Billy Bathgate

Rating:
Summary: Unlike Billy, the novel fails to mature
Review: Young Billy is green and fresh at the book's opening, and a seasoned young man by its end. Early in the book, you eagerly learn with Billy, through his neophyte eyes. But the book and Billy get bogged down in upstate New York, in a slow and sulky movement through time. I yearned for either a faster pace, or to learn more about Billy's inner workings, and felt that Doctorow didn't quite give me enough of either, as the book wore on. I say farewell to Doctorow for now, having liked Ragtime the best of his I've read.