Ragtime

Doctorow (1931–2015) reads his classic historical novel (first published in 1975) about the opening days of the 20th century with a dispassionate voice that doesn't stress, emphasize, or otherwise try to influence the listener. He lets the story speak for itself as he narrates as if he were reading a newspaper describing the intermingling of famous people with the ordinary, barely named fictional ones—Mother, Father, Brother, Tateh, etc. Brief intersections hint at unknown potential: Tateh sketching a portrait of Evelyn Nesbit while Freud watches from a car; Houdini having automobile trouble near Father's house; and learning that Father was to accompany Robert Peary to the North Pole. The new century was a time of wonder and change—cars, airplanes, high-risk escapes—and of culture clashes with the poor, blacks, and immigrants that result in injustice, violence, and death.