The city of god book doctorow

A special limited edition of only 1,100 copies, signed by author e. Augustines book of the same title, which responded to those who blamed christianity for the fall of rome. Doctorow s distinguished literary careeran astonishing modern masterwork of faith, mystery, and the search for spiritual authenticity. Doctorow s works of fiction include welcome to hard times, the book of daniel, ragtime, loon lake, worlds fair, billy bathgate, the waterworks, city of god. Doctorow, plus links to a book excerpt from city of god and author biography of e. This is an extract from the course the 25 most influential books in the postapostolic christian church. Doctorow s city of god is a valuable book for those who want to think about religion and spiritual issues or to see why people think about them. Discuss the dozens of stories that comprise doctorow s book, from the story of the universe to. Get 50% off this audiobook at the audiobooksnow online audio book store and download or stream it right to your computer, smartphone or tablet. Introduction city of god city of god opens a vast window on a range of religious, scientific, historic, and aesthetic concerns. Augustines city of god is the canvas on which doctorow paints an impressionistic portrait of mans frail moral nature and the possibilities of.

Doctorow has new york city in his bones and the large secular city is artfulllly drawn. Doctorow s novel can nonetheless be viewed as a singular, intricately rendered portrait of one mans peripatetic imagination and streaming consciousness. City of god both is and isnt a dramatization of the experience of questioning, losing, then partially regaining ones faith. Ein voluminoser thesenroman ist city of god, behauptet christoph. Doctorow s novel promises to strike readers as a wonderfully unusual novel with a liberating narrative technique that breaks many of the socalled rules of the novel and also echoes and riffs. When the altar cross goes missing from his episcopal church only to reappear on the roof of the synagogue of evolutionary. Doctorows city of god is a novel about almost everything imaginable.

Throughout doctorow intertwines his thoughts on fate and the nature of god and religion. With brilliant and audacious strokes, the author of ragtime and billy bathgate creates a breathtaking collage of memories, events, visions, and provocative thought, all centered on the idea of a modern reality of god. While we cannot expect closure to his tale, we can appreciate his wise guidance. It is doctorow s gift that he can connect difficult theological and cosmological ideas and render them simply and vividly for his readers. This is a matter not only of style and method the book features shifting. His most successful book thus far, ragtime, was published in 1975. Doctorow is a national treasure, and city of god is a bright and invigorating example of his talents at their best.

Doctorow together in the first two sentences of anything. Doctorow s work is its double vision, the critic peter s. Doctorows works of fiction include welcome to hard times, the book of daniel, ragtime, loon lake, worlds fair, billy bathgate. And while moviemaking in the united states has been, preeminently, a mode of mythmaking, doctorow s engagement with the unassuageable cruelties and squandered promises of american history has been pointedly antimythical. And having started off with my own big bang there, next i shall steal from someone on amazon who wrote about this book that it will provide you with retrospective gratification. Doctorow is a story told by the narrator everett who is writing a story about pem, an episcopalian priest. City of godis truly a book worth reading, perhaps particularly when one is in late adolescence, when ones first serious questions about our culture and the history that shaped it are often posed. The book does not give answers but provokes questions and is an antidote to allpervasive smugness or indifference. City of god is a very good novel about contemporary america and its troubled search for reconciliation between science and faith. Doctorow creates a breathtaking collage of memories, events, visions, and provocative thought, all centered on an idea of the modern reality of god. The collage of memories, events, visions, and provocative thoughts by doctorow, author of ragtime and billy bathgate in form of the detective story about a cross that vanishes from a lowereastside church. He attended city public grade schools and the bronx high school of science where, surrounded by mathematically gifted children, he fled to the office of. Doctorow as diversely populated and wideranging as it seems, e. Among his honors are the national book award, three national book critics circle awards, two penfaulkner awards, and the presidentially conferred national humanities medal.

Daringly poised at the junction of the sacred and the profane, and fil. New york, the holocaust, the 20th century, apocalypse, love, religion, and the. Wildly ambitious, in a strangely familiar way, the ultimate irony of city of god may be that its most successful portions are also those most closely aligned with doctorow s past work, particularly the novelinprogress abandoned halfway through, a moving account of life in a wwii jewish ghetto. New york times bestseller with brilliant and audacious strokes, e. Augustines treatise, city of god analyzes the factors.

Augustines city of godis the canvas on which doctorow paints an impressionistic portrait of mans frail moral. I guess its a testament to doctorow s genius that he accomplishes what should be the impossible and creates out of a patchwork of ideas a riveting novel. Doctorow s city of god is a novel about almost everything imaginable. There arent half a dozen men or women alive who could have written this novel, and none even among those who could have made it work as well as it does. Doctorow is the author of nine books, including welcome to the hard times, the book of daniel, ragtime, loon lake, lives of the poet, worlds fair, billy bathgate, and the waterworks he has been awarded the national book award, the national book critics circle award twice, the penfaulkner prize, the william dean howells medal of the american academy of arts and letters. This book has never been read and is in as new condition. Doctorow weaves a reproach to postmodernism out of the tale of a turbulent priest. In fact, one of the main themes of the book is the secular city to steal a title from harvey coxs book of many years ago and of a secular america with its own civil religion. The city of god, augustines argument was so powerful that his book became one of the most influential texts on politics, humanity, divinity, and the.

This detailed literature summary also contains topics for discussion on city of god by e. Although difficult to read, the effort will be rewarded. The material collected by writer everett, the narrator in city of god, is an examination of the relationship between human beings and god, between human beings and the world around them, between. Doctorow s book delivers an extraordinary amount of food for thought for curious, questing students. Wifes father was survivor of holocaust, but died before he could recover journals kept in ghetto and hidden. The book straddles the line drawn by some people between religion in the sense of devotion to a traditional creed and spirituality a personal devotion to the. We want you to be as happy when you have the item in hand as you are when you view it on your computer screen. City of god by doctorow, signed, franklin abebooks. Guardian doctorow s meditation on god is thoughtprovoking, perfectly accessible, intelligently told through. We get a closeup view of the bleeding edge of contemporary philosophy. With so many disparate elements, city of god shouldnt hold together. Now, with city of god, doctorow has written a novel that is. Doctorow s ten novels, welcome to hard times, was published in 1960, when he was 29.

New york, the holocaust, the 20th century, apocalypse, love, religion, and the universe. City of god holland novel, a 1979 historical novel by cecelia holland. One critic has written that city of god is a story about storytellingabout the ubiquity of narrative. L, doctorow s turnofthe century novel city of god explores the nature of religious faith for those for whom traditional forms of religion have become difficult or lost their meaning. City of god by doctorow, e l used books and rare books. A native of the bronx chronicles a century of the city 1994 doctorow was interviewed in bryant park near the new york public library, the former site of a resevoir that plays a prominent role in his book the waterworks. Holocaust survivors, and war veterans, city of god is a monumental. Now, with city of god, doctorow has written a novel that is explicitly, almost defiantly anticinematic. In the telling of the story there is a lot of short little essays or philosophical musings and often it is hard to know who is the current voice. Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers. Not even doctorow is sure how many what he calls motifs run through his book. Other stories start and stop throughout city of god, short bursts of narrative bouncing among discourses on physics and the occasional musical interpretations of the midrash jazz quartet. Doctorow was born january 6, 1931, in the bronx, the son of rose levine and david richard doctorow, secondgeneration americans of russian jewish extraction who named him after edgar allan poe.