Books

July, 1994

Brilliant historical re-creations have set novelist E.L. Doctorow apart from his peers. In The Book of Daniel, Ragtime, World's Fair and Billy Bathgate, real lives were reimagined. This time, in The Waterworks (Random House), the most vivid character isn't Harry Houdini or Dutch Schultz, it's New York City in 1871.William "Boss" Tweed plays only a minor role. Doctorow hasn't given up on famous scoundrels completely, but it's Tweed's machine politics that are most significant. Corrupt p...