Rating: 
Summary: An ace of a story!
Review: An engaging story of young "Billy Bathgate," who is enamored with the local Bronx gangsters in the 1930's. Here are his adventures and sometimes his doubts in trying to become a part of the team. E. L. Doctorow is a master at descriptions of people and locations. They leave you almost able to smell the surroundings! The ending was not predictable - you don't know if Billy will or won't end up a gangster himself. I recommend that you read the book and see for yourself!
Rating:
Summary: An ace of a story!
Review: An engaging story of young "Billy Bathgate," who is enamored with the local Bronx gangsters in the 1930's. Here are his adventures and sometimes his doubts in trying to become a part of the team. E. L. Doctorow is a master at descriptions of people and locations. They leave you almost able to smell the surroundings! The ending was not predictable - you don't know if Billy will or won't end up a gangster himself. I recommend that you read the book and see for yourself!
Rating:
Summary: Coming of Age in the 1930's
Review: An excellent tale of an aspiring young street tough's initiation into the dangers and excitment of the gangster life, circa the 1930's, this book captures its era and the personalities it portrays with an astonishing verve and veracity. The tone and "voice" feel right, speeding along brilliantly, while the tale, of a young fellow's awakening from gawking naivete to a certain street-smart cynicism, rings remarkably true. If there is a reason for reading fiction today, BILLY BATHGATE offers the perfect example: it is a means for carrying us into places and times now long gone which still may resonate in the contemporary soul. While the hero is a trifle too cloying for my tastes and seems rather more inured to the moral chaos he sees around him than his apparent sensibility suggests he should be, this is, finally, a small fault to find with such a deflty turned tale. Progressing from a 15-year old loner on street corners to mascot of the Dutch Schultz gang, as they hurtle down the spiral of their final decline, the self-named Billy Bathgate insinuates himself into the precarious confidences of this remakably unstable crew. Schultz, himself, the erratic gang leader, has already slipped into a dangerous condition of paranoia and isolation and his hangers-on live from moment to moment in fearful unease, unable to check the excesses of their leader or to separate themselves from him. Billy finds their life oddly mesmerizing as he gets sucked into witnessing outbursts of murder and coldly planned gangland executions, until his role brings him into the orbit of a flighty, if beautiful, society doll. Then a burgeoning adolescent crush seems to awaken him to what he has done and, as in a dream, he begins to seek a way out. The ending comes swiftly and will surprise those who have not yet seen the movie (which captures much, but not all, of the written tale). And yet the wrap-up is a little bit of a let-down (rather too pat, actually) and I longed to know more of who and what this Billy turned out to be. Yet, on balance, this was a fine novel and evidence, indeed, for the solid reputation Doctorow has earned.SWM
Rating: 
Summary: okay, but not up to snuff
Review: Billy Bathgate is a young street urchin who attaches himself to Dutch Schultz and his mob & proceeds to narrate Dutch's decline and fall. I didn't think this one was up to the standard that Doctorow has set in books like Ragtime (see Review) & Waterworks. For one thing, mobsters have been done to death. But more significantly, fiction with the arc of tragedy requires a tragic figure--here, we never like Dutch enough to care that he gets his comeuppance. GRADE: C
Rating: 
Summary: Letters and numbers
Review: BILLY BATHGATE is E.L. Doctrow's poignant look at Depression era gangsterism through the eyes of the young boy after whom the book is named. Much to Doctrow's credit, there is no sentimentalizing or romanticizing of criminals here. Almost legendary gangster, Dutch Schultz, who befriends Billy, is depicted clearly as a vicious, sadistic thug teetering on the edge of insanity. Although it is the Dutchman who takes in the boy, Billy is drawn to Dutch's moll sexually, and to the gang's bookkeeper, Otto Berman, emotionally. Otto is the real key to the book. Billy, like Johnson's Boswell, is drawn to the accountant and his philosophy. Broken down, Otto explains to the boy that things like love, loyalty, knowledge, and spirit are meaningless--none of them can be proven. They are all bound by words. To Otto, words are just words. Numbers, however, is the only true language. One and one will always be two. Numbers never lie. (Spoken like a true accountant.) This has an enormous impact on a young boy whose mother is one step away from the nuthouse, and whose father took off years earlier. I gave this book four stars because I had just finished re-reading RAGTIME, and this came up a little short. On the other hand, maybe RAGTIME was too high a standard to hold it up to. In any event, this is not your typical gangster novel, as I hope this review has made apparent. It is a complex and profound book and should satisfy the most literary appetite. Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points.
Rating:
Summary: An instant classic!
Review: Characters you care about, some with pathos, others with charisma. A historical time and place that is well-drawn and richly detailed. An exciting plot that grips you and doesn't let go. This is an amazingly well-rounded novel with something for every kind of reader. You can recommend it to anybody. It was even turned into a darn good movie!
Rating:
Summary: Great Story Told Beautifully
Review: Doctorow achieves a rare success in combining a rich poetic style with coherent and compelling storytelling in this coming-of-age novel which explores both the romantic mythos and brutal reality of classical American gangsterdom. Many writers have earned their reputation in part through their extravagant and experimental style. Yet, Doctorow climbs a step above these word-sculptors by never allowing his rococo flourishes and tangential tendencies to hinder plot and character development. The result is simply what every reader hopes for, a great story beautifully told.
Only a couple of things depreciated this otherwise excellent novel. First, while Doctorow has written some of the best erotic scenes in all of literature, the sex in this book seemed almost too good to be true. I expect that for most fifteen year old boys sex with a gorgeous and experienced older woman would have been much more frightening, awkward, and difficult than it was for Billy. He really turns out to be a Don Juan -- that seems out of character for Billy and detracts from the psychological realism of the story. Also, Dutch Schultz's character seemed under developed considering the importance he plays in both Billy's life and in the overall plot. In spite of the flaws I highly recommend this novel. I give it a solid A.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I have ever read
Review: E.L. Doctorow excels in his writing to form a perfectly wonderful book. Billy Bathgate is a glorious story of a young man and his experience in organized crime. Truly a classic!
Rating:
Summary: A Page turner
Review: Great reading. Great prose. Great subject. What more can a reader ask for? This is about as romantic as the tenements of New York get.
Rating:
Summary: A Page turner
Review: Great reading. Great prose. Great subject. What more can a reader ask for? This is about as romantic as the tenements of New York get.
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