Several decades ago, I read two of Doctorow’s better-known novels, The Book Of Daniel and Ragtime. Neither book impressed me all that much. With his death earlier this year, I decided to revisit his catalog, and Billy Bathgate was the book that I chose.
Doctorow is famous for his historical fiction, and this book uses the infamous mobster Dutch Schultz as its touchstone. Its narrator is Billy Bathgate, a brash fifteen year old living in the Bronx in the early 1930s. Miraculously, he manages to catch Schultz’s attention and is adopted into the gangster’s inner circle.
Billy is introduced to the dazzling world where organized crime is firmly rooted in the community through the use of violence and corruption. To ensure its existence, “bought” police officers and politicians are also on the payroll. As the book’s narrator, Billy is clearly precocious. He is also street-wise, thanks to growing up in poverty with only a mother present as a parent.
The opening scene, in which Schultz dispenses with a hit man he feels has betrayed him, is truly chilling. It takes place on the high seas with the doomed man well aware of his coming fate as his “concrete boots” dry on his feet. It is a scene that haunts, as does the concluding chapter where Dutch Schultz and the top members of his gang meet their violent end.
Billy Bathgate is the perfect narrator for this story. Through his immature eyes, the reader is introduced to the drudgery of daily life in the criminal world, punctuated by unexpected outbursts of violence. While guileless, it is clear that he is studying everything that he sees to help support his quest to establish himself in the violent world of organized crime. His unique mixture of cunning and naivety makes him a character the reader can identify with despite the sordid situation he finds himself in.
Doctorow was famous for recreating specific historical eras, and this book does not disappoint in that regard. Yet its greatest strength is that this story is not necessarily specific to a time period, but continues to be relevant today. It is not your typical gangster novel, which is why the book continues to engage readers twenty-five years after it was first published.
Robert Up At Dawn 