City of God: A Novel

By E.L. Doctorow

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
 
With brilliant and audacious strokes, E. L. Doctorow creates a breathtaking collage of memories, events, visions, and provocative thought, all centered on an idea of the modern reality of God. At the heart of this stylistically daring tour de force is a detective story about a cross that vanishes from a rundown Episcopal church in lower Manhattan only to reappear on the roof of an Upper West Side synagogue. Intrigued by the mystery—and by the maverick rector and the young rabbi investigating the strange act of desecration—is a well-known novelist, whose capacious brain is a virtual repository for the ideas and disasters of the age.
 
Daringly poised at the junction of the sacred and the profane, filled with the sights and sounds of New York, and encompassing a large cast of vividly drawn characters including theologians, scientists, Holocaust survivors, and war veterans, City of God is a monumental work of spiritual reflection, philosophy, and history by America’s preeminent novelist and chronicler of our time.
 
Praise for City of God
 
“A grander perspective on the universe . . . a novel that sets its sights on God.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
“Dazzling . . . The true miracle of City of God is the way its disparate parts fuse into a consistently enthralling and suspenseful whole.”—Time
 
“Blooms with humor, and a humanity that carries triumphant as intelligent a novel as one might hope to find these days.”—Los Angeles Times
 
“Radiates [with] panoramic ambition and spiritual incandescence.”—Chicago Tribune
 
“One of the greatest American novels of the past fifty years . . . Reading City of God restores one’s faith in literature.”—The Houston Chronicle

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 6, 2001
• ISBN: 9781588361905

Reviews for City of God

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Vivid descriptions of life in a Nazi labour camp and of a bomber being shot down and crash landing in World War Two are the highlights of this book. The arcane arguments for the existence of God and faith while interesting may muddy the waters rather than clearing things up.

[amerynth · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am not a huge fan of E.L. Doctorow's writing style -- it was employed so well in "Ragtime" but I've also seen it go awry in "Andrew's Brain." I approached "City of God" with some trepidation, which appears to have been warranted. My reaction to this book was "meh."The is a bit of a story here, which is wrapped alongside Doctorow's metaphysical musings. I actually enjoyed portions of the story a lot -- particularly the Holocaust and heist stories.... the other threads weren't really interesting to me at all.I went through phases with this book -- I hated it in the beginning (mostly due to writing style) and then when the stories picked up, I started to really enjoy it. The last third or so of the book really dragged as it got away from the stories I actually enjoyed. Overall, if you're a Doctorow fan, you'll probably love this book. If not, you probably won't.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is on the 1001 Books to Read Before you Die list. I try to read at least 10 books from the list each year. I'll never read all the books on the list since there are actually almost 1300 books mentioned in the different editions. This was one that I was looking forward to since I have read other books by Doctorow and I thought they were great. I wasn't quite as impressed with this book although it was mainly because of the structure, not because of the content which I thought was well-written and interesting.It is really hard to summarize the plot of this book because there are a number of storylines some of which intersect but others just seem to be left hanging. I guess the main plot is the one involving Father Pembroke (known as Pem as I shall refer to him henceforth), a preacher in the Episcopalian (or what nonAmericans would call Anglican) church. He works out of a small rundown church in a poor part of New York City. His church is robbed and one of the things taken is the large crucifix from in front of the altar. Some time later Pem receives a call from a Jewish rabbi who has found the crucifix on the roof of the building which houses his temple and his home. This brings Pem into contact with the rabbi and his wife who is also a rabbi. The wife's grandfather had survived living in a Jewish ghetto during World War II where he was entrusted to smuggle out accounts of how the Germans treated the Jews in the ghetto. These accounts were hidden by a Catholic priest but after the war they disappeared. Pem and the two rabbis embark on a search for them.There are many diversions from this plot. Some are about how the universe was created; some discuss the origins of the book we call The Bible; yet others are restatements of classic songs. There is also a thread about the author doing research for this book including discussions he has with Pem and other people. Overall, the theme is about different religious and non-religious beliefs and how modern life views these beliefs.I'm not sure that all of the diversions add to the book and some, in fact, seemed downright distracting. For instance, there is a story about some unnamed man who meets a married woman at a party, has an affair with her, then takes over the identity of her husband who becomes a street person. I have no idea what that had to do with the book.

[saschenka-316193 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

St. Augustine receives retribution. Set in the Babel of NYC, a yearning soon-to-be-ex priest (who could only be Episcopal) can disassociate from his belief but not his need for it. This self-referential novel may be too ambitious but definitely is looking at the stars. Ruminating on our cosmology, and whether that is just another story we tell ourselves, and our history (whose story is always changing) the characters attempt to find their belief structure as the 20C comes to a pre-Apocalyptic end. Resembling a sacred text, the novel includes stories, songs, historical references, traditions and questions without definitive answers: the reader, as with all humanity, is responsible for imposing meaning, for finding signs and wonders, ourselves. Pros: some lyrical passages, great lines, an imaginative premise and a whirlwind tour of the 20C, does a good job of incorporating current cosmic knowledge as it reverberates against age old questions — if God did not exist would we have to invent him, how do we keep re-inventing a deity to better serve present needs, what is the true nature of good vs evil?Cons: one suspects NYC is the center of the universe for Doctorow, there is no inclusion of an Islamic character (I don’t think it makes sense to talk about Christianity and Judaism without Islam, at least in a supporting role), and while the novel has its moments and can be deeply appreciated on an abstract, intellectual level, there ends up being no real resonance, no emotional connection. Disclosure: I am not Jewish, do not love NYC, and am not old enough to remember the 60s, all of which may help its enjoyment. In some ways it tries to be a contemporary version of Dostoevsky’s ‘Diary of a Writer’. There is such a thin line between a work being deeply personal and being self-indulgent, and I wouldn’t profess to know what that line is myself, but I was left thinking the book could have been better than it was: perhaps a wildly inspired author needs a wildly inspired editor.Ultimately, the novel is a reflection of sacred text: the reader will take what resonates with them and leave the rest behind.

