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Summary: A Thought-provoking novel of Integrity and Ingenuity
Review: City of God, by E. L. Doctorow, is a timeless classic following in the footsteps of the original copy of City of God by St. Augustine. The author takes on the form of different people, from geniuses such as Albert Einstein, to Fathers and Rabbis of the modern era. The thought provoking perspectives both challenge and protect the ways of God and his Divine Plan. There are many different stories and multiple plots from different eras all linking to the topic of God in the common man's life. The only problem with the book is that most of the sentences are half a page long and are so confusing that you have to read the sentence over again. The main story, however, is of the stealing of the cross from the St. Thomas Church. The cross is found on the roof of a Synagouge on the west side of the city. Father Pemberton and Rabbi Green join together to help solve the mystery with what facts they have. With many interesting topics of issue on the universe, time travel, and gravity itself, City of God is bound to keep you up at night craving more. And if you're easily offended by challenging God's authority, I would not recommend this novel to you.
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Summary: E. L. Doctorow's "City of God": Postmodern Fizz
Review: The novel's title, recalling St. Augustine's great philosophical work of the same name, suggests ambition well beyond simply writing an interesting novel. While the book has many passages of mesmerizing eloquence, learning, and emotional power, it finally does not work effectively as a novel.The book's central character is a novelist gathering information for a book he is trying to write about a cross stolen from an Episcopal church that mysteriously reappears in a synagogue. We hear ruminations about the writer's love life, sketches of scenes, scenarios for movies, commentaries (or midrashes)on pop tunes, and much more. We read harrowing accounts of life in a Jewish ghetto during World War II. (This is powerful, but read William Styron's "Sophie's Choice." It packs a much bigger emotional punch.) We also hear about World War I, Vietnam, and the movies. We are even treated to monologues by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albert Einstein, and Frank Sinatra -- the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost of the postmodern world? Like his novelist-central character, Doctorow jumps from topic to topic, without apparent rhyme or reason. It is of course perfectly fine to write a nonlinear, fragmented novel. Just look at Don DeLillo's astonishing "Underworld." But it is never clear what "City of God" gains from this approach, why it had to be done this way and only this way. For this reader at least, it was so much postmodern fizz.
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Summary: Writing about the holocaust and other things
Review: E.L. Doctorow does a clever thing. He has a character who is the author writing this book. One organizing idea of the book is New York City. Another is ecumenical interest in God. The author uses time shifting and place shifting. This is an example of the use of the new historicism. Doctorow always has written with a sense of history. The city's grid was laid out in the 1840's. Ben and Ruth had two sons, Ronald and Everett. Ben was a naval officer, a naval communications observer in World War I. Ronald served in World War II. He had to parachute from his plane and was discovered by a French peasant. Ruth lived to age ninety five, exceeding the lifetime of her husband by some thirty seven years. She always said she would not give her opinion unless asked to do so. Sarah Blumenthal and Joshua Gruen are rabbis at the Synagogue of Evolutionary Judaism. The synagogue is the site of the placement of a cross stolen from Saint Timothy's, an Anglican Church in the East Village. Thomas Pemberton, or Pem, meets Sarah and Josh when the locus of the cross is determined. Pem, in the course of the book, undergoes the closing of Saint Timothy's and his own self-designated reassignment to a hospice, the finding of a holocaust archive from Vilnius pertaining to the experience of Sarah's father following the death of Josh from a beating in Lithuania, the start of his studies to convert to Judaism, and his marriage to Sarah. The author has occasion to interact with his own characters Pem and Sarah at the synagogue. Prior to Pem's beginning the conversion studies and prior to his marriage to Sarah, the author had commenced to study Pem in order to write an account of his experiences in his search for God. The book is multi-layered, intelligent, delightful.
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Summary: Understanding the Millennial Moment
Review: This book does have a difficult beginning that can be frustrating... don't worry though as you travel into the narrative landscape it slowly pulls together threads of meaning that slowly create an evolving state of awareness, by page 50 you are recognizing clear patterns and by the pages 80-90 you have the names of the main characters down--don't let this frustrate you, this book is no cheeseburger designed to be hastily gobbled down ... it is a sumptous feast for the senses and soul--a fulfilling meal designed to feed the spirit... It does tackle the big issues and creates a mind-numbing array of voices to bring this historical moment of the century's end to dramatic life ... but... It is so searing when it hits on all engines, the descriptions of the city are very powerful bringing a sense of the majestic aliveness of urban life and its chaotic sensory effect. The portrayals of the Jewish ghetto and the young boy's experiences are soul-shattering The relationship of the main characters is vivid and real... The last 100 pages are a powerful literary experience of the continuing importance of religion in our society, while also providing a no holds barred critique of the backward-looking (reactionary) traditions that try to stop us from evolving as humans and as spiritual beings. Read this now ... then if you haven't read them go get "Black Elk Speaks," "Nothing Sacred" by Douglas Rushkoff, "The Concept of the Foreign" by Rebecca Saunders, "The Infinite Conversation" by Maurice Blanchot, and "The Cunning of History" by Richard Rubenstein ... I read these books all around the same time that I was reading "City of God" they all speak to the need for new modes of human relations and a new spirituality for a changing world.
