Keen-eyed Lit Hub members may recall that I wrote about E.L. Doctorow’s The Waterworks back in the March members-only newsletter. These same keen-eyes readers may rightfully ask themselves if I’ve read a second book. I have, I promise! I’m recommending it here because it’s stuck with me for the last three months, and because I think it fits the bill here. Doctorow’s bona fides as a master of historical fiction are a given. He was both commercially popular and critically acclaimed—the adaptation of his sprawling turn of the century novel Ragtime just won best musical at the Tony Awards. It’s worth digging into his back catalogue to pluck out some less famous titles. The Waterworks is much more focused than Ragtime, honing in on a newspaper editor’s quest to solve the disappearance of one of his freelancers. Through this search the newspaper editor takes on the mystery the freelancer was trying to solve. The Waterworks is more mystery than thriller, but the affable (if sometimes digressive) first-person narration and rich portrait of New York City at the end of the 19th century makes this a very accessible literary novel to immerse yourself in. You mentioned that you’re also a fan of fantasy. Without wandering into spoiler territory, Doctorow weaves some elements of the fantastic into the fibers of the story that, while certainly falling more on the side of the speculative than of, say, sword-and-sorcery, may still serve to scratch that itch. The ending, and the questions that it asks, is the thing that stuck with me for the better part of this year; I hope it resonates with you as well. –Calvin Kasulke, Associate Publisher |
