Synopsis On Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx of the Great Depression, Billy spends his boyhood being groomed as an apprentice thug working for the notorious gangster Dutch Schultz. When he falls in love with Drew, his boss's girl, he begins to think that the life of a mobster may not be the glamorous world he expected, and he resolves to take Drew away from it all.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1989-01-01 |
Industry Reviews "American novelists have always been readier than their European counterparts to demonstrate that the art of literature can adopt the form of popular entertainment without losing an iota of seriousness, and BILLY BATHGATE is Doctorow's most brilliant proof of it to date." Rushdie
"[A] masterwork. Though BILLY BATHGATE meditates on many matters--mobsters and orphans, the East Bronx and the Great Depression, the politics of sex and the psychology of class...think of it, like Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY or Horatio Alger's RAGGED DICK, as a fairy tale about capitalism. And color it wonderful." Leonard
"...Mr. Doctorow's sharpest piece of work, ['BILLY BATHGATE) is Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer with more poetry, Holden Caulfield with more zest and spirit." Tyler
| See an error? Submit a change request |