Rating: 
Summary: A moving testament of life
Review: A time when America was growing up became a fascinating novel full of wonder, fullfilment, and glory. When you finish this book, you will be dumbfounded. Doctrow's eloquence and truth is amazing. This is truly a classic.
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Summary: I truly loved this book.
Review: I loved this book-- truly. This book presented the real plight of American culture. It showed how the "color line" is the root of all problems created in America. Coalhouse Walker, Jr. is a character that transcends time and race. Every human wants to be treated as such, no matter their ethnic, religious, or economic background. Mother and Father are typical of their times. Sarah was a caring character and became a victim because of her love. Younger Brother radical and is realistic. I also saw the musical-- after I read the book twice. The sexual scenes lent to the new found freedom of the younger generation during that time. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: One of the greatest books of the century
Review: This was one of my favorites, of all. It dealt with peoples lives and many famous people of the ragtime where in this book. My college Professor assigned us this book and this was one of the most enjoyable books I have read assigned by a professor.
Rating: 
Summary: Ragtime lags big time
Review: I didn't enjoy Ragtime, more for the style in which it is written than the subject it explores. E.L. writes in short, declarative sentences and in my opinion overdramatizes history in a sort of macho, annoying, unmusical way. Granted, the story is somewhat suspenseful, and he develops characters considerably well considering how many people he invents and takes from history. Never read a book after seeing the musical! Read Ragtime if you want a good overview of the turn of the century and don't mind cheesy, self-conscious writing. Plus, the perverse sex scenes are curiously amusing and Emma Goldman is (in italics) one cool character worth reading for. The rest, very artificial as someone else mentioned.
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Summary: See the Musical, Skip the Book
Review: I often find a book much better than the movie or play. Not this time. After seeing the Ragtime special on PBS and the play in LA, I looked forward to reading the book. Much to my disappointment, I found the interplay between the 3 stories often artificial. The pages that delt with the dinner between J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford, I found dumb. The issue of Houdini and his mother...I didn't care. One other comment; If this entire book had been made into a movie it would be rated a strong "R." I suggest parents read this book first and then decide if it is appropiate for your family.
Rating:
Summary: A flawed masterpiece
Review: What differentiates E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime from almost any other book is the simple style. Doctorow's book evokes memories of F. Scott Fitzgerald in his simplicity, yet hidden complexity. Doctorow proposes to take three storylines, all different yet interlocked, and combine them in a chain that should have crashed in a mess. Yet, Doctorow's style keeps the book together, his rich descriptions of the characters, combined with the true personalities mixed with the three stories, makes this book a masterpiece. Doctorow's magic is to weave his tale simply and concisely, giving the readers three simple tales, and then slowly combining them into one brilliant novel. A lyrical experience that literally is a pot of gold, Ragtime is a book that is beautiful to read, time and time again. Doctorow reminds us that life is not one story. It is the combination of experiences that make us who we are. Simply dazzling.
Rating:
Summary: A Lively, Intricate Composition
Review: Calling this "a novel about America" would be a crime, because it would make the average reader pitch forward into a deep coma (and if you're at Barnes & Noble at the time, you could be injured when a pile of Grisham falls on you), and you'd never read this vibrant crackerjack of a book. So let's call it "a lively, funny, poignant, well-paced novel that happens to be about America but it's so fascinating you might not notice." It's about an unnamed family (the characters are simply named Father, Mother, The Little Boy, etc., which makes for some very lovely metaphoric overtones) who keep running into and involving themselves in the lives of celebrities of the '20s (Harry Houdini, Henry Ford, J.P. Morgan...about a dozen of them are recurring characters) as well as some no-name underclass workers and immigrants, who were treated far more shabbily than popular memory tells. The classes clash in a contrapuntal dance, history is made, and all the while The Family is subtly changing, and by the end of the book we actually care that the stage is set for our modern world, and that the glories and abuses of the Roaring Twenties are about to be lost forever. The writing moves at a satisfying clip, and the book is on the brief side anyway, so you'll burn through much of it at your first sitting, and be eager to get back to it, even if you don't do what I did: get to the end, smile, and start to reread it at the beginning. I've wanted to meet E.L. Doctorow ever since. You should be similarly charmed
Rating:
Summary: Haunting and Beautiful
Review: I delayed reading this book for many years, because it sounded sort of hokey. That was a HUGE mistake. It is one of the most beautiful books that I've ever read. It makes me cringe when people describe a book using the "tapestry" metaphor, but it is really fitting here: the reader watches, spellbound, as a city full of individual lives come and go and interact in surprising ways during a fascinating period of American history. Everyone is here: the Gilded Age millionaires, the upper middle class suburbanites, the newly-arrived immigrants, the writers and singers and musicians, the protesters. Every thread that still makes up a city appears and lives and works together. We see them all, and we see the world as they see it, even if only for a few moments. The book has some funny moments and some poignant moments, but ultimately it will leave you feeling like you've witnessed some very important events.
