Rating: 
Summary: A great trip back to the '30s
Review: A great time travel experience. Doctorow shows the reader New York City in the '30s as seen by a young boy. Brings the reader into a part of America long past. The scene in which Edgar, the boy, watches the Hindenburg fly over the city is wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: A great trip back to the '30s
Review: A great time travel experience. Doctorow shows the reader New York City in the '30s as seen by a young boy. Brings the reader into a part of America long past. The scene in which Edgar, the boy, watches the Hindenburg fly over the city is wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing tale of an era
Review: An absorbing experience with New York-Bronx life in the '30s. The title is a bit mis-leading in that less than half the book is devoted to the 1939 World's Fair- that being my own personal interest I would have prefered more of the setting to revolve around the Fair. Having said that, Doctorow is still a master of his art.
Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: An interesting story of life in New York seen through the eyes of a young child. Not really about the World's Fair, it provides an interesting look at life in the late thirties. Good characters and good story, nothing dramatic or far reaching but highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: A wistful novel of nostalgia
Review: E.L. Doctorow is probably New York's greatest literary nostalgia artist. While "Ragtime" recalls the city's colorful population explosion of immigrants at the beginning of the twentieth century and "Billy Bathgate" is a boy's Depression-era underworld fantasy, "World's Fair" evokes what it might have been like to grow up in the Bronx in the 1930's. The narrator, Doctorow's voice and presumed alter ego, is a Jewish boy named Edgar Altschuler who is about nine by the time the book ends, so it remains in a state of pre-pubescent innocence without entering into the turbulent years of adolescent awakening.Edgar is an extremely observant child who is fascinated by the intricacies of the most mundane things and events. Normal kid routines like school, ball games, movies, comic books, and radio programs are described in loving detail as though he were eager to explain to his jaded adult readers what's so special about being a kid. Similarly, tragedies like the death of his grandmother, witnessing a woman getting hit by a car, and meeting terminally ill children in the hospital take on perceptively morbid new dimensions through Edgar's words. The members of Edgar's immediate family are so realistic they seem like sepia-tinted photographs come to life. His father Dave co-owns a music store and, far from being the moral compass a father's role is traditionally given, is somewhat irresponsible and irreverent, a social activist about thirty years ahead of his time. Edgar's mother Rose is a bundle of anxiety, worrisome and contentious from living in a house full of men. His older brother, Donald, and uncle Willy are both musically inclined, one a failed bandleader, the other destined to be a failed bandleader.
That Edgar is Jewish is an indispensable part of the story, as it defines his upbringing and characterizes his family, friends, and the neighborhood. From his strictly observant maternal grandmother to his atheistic paternal grandfather, there is a wide range of piety among his family members, which makes for lively scenes at rituals such as the Passover Seder. Nothing, however, raises the little boy's Jewish consciousness so much as the appearances of swastika graffiti in the neighborhood, threats from antisemitic hooligans, and Hitler's menacing shadow looming across the ocean. Edgar's bittersweet final taste of youthful innocence is his long-anticipated and enthusiastic first visit to the 1939 World's Fair, an ironic symbol of man's proud achievements in the technological advancements of civilization considering the world was getting ready to destroy itself in war. The book ends with Edgar burying a time capsule in a nearby park in imitation of the one buried at the Fair, and it becomes apparent that this novel is meant to be Doctorow's personal time capsule. Things we experience as children can be confusing and difficult to understand in all their aspects, but as adults we are able to articulate our thoughts and feelings about our childhood experiences with fresh insights that we didn't have at the time. That Doctorow does this so delicately and poetically in "World's Fair" makes his novel an absolute success.
