Your Arlington, your views

By Joyce Fienman and Rebecca Weiss

On Tuesday, May 27, 2008, the Walden Woods Project sponsored a reading featuring award-winning author E. L. Doctorow. Held at the Trinitarian Church in Concord, Mass., Doctorow sampled the story “Walter John Harmon” from his collection Sweet Land Stories. “Walter John Harmon” is the story of the tragedy that befalls a Kansas cult. After the reading, Doctorow took questions from the audience and concluded with a book signing.

In his talk, Doctorow explained how a book can literally come from nothing. He finally overcame a year of writer’s block before writing Ragtime by creating the story of his New Rochelle home and the fictional family who lived after its construction in 1906. Despite some hearing difficulties due to wartime injuries, Doctorow was dynamic and engaging, infusing his talk with understated bits of humor.

Even in his late 70s, Doctorow maintained great vigor and expression throughout the hourlong reading and was incredibly charming in personal interaction.

E.L. Doctorow, famous for his political novel Ragtime, which deals with racism at the turn of the 20th century, is also the author of numerous critically acclaimed works. Among the most well-known are The March, detailing General Sherman’s march to the sea and the destruction he left in his wake during the American Civil War, and Loon Lake, the story of personal discovery during the Great Depression.

Recipient and multiple nominee of the National Book Award and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Doctorow is one of the greatest writers of contemporary American fiction. Though unwilling to give details on his next novel, we can be sure that it will live up the high standards of his previous works.

As Arlington High School seniors, we first became of Doctorow and his work when we studied Ragtime in our AP English class taught by English Department Head Mrs. Elise Frangos. Ragtime tells the story of three disparate but converging groups: Jewish immigrants, African-Americans, and a WASP family. Though read as part of our contemporary literature unit, this novel will be integrated into the summer reading program for next year’s AP English students.