[woolgathering · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The best book I read in 2007, hands down. I enjoyed it so much and found it so inspiring that I scanned a page, printed it out, highlighted an important sentence, and mailed it to my beloved. It is now hanging on his wall. One of few books I wish had arms so that I could hug them.

[dmtcer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this book. It is about a young boy coming of age, and coming to terms with life. I enjoyed the images and reading about life from the view of this young boy.

[fireweaver_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

initially somewhat confusing as the book shifts from narrator to narrator, it all works marvelously when you give up trying to figure out identities of who's speaking and just bathe in the stream-of-consciousness. once you just let it wash over you, all of a sudden, the shifts are perfectly reasonable, and each narrator has their own "voice" anyway. it should scare the hell out of me that doctorow has won a faulkner award being as how i absolutely despised the faulkner i was bashed over the head with in grade school. apparently, this stuff is better when done well.

but what is it about? well, life, NYC, and everything, pretty much. the blurb on the cover tells you it's all about a cross stolen off the top of a run-down church that somehow ends up on a newly-started synagogue, but that's really just a small starting point for a tale that rolls back into the past (and will on into the future past the events described). possibly my favorite holocaust book ever, though it's not really about the holocaust; also possibly one of my favorite discussions on loosing one's religion, though it's not completely about religion or loosing it.

not a perfect book in the least - you don't get to jump around with perception and tone and narrator so swiftly and not come off just a little gimmicky, and it doesn't help if one of those speakers is overly dull - but a lyrically beautiful one, and well worth the time.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Finally, a Doctorow I can really like! I knew keeping at him would pay off.

Multiple plot lines and stories, and all the pieces matter. Love this kind of story.

[mels_71_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I read City of God by E.L. Doctorow over Easter. It is one of the books on the 1001 list. So, how did I find it? Intriguing, thought-provoking, frustrating, confusing ... but I really enjoyed it. A word of warning - the plot is pretty much secondary to this book. In fact large portions of the book are tied fairly tenuously to the main plot and there are various threads. Part of the difficulty is that there are several different narrators but it is not necessarily straight forward to work out who is narrating which bits, especially in the beginning. There was a holocaust subplot which I found really interesting.Throughout the book there are references to cosmology, metaphysics, consciousness, language and of course religion. One of the major characters is a priest who is losing his religion. Doctorow brings great insight to many topics conveying both the beauty/complexity of life that is so often coupled with absurdity but it was disappointing in his treatment of faith that he didn't recognise the complexity inherent in orthodox Christianity. I'm not sure that I can recommend this book to everyone but I found it a worthwhile read.

[autumnesf · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Several stories at once. Not sure how some were even related. Did like all the ones about the Holocaust. Would not recommend.

[sanddancer_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

can see what the author was trying to do here, but I struggled to fully engage with it. The main plot about Pem and his doubts about Christianity was interesting but I would have like more of this. The parts about Sarah's father during the war were great and I enjoyed the bits about film but the stuff about songs just went over my head and made the book too disjointed for me. A very ambitious work, but it didn't quite work for me. It struck me that the author was more concerned with writing an important novel than writing a good novel.

[cygnus555 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

To be honest, I first "read" this by Audiobook. I loved the telling of it so much, that I bought the hardcover as a follow up because I plan to reread it some day! Spiritually intriguing. Brilliantly done.

[amzzz_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A story of love between religions, and of people struggling to define the existence of God, and what this means for them. Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy this book, it seemed to be trying too hard to be clever and postmodern.

[pilgrimess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Apart from the passages on song and the "old standards" (which didn't really work for me), I was enthralled and mesmerized by the breadth and depth of this novel. There is some truly beautiful writing, especially in the story of Sarah Blumenthal's father's experience in the Lithuanian ghettos. But what really grabbed me was Doctorow's ability to seamlessly weave together a number of different narrative threads - Holocaust survival and the search for the perpetrators of war crimes, a crisis of religious faith, and a blossoming relationship - into a magnificent novel that is clearly more than the sum of its parts.

[danbarrett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Emily picked this book up at the record store she worked at, couldn't quite get through it, and gave it to me. It took me quite a while as well; I read it in small chunks before bed. Being divided into shorter sections with varying points of view, it was easier to do that with this book than it is with many others. At the same time, every single passage in this book is packed with so much significance that, in many ways, it was harder to get through than many books twice it's length.Deep stuff here. Excellently written, really, at a pretty mind-blowing level. Having tried my hand recently at some writing myself, I have a new-found appreciation for the ease with which Doctorow seems to create incredibly profound and beautiful passages. It's rare to get a book that shares such excellence on both a conceptual and purely language-aesthetic level.So, go buy this, take your time with it, it's worth it.