Rating:
Summary: A wistful novel of nostalgia
Review: E.L. Doctorow is probably New York's greatest literary nostalgia artist. While "Ragtime" recalls the city's colorful population explosion of immigrants at the beginning of the twentieth century and "Billy Bathgate" is a boy's Depression-era underworld fantasy, "World's Fair" evokes what it might have been like to grow up in the Bronx in the 1930's. The narrator, Doctorow's voice and presumed alter ego, is a Jewish boy named Edgar Altschuler who is about nine by the time the book ends, so it remains in a state of pre-pubescent innocence without entering into the turbulent years of adolescent awakening. Edgar is an extremely observant child who is fascinated by the intricacies of the most mundane things and events. Normal kid routines like school, ball games, movies, comic books, and radio programs are described in loving detail as though he were eager to explain to his jaded adult readers what's so special about being a kid. Similarly, tragedies like the death of his grandmother, witnessing a woman getting hit by a car, and meeting terminally ill children in the hospital take on perceptively morbid new dimensions through Edgar's words. The members of Edgar's immediate family are so realistic they seem like sepia-tinted photographs come to life. His father Dave co-owns a music store and, far from being the moral compass a father's role is traditionally given, is somewhat irresponsible and irreverent, a social activist about thirty years ahead of his time. Edgar's mother Rose is a bundle of anxiety, worrisome and contentious from living in a house full of men. His older brother, Donald, and uncle Willy are both musically inclined, one a failed bandleader, the other destined to be a failed bandleader.
That Edgar is Jewish is an indispensable part of the story, as it defines his upbringing and characterizes his family, friends, and the neighborhood. From his strictly observant maternal grandmother to his atheistic paternal grandfather, there is a wide range of piety among his family members, which makes for lively scenes at rituals such as the Passover Seder. Nothing, however, raises the little boy's Jewish consciousness so much as the appearances of swastika graffiti in the neighborhood, threats from antisemitic hooligans, and Hitler's menacing shadow looming across the ocean. Edgar's bittersweet final taste of youthful innocence is his long-anticipated and enthusiastic first visit to the 1939 World's Fair, an ironic symbol of man's proud achievements in the technological advancements of civilization considering the world was getting ready to destroy itself in war. The book ends with Edgar burying a time capsule in a nearby park in imitation of the one buried at the Fair, and it becomes apparent that this novel is meant to be Doctorow's personal time capsule. Things we experience as children can be confusing and difficult to understand in all their aspects, but as adults we are able to articulate our thoughts and feelings about our childhood experiences with fresh insights that we didn't have at the time. That Doctorow does this so delicately and poetically in "World's Fair" makes his novel an absolute success.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner by Doctorow
Review: For those of you who read Ragtime and were a little disappointed, then World's Fair is the book you should read. World's Fair is a great portrait of the 30s through the perspective of a young boy. Where Ragtime failed by not putting together a good story, World's Fair is successful. Not Doctorow's best book, but definitely close to it.
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: I don't think I have ever read a book that was so in tune with feelings I had as a child. Not meaning to be sexist, I had to question whether a woman might have written this book, and not a man. There were times I had to put the book down and just marvel at the beauty and insight of the words on the page. The ending came too soon! Praises, praises, praises to E.L. Doctorow! I will never give up my copy!
Rating:
Summary: Loved the "fair world" found in the pages of this book
Review: I had read Doctorow's "Ragtime" and found it boring. A co-worker had just finished "World's Fair" and urged me to read it. I told her I didn't like "Ragtime" and she said, "Trust me. You'll like this one." I'm glad I trusted. She was a thousand percent right. If you're like me, and your introduction to Doctorow was with the best-selling "Ragtime" and you found it disappointing, trust me, you'll like this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Stupid
Review: Like a great painting, Doctorow choses his words carefully, depicting the 30s as the dark, mournful era that it was. Written well with the usual description that Doctorow is famous for, I have to say that the synopsis made the book sound more exciting.
The book details the experience that the protagonist and his family have while at the World's Fair in New York City. From the oddities to the fun, Doctorow did his research and what was there. Unlike his other books like Loon Lake or Welcome to Hard Times, I did not feel I was there, at the fair.
Displaying the 30s like it was, this book proves and depicts how far we have come since then. In the primitive times of tea-line-legged nylons and T&A was unheard of, historians and fans of Doctorow will be pleased. I applaud him for his historical essence and truthfulness . . . the excitement factor just was not there.
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