Billy Bathgate

E. L. Doctorow · 1989 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

A fifteen-year-old juggler from the Bronx catches the eye of Dutch Schultz and is taken on by the gang as a mascot, an errand boy, and eventually a witness to things no witness should see. He learns the accounting from Abbadabba Berman, the manners from the boss's girl, and how a man is fitted for cement while the tug is still in the harbour. Doctorow's most conventionally told book won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner.

Open Billy Bathgate in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Attributes

Closest analogues

• Motl, the Cantor's Son
  Sholem Aleichem · 1907 CE · Novel

  49% · 12 shared
  NovelHistoricalComing-of-AgeComing of AgeLoss of InnocenceInnocentBildungsromanThe Ship / BoatThe Cityvs Personvs SocietyIronic
• Kidnapped
  R. L. Stevenson · 1886 CE · Novel

  49% · 12 shared
  NovelHistoricalComing-of-AgeComing of AgeLoyaltyInnocentRebel / OutlawBildungsromanThe Ship / Boatvs Personvs SocietyRealist
• Number the Stars
  Lois Lowry · 1989 CE · Novel

  48% · 13 shared
  NovelHistoricalComing-of-AgeComing of AgeLoyaltyContemporaryInnocentBildungsromanThe Ship / Boatvs Personvs SocietyRealistModern / American
• Explosion in a Cathedral
  Alejo Carpentier · 1962 CE · Novel

  48% · 13 shared
  NovelHistoricalPower & CorruptionLoss of InnocenceContemporaryInnocentRebel / OutlawRise and FallThe Ship / Boatvs Personvs SocietyIronicRealist
• The Reivers
  William Faulkner · 1962 CE · Novel

  47% · 11 shared
  NovelComing-of-AgeComing of AgeLoyaltyLoss of InnocenceInnocentMentorBildungsromanvs SocietyRealistModern / American
• Footsteps
  Pramoedya Ananta Toer · 1985 CE · Novel

  46% · 13 shared
  NovelHistoricalPower & CorruptionContemporaryMentorRebel / OutlawBildungsromanRise and FallThe Cityvs Personvs SocietyIronicRealist