BOOKS: City of God: E.L. Doctorow

Jun. 3—Tough when a favorite author dies. Even eight years later.

Readers can expect no new books from the author, save for the ones published by the estate posthumously; books that are often from manuscripts that the late author either didn't finish or didn't deem worthy enough to publish.

Yet, if a reader hasn't read all of the author's books, one can still find past works to read.

So, it is with the late E.L. Doctorow.

Doctorow wrote several books. Doctorow passed away in 2015.

There really haven't been any posthumous books — a collection of short stories, but even a reader who has read Doctorow books such as "Ragtime," "The March," "The Book of Daniel," "Billy Bathgate," etc., may still find a handful of unread Doctorow books.

Such was my case with Doctorow's "City of God" several years ago. Like some of his other books, it also called me back to its pages.

Doctorow challenged readers with each of his books. He didn't write straightforward narratives. He wrote books that often read like puzzles. He provided all of the story's pieces but often allowed the reader to make the connections.

"City of God" is more of a puzzle. A philosophical puzzle.

The novel centers on the story of a doubting Christian pastor who meets a new-thinking rabbi when the cross is stolen from the former's church and recovered on the roof the latter's synagogue. Yet, it also tells the story of a Holocaust survivor recalling his childhood; provides the regular Doctorow device of cameos by famous people, in this case Einstein and Wittgenstein; delves into aspects of space and time, the universe, religion and God.

It is often challenging to know who is telling the story, especially with one character being the writer and readers repeatedly learning from the writer character and other characters who have read passage also read by the reader that the writer has changed certain things in the actual story as poetic license ...

Challenging, indeed. Confusing? At times.

"City of God" may well be one of those books where the adage holds true: to read a book fully, one must read a book twice.

Still, it is E.L. Doctorow. The language is beautiful. The ideas complex. An epic condensed into a little less than 300 pages.

Another reason to scan the back catalog when a favorite author passes. With past unread books, the author remains alive, read and heard as the author intended in life. Even if one must go back and reread them.