In his sprawling new work, City of God, he explores religious faith in a secular world. In E.L. Doctorow's expansive new novel, City of God , the narrator indulges in a series of riffs on early pop standards, offering multiple interpretations of songs like George and Ira Gershwin's Someone to Watch Over Me and Hoagy Carmichael's Star Dust . Even Doctorow himself doesn't feel comfortable offering interpretations. I meant the book. Wearing an Oxford blue dress shirt atop mock turtleneck with a navy blue blazer, Doctorow gives the impression of an Oxbridge prof who might have wandered too far away from campus and found himself in a sea of Manhattan black.
Sad eyes contribute to a serious, rabbinical countenance.
Though he teaches at NYU, Doctorow and his wife of 45 years have lived outside New York City for most of their marriage, in the New Rochelle house that inspired Ragtime . He has always lived that way, stretched between two points, geographically and philosophically. This is key to an understanding of Doctorow. If he offers an opinion, he will then counter with its opposite, or at least modify his original statement. They've come into the house and closed the door and pulled the shades down.