Billy Bathgate

BILLY BATHGATE
by E.L. Doctorow

 Awards: National Book Critics Circle 1989, PEN/Faulkner 1990

 Nominations: National Book Finalist 1989, NY Times Finalist 1989, Pulitzer Finalist 1990

 Date Read: May 11, 2019

Billy Bathgate is my first introduction to Doctorow, with 3 more of his works ahead of me. I look forward to them with pleasure! Billy, one quickly realizes, is in a precarious position for someone so young. With a mentally unstable mother, a vanished father and living with very little means, the opportunities in Billy's world are scarce. All the kids in his Bronx neighborhood look up to the gangsters who symbolize all they desire - power, wealth, prestige.

Billy is thrust into this adult world so suddenly that one day he is a boy, and the next a man with adult responsibilities. His shepherding Drew around was astonishing for someone so young. He takes to his life of crime quickly, yet there is always a part of him that bristles at the killings he is witness to, letting us know the moral parts of Billy are still intact, even if he is unwilling to heed them. He never fully trusts Dutch Schultz, often silently condemning his murderous rages.

What Billy had wanted so badly only months before begins to turn sour, wishing he was back in the Bronx, hanging around with the other kids and catching glimpses of Dutch. At one point, he is even able to return to his life but the taint of his mob experience follows him home and he can't seem to re-enter his previous life.

Doctorow is a masterful storyteller, creating this entire past world and bringing it to living, breathing life. He can craft a character so well that you feel you could walk out on the street and actually encounter one of these men. 

One of the most memorable scenes for me is at Bo's execution, as a sort of last confession, tells Billy about his life and says that in addition to "...wining and dining and laying pretty women ...under that I like best of all to be reliable." He calls it the purest pleasure and I've never had someone articulate in this way a sentiment that is so close to my being. This about sums me up my innermost desire, although I often fall short.

 Looking Forward: The Book Of Daniel, Loon Lake, The March, Ragtime, World's Fair


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