6. Ragtime, E. L. Doctorow

New York City in 1908. Image via Wikimedia Commons

Doctorow’s novel about America shortly before World War I doesn’t take place only in New York City, but the city is the vortex of its orchestrated chaos — riots erupt, fat cats make deals, revolutionaries campaign, cops launch racist attacks, a musician is unjustly jailed, a tenement family parent nurses a sick child, the beginning of the film industry is glimpsed, a high profile murder trial is underway, and the show always goes on. Meantime, shakers and movers of the era appear at pivotal points: Harry Houdini performs airplane stunts for Franz Ferdinand, Emma Goldman gives Evelyn Nesbit a back rub, and Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung ride into the tunnel of love together in Coney Island. Drink up.