2022 take on a 1975 book about 1912
This book is interesting but I feel like Doctorow is saying very little novel. Because postmodernism is the setting and worldview in which we have all been raised, ideas that were once new and foreign are now commonly accepted. This book suffers as a result and I find myself following Doctorow’s bland characters that are intended to be vessels for his ideas rather than the ideas themselves. (I will say the book is picking up a lot with the introduction of Coulhouse though.) The main message of the book appears to be that exploitative capitalism is bad. Oh no! Really? I was under the impression that people getting their hands chopped off at the end of their 16 hour shift was a good thing. I don’t think a single person went into this book with an opposing opinion on the gilded age. I mean maybe these themes were subversive and crazy at the time when the US was the economic powerhouse in the world but I am not impressed with this thesis by Doctorow. Anyone with an education past the 4th g...