Billy Bathgate
by E.L. Doctorow
published
October 1990
(first published 1998)
by HarperPaperbacks
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binding
Paperback, 496 pages
literary awards
National Book Critics Circle Award (1989); PEN/Faulkner Award (1990)
isbn
0061000078
(isbn13: 9780061000072)
description
In the Bronx of the 1930s, 15-year-old Billy Bathgate hooks up with a legendary mobster, Dutch Schultz. Schultz becomes an unlikely surrogate parent t...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 588)
Read in September, 2008
I would have given Billy Bathgate four stars, but it ended to soon! So, high criticism. It took a few chapters for the book to interest me, but once I was snagged I read the entire thing through, and was only dismayed that it felt prematurely ended- just as the narrative was flourishing, enjoying the benefits of all the hard work before, the story was over. It is so rare for me to feel this way about a book that I can't recall another single time at the moment.
This was the first of E.L. ...more
This was the first of E.L. ...more
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Read in July, 2007
My boyfriend loves this book, so I read it. I had a lot of trouble getting into it at first. Gangster stories have never really appealed to me, there has to be some other draw. Violence and tough talking just doesn't excite me in a novel, though it's different in the movies.
About 150 pages into the book, I started to have trouble putting it down. This is no ordinary gangster book (not that I know what an ordinary gangster book is like), it cuts into some deeper issues if you stick with i...more
About 150 pages into the book, I started to have trouble putting it down. This is no ordinary gangster book (not that I know what an ordinary gangster book is like), it cuts into some deeper issues if you stick with i...more
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Read in March, 2008
I'd heard about this book for years and knew there was a movie made of it so, when I found a copy at my own private library (the neighborhood laundry), I decided I'd check it. It's a good story with interesting characters but, ultimately, it didn't pull me in, didn't grab me by scruff of the neck. Some of this may be due to Doctorow's extreme wordiness. He's a skilled writer but, time after time, I felt I got the point and wished to move on to the next, please. And something about run...more
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Somehow, even though the story is less iconic and epic in scope that Ragtime, I loved Billy Bathgate even more. Perhaps I have a fondness for bildungsroman that just won't let up, but honestly the story of a young boy who by chance/luck/willpower finds himself becoming a trusted favorite of one of New York City's biggest and most notorious organized crime bosses, and his gradual education, exposure, initiation, etc. of that underworld...all of this is fascinating as it is told by Doctorow, but ...more
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Read in May, 2008
A very enjoyable read--the prose pops off the page, a first-person voice as lively as anything. What I love about Doctorow's novels, however, is entirely lacking here. His ability to reinvent genre, and to question the way we come to view American history, does not resonate via young Billy. Very fun read, but not really a lasting literary effort.
Having said that, I do highly recommend it for anyone trying to write a successful first-person. This is not Mr. Doctorow imagining himself in B...more
Having said that, I do highly recommend it for anyone trying to write a successful first-person. This is not Mr. Doctorow imagining himself in B...more
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Barbara by:
recommended by my brother
This is a remarkable book told from the viewpoint of "a capable boy" from the tenement streets of the East Bronx who is taken in by the crimeland figure Dutch Shultz. It is E.L. Doctorow at the near-peak of his powers creating a fascinating story by winding history and fiction together. My only criticism was that I didn't quite believe the romance of a sub-plot which I won't discuss here as it would create a spoiler. But, when Doctorow is describing the sites and sounds of the stree...more
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Read in February, 2007
Often I will finish a book and wonder if it was a great book or not, and then wonder what makes a great book, and so on down a short and rutted road to ambivalence. As I neared the end of Billy Bathgate, the realization slowly dawned on me that I had just been treated to a tour-de-force. E.L. Doctorow can make the image of a boy sitting on his stoop an epic moment, so you can imagine how much better it gets when Billy steps down and walks down the sidewalk. An incredible book.
