![]() ![]() ![]() (If you're having a hard time keeping the characters straight I would recommend quickly taking a look at the plot synopsis before going any further.) When you think about it, the sheer scope of the novel is somewhat incredible. It is no small task to relate the narratives of three such different characters as Mother, Tateh, and Coalhouse Walker, Jr. But how can we account for the great popularity of both novel and show? Well, the truly brilliant thing about Ragtime is how it handles all these intersecting storylines. I think about that story a lot when I listen to the music of Ragtime – how a brick wall and a case of writer’s block led to a novel that has resonated so deeply with thousands of readers. And Ragtime the novel eventually became Ragtime the musical. Washington? Doctorow’s errant speculations eventually became the novel Ragtime. Who would they have been? In an age of great racial divides, how would they have interacted with the world around them? Could they, by chance, have crossed paths with any of the famous figures of that age? Men like J. And then Doctorow began to wonder about the family that would have lived in this house all the way back in 1902 when it was first built. This led him to think about the house itself. ![]() For lack of something better to write about, he began to describe the exposed brick wall in front of him. Apparently, he was sitting in his home in New Rochelle, suffering from a particularly bad case of writer’s block (a feeling that happens to resonate very strongly with me in this particular moment as it has taken me quite a while to begin this particular article, but I digress). The author was leading a discussion about his work, and when asked about Ragtime he began to explain how the novel was born. When I was younger, I had the opportunity to meet E. ![]()
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