World's Fair is the brilliant story of a boy named Edgar and his life in the 1930's in New York City. Spanning Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, all senses come alive with Doctorow's descriptive narrative. From the bustling, noisy market places to the quieter mom & pop shops; from the silent synagogues to the crowded beaches of Rockaway, New York is on display through the eyes of a child. Edgar is the youngest brother in a musical family. As he grows up, goes to school and becomes more aware of the world around him, politics and economics become less abstract and more of a reality in his day to day life. He sees his parents not getting along, his brother becoming more adult (and less fun), grandparents getting frailer, and finally, his own life becoming more complicated.

I thoroughly enjoyed World's Fair. It was a clean, straightforward book with lots of vivid description and emotion. Most of the time Edgar tells the story, but intermittently his mother Rose, or brother Donald will step in for a chapter. Even an aunt has a moment in the story. ( )

I have to admit, I didn't think this was all that great. Readable enough, but, eh. ( )

This is an excellent book. It congers up a time and place in a way that someone born decades later can connect with. ( )

2896 World's Fair, by E. L. Doctorow (read 13 Aug 1996) (National Book Award fiction prize in 1986) This tells of a Jewish boy in New York growing up in the 1930's. It is poignant at times, though not too momentous, and basically plotless. This was well-written and I'm sure if I were Jewish and had grown up in New York City I would have been even more moved by the book. ( )

Novel about a boy growing up in the Bronx in the 30s. Told mostly in the first person from the child's point of view with occasional chapters in first person from other narrators. Fascinating picture of growing up Jewish during the depression and on into some of how Hitler's rise to power affects the boy's life. Fun, easy reading. Definitely a worthwhile writer with an excellent command of the language.