One of my fav books

Great tale told from the point of view of a kid from the Bronx, amazing period work.

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It was...good. I wish I had enjoyed it more.

The Good: Doctorow is clearly a master wordsmith. When it is well suited to the purpose of a particular scene, his skill flows in a rising and falling motion. His characters were vivid and believable. And the scene setting/world building engaged all of the senses with a fastidious attention to detail which he delivers almost carelessly. Billy's introspection makes room for Doctorow's philosophies and the man is as much a philosopher poet as a dealer in fiction. Fiction is often described as a lie used as a vehicle to convey truth; that is what you will get in this tale.

The Bad: Billy continually works to reconcile his natural innocence with his ever-increasing reality of, at first moral ambiguity, and progressively a criminal bent. Therefore, his streams of consciousness make dramatic leaps from rich prose to absolute crass vocabulary in an instant. While I am not thick skinned, it was arresting more often than I would have liked. I do not impune the use of vulgarity and many of the characters are well suited to it. Yet, despite the illustration of Billy's development, I repeatedly struggled with the particular descriptions (and Billy's perceptions) of almost all things sexual.

Overall, it was a good read but not my favorite yarn. Doctorow's philosophies and vocabulary, however, were masterful.

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1 person found this helpful

A Masterpiece of Historical Fiction

This is the vivid first-person story of a fictitious 15-year-old boy who works his way into the confidence of a real-life gangster: Dutch Shultz, a New York mobster of the 1920s and 30s. Billy is determined to become a successful gangster, and inserts himself methodically into the mob’s inner circle. He becomes noticed as a street juggler, and is soon witnessing a classic cement-overshoes homicide.

There is intrigue, sex and violence, all in the enthusiastic aw-shucks voice of a kid with a nasal Bronx twang who also has amazing powers of observation and articulate description—and somehow it works brilliantly.

To beat a tax evasion rap, Schultz takes his whole entourage for weeks to Onondaga, NY, where the trial will be held, and charms the populace who will provide the jury of his peers. His popularity offensive as described by Billy could be a blueprint for recent US political campaigns:

“And now the scope of Mr. Schultz’ strategy became apparent to me. I had wondered how anyone could be fooled, because what he was doing was so obvious. But he wasn’t trying to fool anybody. He didn’t have to. It didn’t matter that these people knew he was a big-time New York gangster. Nobody here had any love for New York anyway. And what he did down there was his business, if up here he showed his good faith. It didn’t even matter that they knew why he was doing what he was doing, as long as he did it on a scale equal to his reputation. Of course, he was obvious. But that’s what you had to be when the fix was in with the masses. Everything had to be done large, like skywriting, so that it could be seen for miles around.”

You don’t expect this story to spin up and away to a whole new level, as it does in the last hour or so. You don’t see it coming. But suddenly it does, and what has been a nonstop compelling narrative accelerates like a rocket achieving orbit, from a dramatic gangland shootout through Billy’s youthful but crafty management of a life designed to escape detection by his enemies and one day lay claim to millions of dollars hidden by his late mentor.

You’ll want to drop everything, write down the generous list of clues, and find it yourself. But then you remember: Dutch Schultz was real, and the 1935 shootout at the Palace Chophouse in Newark really happened, and his legendary treasure was never found. Billy Bathgate, on the other hand, is a fictional character. E.L. Doctorow skillfully makes you believe otherwise.

The narration by Mark Deakins brings Billy Bathgate to life as a wide-eyed kid with wisdom beyond his years, not to mention the coarse voice of Dutch and his henchmen. A perfect choice.

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Wanted to like it a bit more....

Attracted by the setting and characters, I just couldn't settle in to enjoy as much I had hoped. Consistently too wordy for a long a-book... and it felt like this slows down the development of the story. I'm sure many will find the command of the language refreshing, but for me, I would have enjoyed a better pace.

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class of story telling seldom equaled

Highly recommend Billy Bathgate.. brilliant, engaging, descriptive writing, wrapped in excellent story. a true masterpiece.

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Great Gangster story. Beautiful prose. The best

Would you consider the audio edition of Billy Bathgate to be better than the print version?

Yes - definitely.. I read several reviews of the print version on Amazon before getting this. It appears the print novel lacks punctuation in places, making it difficult to read. The narrator M. Deakins helps us out by interpreting the prose and making it easier to hear the story than to read it. Sometimes a novelist uses missing punctuation or excessive run on sentences to set the mood for the reader. Well, I don't want to be driven crazy by reading a book and trying to guess where a pause should be inserted.

Sometimes - like with Billy Bathgate, the Narrator helps us enjoy the book more than if we were faced with reading it and getting frustrated by having to decipher the prose.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Otto Berman is my favorite character in this story. He appears to take a true interest in educating Billy in the knowledge of being a gang member, tutoring him, but not taking advantage of him. Kind of a Fagin father figure.

What does Mark Deakins bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Oh yes. Definitely - see my response to the audio version being better than the print version above. Plus Mark Deakins is able to change Billy's voice at times, properly representing not only his mood, but also his maturity. For example, just the way Deakins has Billy say the word "Yes". It sounds silly, but in just the way Deakins has Billy say that one word he is able to convey innocence and immaturity.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Doctrow does a great job with the erotic scenes between Billy and Lola/Drew.

Also the final scene with Dutch and the mob with Billy is particularly graphic and well written - so much so - I could see it happen in my mind.

Any additional comments?

This is the first time I've gone back and re-listened to the book after finishing it the first time. I'm glad I did. Doctrow is a master of prose - and is able to convey hidden meanings in the verbiage that does not detract from the story telling - but like a great painting - you have to sometimes know where to look or how to look at a section to understand (or think you understand).

I leave you with one haunting question....Was Hines Billy's father? And did Dutch know it - and if so, when did he know it?

I'm sorry for one thing - that Doctrow has a limited number of novels, and I've almost gone through them all. :(

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How I Joined The Gang

The story of Billy Bathgate was engrossing from its first page and onward, with excellent narration by Mark Deakons. Doctorow employs an extraordinary combination of empathy and alarm regarding the lives of mafiosi to make this tail unforgettable. Highly recommended reading for just about anyone.

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Great prose

Doctorow died in July 2015, so I checked my records to see what books of his I had read and was surprised to find the only book I had read was “Ragtime”. It is a funny feeling; I could have sworn I had read “Billy Bathgate”. Now I have another reading project, which is to read all of Doctorow’s books.

“Billy Bathgate” is Doctorow’s eighth novel (1989). The story won the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction in 1990 and the National Book Critics Award in 1989.

The book takes place in the 1930s New York. Billy is a 15 year old high school dropout living by his wits in the Bronx. Billy is athletic and adept at juggling. He worked his way into the Dutch Schultz gang and is eventually taken on as a protégé by Dutch and his bookkeeper Berman. The story takes place during the decline of Dutch Schultz and his gang after the repeal of prohibition. As a horse person I enjoyed the part when they went to the races and horse action at Saratoga Springs.

The book is well written. It is in the first person narrative of Billy. Doctorow sent me to the dictionary a few times. The book is a historical novel. I had forgotten what a gift of language Doctorow had. Mark Beakins narrated the book.

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7 people found this helpful

classic American novel

well written but wordy. very good storytelling and worth the listen. set in New York of the 1930s

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