I've decided something—or maybe I decided it a long time ago and am just now admitting it. I don't like the writer E. L. Doctorow. Once upon a time I did. I remember reading and really liking
Ragtime.
Billy Barthgate was a 50-pages-only book. I read another Doctorow a few years ago. I guess it was okay; I no longer remember either the title or the story. And now I've read
World's Fair.
On the back cover a quote from Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of the
New York Times reads: "When you finish reading E. L. Doctorow's marvelous novel, you shake your head in disbelief and ask yourself how he has managed to do it." Sorry. Didn't work that way for me. I read the quote, read the book, reread the quote, and now I'm shaking my head in disbelief.
World's Fair is the heartwarming story of a Jewish family's struggles in New York as they go about their lives and eventually take a trip to the 1939 World's Fair. Kind of like the Waltons visiting a big city. "'Night, John-Boy" fits right in.
In spite of my overall opinion, however, four moments in the novel did grab me.
1) On page 41 there's a really neat transition. The narrator is describing a neighborhood grocery store and ends the paragraph with "I liked this store because of the coffee smell and the sawdust on the floor. I liked sawdust as long as it was dry." The next paragraph begins with "In Irving's Fish Store, the sawdust was often wet." He, of course, doesn't like Irving's nearly as well as the grocery. Cool, huh? Maybe even sweet.
2) Later: " … I drink cherry Kool-Aid, which is like liquid Jell-O." (page 62.) You know, it really is. And I know this because now that I'm a Medicare-card-carrying senior citizen, I've gone back to drinking Kool-Aid—but just the old-fashioned type where you add your own sugar. That pre-mixed stuff that comes in plastic bottles is downright nasty.
3) Bit of description got to me. "The Automat was on Forty-second Street, a great glittering high-ceilinged hall with murals on the walls and rows and rows of tables." (page 126) And what's so appealing about that?
I've actually eaten in that Automat and remember doing so. It's that senior citizen thing again.
4) Finally, on page 136 there's mention of a Upton Sinclair novel called
Boston that's based on the Sacco and Vanzetti case. I've never heard of that one. I'll have to read it. Or maybe I'll just reread John Dos Passos'
U.S.A. Absolutely amazing how books continue to lead onto books.
Sudden realization: I like this thread. In the real world--and on our "front page"--everything's scary: the economy, the presidential election, my nagging fear that McCain is gonna win, but here we talk about things we like. Or even if we don't all like the same books, it doesn't mean worlds are going to fall apart. Okay, maybe we're hiding our heads in the sand, but everyone needs "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" sometimes. Why the capitals and quoes? It's a Hemmingway story that if you haven't read, you should--even if you don't like Hemmingway.
A Clean Well-Lighted Place 