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Doctorow is a very gift writer (my assessment is based on this book alone--the only one I have read so far) but the story of the boy Billy Bathgate doesn't grab me the way, say, Chabon's the Amazing Adventures did. Nevertheless, it's worth being exposed to this writer and his writing. I'll definitely read his other novels. Apparently, Doctorow is one of Obama's favorite writers, along with Le Carre and Philip Roth, all white men.
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Read in January, 1998
از دکترف یه داستان کوتاه به اسم یولیوان کوچولو توی مجموعه ی بعد از لباس جین هست که سال ها است می خوام فیلم نامه اش کنم و پا نمی ده. بیلی بت گیت رو به عنوان یه نمونه از رمان امریکایی که ما خیلی کم ازش خوندیم و خیلی کم هم ترجمه شده پیشنهاد می کنم
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Read in January, 1991
recommends it for:
readers who read for great prose
Doctorow is very much in control of his almost-but-not-quite stream of consciousness style of writing here as well his typical blend of historical figures w/ fictional characters. I loved this book both for the snapshot of one piece of American history, but also I loved it for his beautiful language. You could open it to any page and just enjoy his writing, as if each passage were a stand alone poem.
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Read in February, 2007
Take a pretty straightforward coming-of-age story of a fifteen-year-old boy, set it in 1930's Bronx, NY, and have the kid become a bonafide member of the Dutch Schultz gang three months before the notorious gangster's violent demise, and you get Billy Bathgate. again, Doctorow is one of my new obsessions, but seriously people, this is a damn fine novel any way you slice it.
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Read in June, 2008
I had seen the movie the year it came out and thought enough time had passed to read the book. I was extremely disappointed with Doctorow's EXTREME wordiness to the point that I found myself skipping HUGE chunks of prose just to keep myself awake and into the plot. All in all, I would say, don't read it, put it on your Netflix list and save yourself a few hours.
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
Anyone but Dad and Greg might like it better than EL Doctorow's other books.
Another good book by EL Doctorow. This was about a young boy who a small-time mobster takes a liking to. At the time the boy thought the mobster was quite the big cheese and celebrity and winds up working for him. It follows the mobster, the boy and their group for about 15 years. It is another good book about a certain time and culture in New York.
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recommends it for:
The President of Russia
I was shocked by the beauty, depth, and ugliness in this book. How the HELL could an author put himself so far into other people's minds and circumstances.
Only not recognized as a modern classic because of its accessibility and entertaining nature.
See also: Caleb Carr's Alienist. (Not as powerful to me, but terrific book in similar vein)
Only not recognized as a modern classic because of its accessibility and entertaining nature.
See also: Caleb Carr's Alienist. (Not as powerful to me, but terrific book in similar vein)
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Read in July, 2008
"Billy Bathgate" needs to be read slowly and savored. Sometimes Doctorow's paragraph-long sentences can be a little tiring, but his descriptions are as sharp as can be. And the story itself, of a young boy becoming the protege of the gangster Dutch Schultz, is fascinating. Highly recommended.
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I thought I had lots of thing to say about Doctorow and Billy. But I can't find a word, a relevant sentence, something which deliver my high respect to Doctorow and his novels, unless saying I enjoy a lot reading him, and watching films made on his novels, such as Ragtime.
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This is a very nice postmodern novel, in which a young boy penetrates into a group of gangsters and gets familiar with a new world. He relates then about his observations in this experience. The story is masterfully depicted such that you can never be bored.
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Read in September, 1995
I honestly don't remember when I read this...middle or high school. Doctorow executes the narration very well, the reader feels an emotional connection with the title character (perhaps, I did). Mob, violence, what's not to love?
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Read in June, 2008
Whoa--intense and fast-paced. Typical Doctorow in many ways, especially, I think, in his somewhat limited treatment of female characters, but still I like Doctorow's style and focus on historical fiction.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in January, 2008
Loved it. The author also wrote Ragtime. Saw the movie, Ragtime, but didn't like it much, so now I have no interest in reading Ragtime. I'd like to read more Doctorow, though.
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