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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
Racial violence; Coalhouse Walker's confrontations with white supremacy; some deaths
Language
Some
Adult language
Sexual Content
Some
Adult relationships; some sexual content in Emma Goldman's thread
Substance Use
Barely any
Some substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The psychological weight of systematic racism and a man's response to it; American injustice portrayed with historical specificity
What this book is about
In 1906 New Rochelle, a comfortable upper-class family (never named) intersects with Coalhouse Walker Jr., a proud Black ragtime pianist, and Tateh, a Latvian Jewish immigrant and his daughter. Historical figures—Houdini, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford—appear alongside fictional characters. Doctorow's novel uses a cool, omniscient style to examine American identity at a moment when its contradictions were most visible. Coalhouse Walker's slow-burning rage and what it produces is the novel's moral center.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Racial violence and injustice as central themes
Historical figures depicted in ways that may be surprising or provocative
Reader Verification
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