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Summary: Stick with it; it's worth it in the end
Review: It may be a tough read for some but it's well worth it. Stick with it. Yes, it has some misfires, but this is a beautiful, searing, searching, scientific AND spiritual book. Almost an act of faith in a desperate world. I would have probably given it 4 and 1/2 stars because it ain't a PERFECT book, but I also would have given it 10 stars because it borders on a profound declaration of hope and reason in a mad world. My girlfriend recommended this book to me and I am very, very thankful that she did.
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Summary: Couldn't finish it
Review: I forced myself to read the first 1/3 of this book, but I just couldn't finish it. I just couldn't follow it.
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Summary: A partial success
Review: E.L. Doctorow's sprawling City of God doesn't qualify as an epic in word count (it weighs in at fewer than 300 pages) but it does fill the bill in terms of scope and breadth. This is a far more ambitious work than Doctorow's excellent novel Ragtime, for which he is best known, and admirers of the previous novel will recognize much of the same pacing and style in City of God - concurrent storylines and shifting points of view, and the appearance of the occasional historical figure (this time around look for Ludwig Wittgenstein and Albert Einstein). As a novel, however, City of God does not compare favorably; there are flashes of brilliance and some passages of true beauty, but it lacks Ragtime's coherent elegance. The base plot involves an Episcopalian priest and a female rabbi who collaborate to solve an unusual crime. A troubled novelist follows their efforts, documents their deepening relationship, and contributes a wide range of his own ruminations. Various threads take us to an ongoing poetry reading, a Jewish slum during WWII, and some amusing thoughts about cinematic movie as an intelligent life form. In my opinion Doctorow relies too heavily on some key speeches by the novel's main characters to deliver the weight of his message, instead of communicating this message though the flow of the plot and the action of the characters. Notably Father Pembroke's remarks to the Bishop's examiners and Rabi Blumenthal's address to the Conference of American Studies in Religion are used as mouthpieces to deliver Doctorow's message on the shifting nature of the relationship between God and man and the crises of agnosticism that are befalling these two characters, society, and presumably Doctorow himself. City of God is an impressive piece of fiction and is a thoughtful and very personal novel, but doesn't quite meet the ambitious goals that it sets out for itself.
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Summary: DOCTOROW DOES IT AGAIN...AMEN!
Review: It's sort of a ragged novel, this book by "Ragtime" novelist E. L. Doctorow. The story may seem simple -- a brass cross is stolen from an Episcopal church, only to be found on its roof of a synagogue -- but stick around beyond the first 30 pages or so. The theft gives Father Thomas Pemberton reason to question (and renew his faith), and affords his writer friend, Everett, a reason to write a novel. And so "City of God" is a novel-within-a-novel, whose "notebooks" tell this story chockfull of images and voices (and even song lyrics), tossed in with Holocaust horrors, defrocking and love affairs, that bemuse, befuddle and bewilder. Amen!
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Summary: I love E. L. Doctorow, but...
Review: Really challenging. There are so many voices in this book, I still don't know how many characters there are. Two married rabbis, a Christian priest, somebody's father, a bird-watcher, a writer, a Nazi-hunter... And most of them speak separately. Don't get me wrong, there are some golden nuggets of wisdom and insight into the Western world's views of the beginning of the universe, and God, or whatever you want to call that force, or non-force. This is one heck of a book and its very timely right now when so many people are questioning faith. This book makes you think, and I like that. But what's with the birds?...
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Summary: An estimable effort
Review: I have never read Doctorow before and did not know what to expect. I suspect that his intentions for "City of God" were noble but unfortunately he only glances the (presumed) target. I found myself plodding through the book, reading it in spurts as I convinced myself that maybe if I kept on going that somewhere in those pages I would find some insights into contemporary society's relationship with God and religion. So I managed to finish the novel a few days ago but remain unsatisfied. First of all, I felt that the novel was not "enthralling" or "rich" as some critics are reported on the covers of the paperback edition to have said. In fact, I found the style of the book to be somewhat disjointed and detached. Perhaps the former can be attributed to the author's attempt to tell too many stories in one novel, thus detracting from the main plotline and purpose of the book. As for the writing's seeming distance from the subject at hand, perhaps it is due to the author's lack of experience in the fields of astronomy and religion. I must give credit to Doctorow, however, for tackling these subjects. Far too often science and God are said to be mutually exclusive, and I admire any person who attempts to publicly reconcile the two for the betterment of mankind. (Assuming that this is part of what Doctorow had in mind when he was writing "City of God.") I was engaged, however, by Doctorow's narrative passages of the war experiences of a soldier and especially the misery that Sarah's father endured in a ghetto created by the Germans in World War II. I sensed even here, though, a coldness in Doctorow's presentation, which could be a manifestation of his anger at the cruelty of the Holocaust aggressors. Or perhaps the writer was trying to maintain an objective distance for effect, to take the sentimentality out of the situation and make it more realistic to the reader as the hell that the war was for so many people, particularly the Jewish. At one point Sarah points out to her friend the author that his rendition of her memories of what her father told her is not entirely accurate. If you believe that the author in "City of God" is based on Doctorow himself, then this is Doctorow's rather clever way of admitting that he has no special authority to write "City of God" and that it is impossible for him to not be biased and even sensational in his writing. I agree, but I'm glad that there are writers who are not afraid to tackle what seems will always be beyond human reach, namely, understanding God and our relationship with Him.
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