Teo "Teo" Chemla's History as a Fiction blog post by Teo

  Ragtime  by E.L. Doctorow has a very unique style, one that I haven't seen used in any other book. I would characterize this book as historical fiction, but unlike other books in this genre, it intertwines real characters with fictional characters, and also makes real characters interact with other real characters, although those interactions never actually happened (as far as we know). He also uses his fictional characters to link to another story about a real-life event. These are really important aspects of the book, but there is a reason for this unique style. It allows Doctorow to make political commentary or poke fun at certain things in American history. A good example of this is Peary's expedition. The Peary expedition was a very real event, in which Peary and his group of men set out to find the north pole. Doctorow ties this in with Father being included in this expedition, although he wasn't actually in that group, as far as history tells us. Father is sent hom...