City of God

E.L. Doctorow's "City of God" is about -- well, everything. There's the obvious Augustinian reference in the title. There are treatises on the Big Bang and the effects of popular culture. There's a moving lament for the end of democratic media and art and the rise of corporate Hollywood. There's a Holocaust diary. There's a study of the turmoil evoked by the Vietnam War. There's even a mystery of a stolen cross (although E.L... Read Full 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... Read Full Review

It's true this book is perhaps a little more all over the place than it needs to be -- did we really need those bizarre commentaries on popular songs? -- but I can't understand why so many people are calling it boring, or impossibly difficult. While it's true there's a whole lot going on here, and you often have only a vague sense of the connection between all the parts, I think that's a good thing rather than a bad thing... Read Full Review

Some initial caveats: 'City of God' is not a straightforward mystery as its blurb suggests. Nor is it the impossibly cerebral challenge that some have suggested. It is not a theological manifesto. Nor does its blend of fact and fiction does not entail Doctorow's habitual ironic play with history.This is a book about connections. Life and art, fact and fiction, and the past and present conjoin in the ruminations of a middle-aged... Read Full Review

I have just completed the first reading of Edgar Laurence Doctorow's latest novel, "City of God". It is not an easy read. It is disjointed. Some of the characters require imaginative guesswork. BUT it is well worth the effort. Anyone who has lived the majority of his or her life in the 20th century will find a "shock of recognition" on many pages. The conflict of science and religion, the newer studies in cosmology and... Read Full Review