The Ending of Ragtime
If the first 39 or so chapters of Ragtime filled in the blanks like a crossword puzzle—each little piece fitting neatly into place—the final chapter filled in the blanks like a game of Mad Libs. It wasn’t badly written, but compared to the other chapters I found it deeply unsatisfying. This is perhaps best exemplified by the final few lines of the book, where Doctorow writes “The anarchist Emma Goldman had been deported. The beautiful and passionate Evelyn Nesbit had lost her looks and fallen into obscurity. And Harry K. Thaw, having obtained his release from the insane asylum, marched annually at Newport in the Armistice Day parade. (336)” I can just imagine him, holed up in his office, with the deadline for his manuscript looming over his head. “You know what?” he says. “Screw it. I’m just going to make up something random.” Of course, these were real historical figures, the events he described were anything but random, but it still feels like they were. His typically meticulous att...