Reporting the Universe

Rich with philosophical asides, historical speculations, personal observations, and literary judgments, this book ranges from the circumstances of Doctorow’s own boyhood and early work to the state of modern society, forming a “report” by turns touching and funny, ironic and exalted, and, in its unique way, universally to the point. "The writer," according to Emerson, "believes all that can be thought can be written...In his eyes a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported." And what writer worth his name, E. L. Doctorow asks, will not seriously, however furtively, take on the universe? Human consciousness, personal history, American literature, religion, and politics--these are the far-flung coordinates of the universe that Doctorow reports here, a universe that uniquely and brilliantly reflects our contemporary scene.