Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Doctorow, E. L. - Jonathan Franzen (review date 19 June 1994)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Jonathan Franzen (review date 19 June 1994)

SOURCE: "Where Our Troubles Began," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, June 19, 1994, pp. 1, 8.

[In the following review, Franzen discusses the setting, character and plot of The Waterworks and compares the book to Ragtime, Billy Bathgate and The Book of Daniel.]

The imaginative universe of E. L. Doctorow is as unbounded in time as it is spatially restricted by his love and hatred of New York. He travels through history by means of inference, from old buildings. His characters are like genies conjured up by the mental stroking of New York City landmarks—the Morgan Library in Ragtime, Bathgate Avenue in Billy Bathgate, the fairgrounds in World's Fair, P.S. 70 in The Book of Daniel.

His new book, The Waterworks, seems to have been inspired by the reservoir and dam at Croton, just north of New York City. (I venture this guess in part because...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Wirt Williams (review date 25 September 1960)
   2. Gwendolyn Brooks (review date 10 July 1966)
   3. Stanley Kauffman (review date 5 June 1971)
   4. Joseph Catinella (review date 17 July 1971)
   5. Patrick Parrinder (review date 4 April 1985)
   6. Richard D. Beards (review date Summer 1985)
   7. Marvin J. LaHood (review date Winter 1987)
   8. Michelle M. Tokarczyk (essay date Fall 1987)
   9. John G. Parks (essay date Winter 1991)
   10. Derek Wright (essay date 1993)
   11. Stephen Matterson (essay date Winter 1993)
   12. Stephen Cooper (essay date May 1993)
   13. Ann V. Miller (essay date Summer 1993)
   14. Stephen Fender (review date 27 May 1994)
   15. John Whitworth (review date 28 May 1994)
   16. Jonathan Franzen (review date 19 June 1994)
   17. Simon Schama (review date 19 June 1994)
   18. Mark Shechner (review date 10 July 1994)
   19. Andrew Delbanco (review date 18 July 1994)
   20. William Hutchings (review date Winter 1995)
   21. E. L. Doctorow with Michelle M. Tokarczyk (interview date Winter 1995)
   22. Michael Wutz (review date Spring 1995)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. E. L. Doctorow