Rating: 
Summary: THIS BOOK SUCKED POLLUTED WATER FROM THE HUDSON
Review: Initially, the story is very interesteing and I had no problem becoming absorbed with the charaters, the story, and (especially) the setting. The details are excellent...but so are the details in a dictionary definition. The plot becomes difficult and downright confusing, the ending - ATROCIOUS! You are given NO reason WHY, no details as to HOW the bad doctor could do what he did. I could not believe that a respected author such as Doctorow could write a piece so incomplete. Read Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" instead. Better plot, better charaters, and a COMPLETE book.
Rating: 
Summary: Doctorow continues tradition of historical fiction
Review: The Waterworks is an intriguing work. Like much of Doctorow's work it is based in some historical research. This is presented as a memoir of a newspaper editor. He is colaborating with a police officer in investigating a mystery in the 1870's. One of his freelancers has disappeared. Moreover he has disappeared after having "seen his deceased father".
The style is certainly not Shakespearean. But there is a possibility that a modern day Hamlet has been found. The reader follows the unraveling of the case. After 30 pages, this quick read begs for continued reading.
Not heavy weight in style, it does pose some deep philosophical questions, if you think of the meaning contained therein. Though cloning is not an issue, it would certainly be good to read this book before considering such a proceedure
Rating:
Summary: A fast, entertaining read
Review: This book is a quick, entertaining read. While it isn't
exactly action-packed, it is definitely entertaining and worth the time to read. It's more suspenseful than anything else. The only problem I had with it was that Doctorow occasionally insists on jamming his message down your throat. That's not enough to make me retract my recommendation, though. Read it.
Rating: 
Summary: OK, not excellent
Review: This is my first reading of Doctorow, and this particular book doesn't seem worthy of the praise I here in association of him. It was an interesting read and it made me smile upon recognizing certain historical figures as they were mentioned (i.e. Boss Tweed), but the novel didn't tell me anything I didn't learn in high school American History. The setting was inconsequential and the main plotline was a somewhat absurd piece of science fiction. This one really strains one's suspention of disbelief. The story, overall, was entertaining, though in spite of it's shortness, by the end the story drags. This is probably because I couldn't wait to finish the book and move on to something more substantial. I'll try Ragtime and City of God in hopes that this was a low-point for Doctorow.
Rating: 
Summary: an excellent example of literature
Review: This is one of the few books that I had to read twice to fully understand. The plot is complex and builds upon itself really well. The characters are admirable, and the story is well plotted with the history of New York. An excellent book, I do not think it gets the recognition it deserves. I recommend it to any intellectual fiction reader
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing literary mystery
Review: With THE WATERWORKS, E.L. Doctorow has written a fascinating literary mystery which peels back the layers of a late 1800's New York City. A young freelance writer, Martin Pemberton, disappears after revealing that he believes he has seen his supposedly dead father. His editor - McIlvaine and the narrator of the book - takes it upon himself to uncover the mystery surrounding the young man's disappearance. As McIlvaine enters the seedy underworld of New York in pursuit of the young genius writer and the legacy of dishonesty his father has left him, he discovers more than he has bargained for. Doctorow vividly evokes a New York of a different era, and, in the process, creates a force of setting that becomes a character in its own right. Doctorow is an excellent writer who adapts his style to his subject matter. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have noted, the stylistic quirk of ellipses gets annoying and more frequent as the novel progresses. Doctorow may have chosen this style of punctuation to imply that much in McIlvaine's New York was unspoken, implied, unfinished - but, even if that was the case, it doesn't serve to do much more than make the reader want to tear the words out of the narrator. Despite this flaw, I thoroughly enjoyed this Doctorow novel, which, while not his best, certainly compares favorably with his body of work. I recommend THE WATERWORKS for serious readers of literary and historical fiction.
Rating:
Summary: An intriguing literary mystery
Review: With THE WATERWORKS, E.L. Doctorow has written a fascinating literary mystery which peels back the layers of a late 1800's New York City. A young freelance writer, Martin Pemberton, disappears after revealing that he believes he has seen his supposedly dead father. His editor - McIlvaine and the narrator of the book - takes it upon himself to uncover the mystery surrounding the young man's disappearance. As McIlvaine enters the seedy underworld of New York in pursuit of the young genius writer and the legacy of dishonesty his father has left him, he discovers more than he has bargained for. Doctorow vividly evokes a New York of a different era, and, in the process, creates a force of setting that becomes a character in its own right. Doctorow is an excellent writer who adapts his style to his subject matter. Unfortunately, as other reviewers have noted, the stylistic quirk of ellipses gets annoying and more frequent as the novel progresses. Doctorow may have chosen this style of punctuation to imply that much in McIlvaine's New York was unspoken, implied, unfinished - but, even if that was the case, it doesn't serve to do much more than make the reader want to tear the words out of the narrator. Despite this flaw, I thoroughly enjoyed this Doctorow novel, which, while not his best, certainly compares favorably with his body of work. I recommend THE WATERWORKS for serious readers of literary and historical fiction.
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