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michaelacabus's review against another edition
5.0
Why is there such a strong anti-intellectual strain in America? America seems forever fixated on emotion, and that fixation discourages deepening wisdom. The hurry to do something makes the delay of developing a philosophy almost sinful.
It's just a hypothesis, and books like the Creationists try to slow time down, briefly, to offer testimonials in favour of American intellectual life.
It's not an easy task, but Doctorow succeeds by giving it to us in all its messiness. At heart this book is about the act of artistic creation (anti-evolutionists were bound to be disappointed). It's a life outside of life, a choice that means everything, in ways other choices do not.
To be reminded that Americans can claim that messy experimental novel Moby Dick; that we can claim the mystic and reclusive Poe; that we've a history of pushing up against racism even as we seemed to accept it (as imperfect as that effort has been), this matters because it offers some identity we can point to beyond the surface level awareness, full of misinformation, we seem unable to escape.
Having a literary tradition is not icing; it's the feast, the wine, the beauty of life. The rest is as Austen said, busy nothings.
Let's have more of these books. And a tradition worth reflecting on.
If you're reading this, I suppose it continues with you and me. Welcome, have a seat.
A+
It's just a hypothesis, and books like the Creationists try to slow time down, briefly, to offer testimonials in favour of American intellectual life.
It's not an easy task, but Doctorow succeeds by giving it to us in all its messiness. At heart this book is about the act of artistic creation (anti-evolutionists were bound to be disappointed). It's a life outside of life, a choice that means everything, in ways other choices do not.
To be reminded that Americans can claim that messy experimental novel Moby Dick; that we can claim the mystic and reclusive Poe; that we've a history of pushing up against racism even as we seemed to accept it (as imperfect as that effort has been), this matters because it offers some identity we can point to beyond the surface level awareness, full of misinformation, we seem unable to escape.
Having a literary tradition is not icing; it's the feast, the wine, the beauty of life. The rest is as Austen said, busy nothings.
Let's have more of these books. And a tradition worth reflecting on.
If you're reading this, I suppose it continues with you and me. Welcome, have a seat.
A+
spiderman15's review against another edition
5.0
A wonderful and eclectic collection of essays by one of the greatest American authors.
graywacke's review against another edition
4.0
The title is maybe just there to get your attention. It's not a religious diatribe. However, he does open with an essay on Genesis, namely the story problem in Genesis: What story could these authors come up that would explain their world? And he closes with an essay on the possibility of a nuclear holocaust - which fits with our modern version of Judgment Day. But despite these touches of religion in the book ends, all Doctorow claims he means by "creationists" are those who create.
The book doesn't get much love and the audio version gets comments about how he can put you to sleep, since he reads himself. Knowing that may have made me more patient with it. What I got out of it was several terrific essays on mostly 19th century and early 20th century American writers. His essays on Genesis, Moby Dick, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos stood out.
The book doesn't get much love and the audio version gets comments about how he can put you to sleep, since he reads himself. Knowing that may have made me more patient with it. What I got out of it was several terrific essays on mostly 19th century and early 20th century American writers. His essays on Genesis, Moby Dick, F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and John Dos Passos stood out.
spoko's review
2.0
Doctorow's collection of essays--mostly on authors and their works, with a couple of notable exceptions--is a fine idea, but not very compellingly executed. In any individual essay, his tone might be described as lofty, or academic. But consistent as it is throughout the collection, it takes on a rather imperious, even arrogant cast. These are a series of judgemental (rather than critical) essays, most of them composed in the thoroughly presumptuous first-person plural. Do "we" really see these things this way? Yes, we do; E.L. Doctorow said so.
It's probably no coincidence, also, that Doctorow concerns himself almost exclusively with men in this collection (again, with a notable exception), and that when he does speak of women (even in the aforementioned exception) he does so dismissively. He tosses away Dickinson in half a sentence. I'm nor a particularly ardent fan of hers, but I have to admit that he never won me back over after that.
I can't recommend the book, but since I keep mentioning exceptions, let me carve one out. The penultimate essay on Einstein is very good. It's insightful and illuminating, and ironically tells more about the act of writing than any of the previous essays--all of which are devoted to literature. This essay also eschews the plural form of the first person which I mentioned above, and that helps immensely.
It's probably no coincidence, also, that Doctorow concerns himself almost exclusively with men in this collection (again, with a notable exception), and that when he does speak of women (even in the aforementioned exception) he does so dismissively. He tosses away Dickinson in half a sentence. I'm nor a particularly ardent fan of hers, but I have to admit that he never won me back over after that.
I can't recommend the book, but since I keep mentioning exceptions, let me carve one out. The penultimate essay on Einstein is very good. It's insightful and illuminating, and ironically tells more about the act of writing than any of the previous essays--all of which are devoted to literature. This essay also eschews the plural form of the first person which I mentioned above, and that helps immensely.
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