Billy Bathgate is an important American novel in its portrayal of one young mans evolution from boyhood to maturity. The novel is about a fifteen year old boy that gets taken under the wing of Dutch Schultz, a 1930s gangster trying to keep a hold of his diminishing empire. As the novel unfolds, so does the rising maturity of the tough young man introduced to us as Billy Bathgate. Billy finds himself in situations that most of us never see in our whole life. In difference to the reactions that most people would have in these situations, Billy learns from them in order to better his role in the crime family. It is for these reasons that the young fifteen year old boy quickly develops into a man.Author OverviewThe novel was written in 1989 by a contemporaneous author named E. L. Doctorow. Doctorow was born in 1931 and fantasized about the 1930s crime life as a child. He is an American novelist, short story writer, editor, essayist, as well as a dramatist. His works include Big as Life, The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, Loon Lake, Worlds Fair, , Lives of the Poets: Six Stories and a Novella, a play entitled Drinks Before Dinner and of course his most recent work Billy Bathgate. Billy Bathgate is Doctorows most famous piece of literature. In fact, the book grasped so much attention that it was later made into a movie with an all star cast including Bruce Willis, Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman. Although the film left out a lot of detail, as so many movies based on novels tend to do, it was interesting to see the elaborate detail given to the clothing, attitude, and backdrop that so accurately reflect the inner city Bronx in the 1930s. Doctorows explicit, graphic detail show his almost fascination with crime and murder. He almost glamorizes the life of crime in Billy Bathgate.Critical AnalisysAlthough Billy Bathgate was written quite recently, there is an influx of critical opinion reflecting the admiration of Doctorows artistry in...
