Declare Books Concering World's Fair
| Original Title: | World's Fair |
| ISBN: | 0452275725 (ISBN13: 9780452275720) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | New York City, New York(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Award for Fiction (1986) |
E.L. Doctorow
Paperback | Pages: 304 pages Rating: 3.82 | 3904 Users | 310 Reviews
Representaion To Books World's Fair
Hope Is Where You Find It Doctorow's World's Fair is, for me, an important document touching on family history. My mother was 11 years old when she visited Flushing Meadows in 1939 and it influenced her life as significantly as it did Doctorow's. Both he and his avatar 'Edgar' were two years younger than my mother. New York City was (and of course largely still is) a city of immigrants and the children of immigrants. In other words it is a place of constant dislocation and dissolution. It doesn't so much melt into a pot as anneal on a blacksmith's iron. But the depression of the 1930's added a component of desperation to the lives of many that is the stage set in which his protagonist functions. For Edgar the Worlds Fair is not just a glimpse of other worlds, but rather, as for my mother, the symbol of a hope for a new world. It was almost an excuse to feel good. Edgar's father with his failing business sees it expressly as that, in almost the same words I am sure my mother quoted to me from my grandfather. The experiences that affected Edgar most deeply weren't the visions of new technologies or urban designs but the 'trivial' encounters like the archly vulgar sideshow 'Oscar the Amorous Octopus'. For my mother it was the bank of valves that released small amounts of unusual fragrances. The one that stuck in her mind was labelled, she found only after testing it, Human Gas.
Present Out Of Books World's Fair
| Title | : | World's Fair |
| Author | : | E.L. Doctorow |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 304 pages |
| Published | : | May 1st 1996 by Plume (first published October 12th 1985) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. New York. Classics |
Rating Out Of Books World's Fair
Ratings: 3.82 From 3904 Users | 310 ReviewsEvaluate Out Of Books World's Fair
World's Fair is a book which made this reader feel like he was holding a series of jewels up to his eye and reveling in the sheer loveliness of them. It's a novel that gives the sensations of discovery and enlightenment that the very earliest moments of literary awareness gave me in my youth. This is either a novel garbed in memoir, or a memoir viewed through the patina of a novel, but in either case, World's Fair is an incredibly moving and engaging book to read.I read this book at the same time as Jane Smiley's upcoming novel Some Luck, which was an interesting experience. While Smiley's characters are given voices appropriate to their age (a child sees the world through a child's eyes), Doctorow's Edgar is looking back at his childhood and waxing philosophic. There are also a few odd chapters here and there told by other characters, as if written in a letter to Edgar. Interesting and unique story structure for an interesting and unique story. For a
Worlds Fair is the story of a Jewish boy growing up in New York in the 30s. Its told in his voice, with occasional chapters written from the point of view of family membersas if the boy, now older, had questioned them about his childhood and family. There are dual forces at work herepresent and future, freedom and restriction, mother and father, fact and fiction (for it seems that much of this book is autobiographical)--perhaps all represented by the Trylon and Perisphere sculptures of the 1939
Some readers have been frustrated by this book's lack of a strong plot or storyline along the lines of Billy Bathgate or Ragtime but what it lacks in this regard it makes up in other ways. The characters are to me more realistic than in his other more conventional novels. The family members' personalities and characteristics are captured vividly as are childhood memories, concerns, anxieties, fears, excitements, and play. The protagonist is a bright and engaging young boy and the narration is
Worlds Fair is a marvelous and heartwarming novel of a young boys coming of age. Taking place before the Second World War in Doctorows hometown of New York City, the book relives a quest for memory through the recollections of the young protagonist, simply referred to as Edgar. The novel captures the time period in all its momentousness and brings loveliness and compassion to the occurrences of everyday life. The story's energy and lyricism generate a magical feeling around the valuable lessons
Nearly perfect coming of age story, set in NYC, during the 1930s, capping off with the World's Fair in '38. This looks to be based on Doctorow's early life.
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