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Summary: Ragtime is original, but it tries to do too much
Review: Ragtime is a classic example of a book about nothing and everything all at the same time. Same might call it daring, others might call it entertaining and others might call it confusing. I think this book is capable of generating a slew of different responses depending on the reader.
Ragtime is set at the turn of the century. You will find yourself puzzled at the beginning of the novel as to who is speaking and what in the world is going on. Hold on, it will make sense if you just keep reading. The narrator is never mentioned my name, but I suppose he is the one referred to as the "boy". We never learn the names of the family in this novel; they are simply referred to as Mother, Father, Younger Brother, and Grandfather.
The wandering story follows the life of this family and the lives of a few other famous people: including Harry Houdini, Pierpoint Morgan, Sigmund Freud, and Henry Ford. There are also many others. The story does a good job of intertwining the lives of these famous people with the main family in the story.
Ragtime is written more like a journal than a novel. It has no clear cut plot, but rather drops us off at one event and then we are transported to the next. Some interesting passages include: The discovery of the black baby by Mother, the final showdown with Coalhouse, a famous whore has an affair with Younger Brother, and Father's voyage to the arctic.
The story seems more intent on sharing scenes than telling a story. There is dialogue, but no quotation marks around it. The style is very original. I have not read anything like it. At first it takes some getting used to, but if you stick with it, the events will unravel in your mind and you will be able to follow what happens.
I am recommending Ragtime because I feel you have to read it to believe it. I certainly would understand if one thought it was a masterpiece and the other hated it. With that in mind, it certainly deserves to be taken a look at, and you can't argue with its imagination and inventiveness.
I have two main quarrels with the book that prevent me from thinking this work of fiction deserves to be called a masterpiece. The main one is that the book tries to do too many things. I understand the feeling Doctorow wants to give us about the turn of the century, but he tries to juggle too many issues at once here. He never really gives the proper focus on any one issue for very long before throwing another one in our face. For that reason, the book seems a bit heavy handed at times (which is my second quarrel).
Despite those issues I found myself enjoying a great deal of Ragtime and marveled at its writing style and unusual characters. I also enjoyed how strong Doctorow ended his chapters. His most thoughtful and sublime sentences in the book are those he chooses to end the chapters with. That alone made me want to keep reading. There really is a lot to appreciate and admire here if you can get past the flaws and past the unconventional way of telling a story.
Grade: B
Rating:
Summary: The play was better.
Review: I saw the play, and decided to read the book. Apart from the fact that I already knew the punchline and wanted to see how the original author had gotten there, I wouldn't have kept reading past page ten.
Doctorow apparently comes from the school of historical revision, and, realising that this is a work of fiction, it sometimes seems like his purpose in including some of his subplots is just to drag respectable historical names through the mud. He also seems to enjoy adding in gross sexual references that the book could do without, (I really didn't want to know anything about a victorian white man's conception of inuit sexual practices).
That said, this book would probably have done much better as a short story, because, boiled down to the elements relevant to the plot, it's only about twenty pages long. Doctorow also seems to have major characterization defecits. The historical character's motives are examined (although one wonders how accurate they are), but the Family's motives and backstory are never really discussed (aside from how they came to be well off, which is not in the least bit relevant to the story anyway). Coalhouse's motivation is obvious, but he doesn't have any back story, which leaves the reader wondering just where this guy came from and how a black musician got a model-T in a time when cars were reserved for the wealthiest of the wealthy. Since the mutilation of the car is the catalyst to what is seemingly the most important plot thread, this seems like a pretty serious oversight.
The white family that supposedly ties all of the historical aspects together doesn't seem to quite work in the book, either. Mother and Father's relationship doesn't really make any sense (even in victorian times people that had that little interest in each other wouldn't have gotten married). And Father reads like a stereotype, which he is. Doctorow doesn't seem to want to relinquish the concept of the repressed white male, but he doesn't explore it either, and there was certainly enough room to do it.
Probably the book's biggest sin is putting all of the sub-plots on the same level. From the standpoint that they all relate in some way to the big stand off in the end they're interesting, but I for one don't have any interest in a book that spends a fifth of its time exploring a charcter that has a role simply because his library is used as a 'hostage' on page 112.
The book did provide the material for the play though, and so I give it three stars because we wouldn't have Ragtime's beautiful score without it.
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