Great read. Characters are lifelike and the period and environment have always fascinated me.
From wiki: “Billy Bathgate is a 1989 novel by author E. L. Doctorow that won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle award for fiction for 1990, the 1990 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 1990 William Dean Howells Medal, and was the runner-up for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the 1989 National Book Award.” This is one of my all-time favorite novels. Set in the 1920’s U.S. among gangsters it is a truly wonderful book. Highly recommended.
Hard to read.
A good read about a teen from the Bronx fulfilling his dream to become a gangster and a member of Dutch Schultz’s gang, along with the realization of what that really means. The story, coupled with Doctorow’s unique style..stream of consciousness with little or no punctuation..makes for an interesting and unpredictable book.
A good story if you enjoy historical fiction and/or books like the Godfather series. This is about a guy who hooks up as a kid with a local group of gangsters. Very interesting.
I just re-read E.L. Doctorow’s brilliant novel Billy Bathgate, and it’s even better than I remembered. Told from the viewpoint of a poverty-stricken teenager in 1935 who catches the eye of the notorious Dutch Schultz mob and is with them until their demise, it’s a tremendous experience.
Part coming-of-age, part dance-with-the-devil, part homage to a departed era, and part action novel, this one’s a feast for people who like the written word. Doctorow accomplishes a lot in this book, but one thing he does especially well is make deft references to events and thoughts and observations that happened earlier in the story. At the end of the novel you realize just how important it was to pay attention to the little things all the way through.
He also brings real people back to life as unforgettable characters. From Schultz’s brilliant right-hand man Otto “Abbadabba” Berman to his most talented hitman Bo Weinberg, from the deadly and unnamed nemesis who is unquestionably Charles “Lucky” Luciano to the volatile, crafty, and self-destructive Dutchman himself, they walk, talk, and rampage again in this story. I strongly recommend it.
First, Doctorow’s prose is always astonishing, and his rhythm and descriptions in this novel are as fabulous as I eagerly expect from his books.
My maternal grandfather and his brothers were in the Lepke gang, so I’m always intrigued to get a feel for what their lives were like.
I really enjoyed the story itself and, oh my, the way Doctorow phrases each parcel, the nuances, the rhythms…
Whether you’re reading this for the story, the sheer mastery of the way the story is told, or both…it’s a wonderful book.
Loved “Billy Bathgate”…Held my interest throughout!
Interesting writing style; extremely long sentences.
This was a really good story and very realistic. I highly recommend it
GREAT writing, great story!