Reporting the Universe

A collection of autobiography, political commentary, and literary criticism of the most genuine sort, these essays begin with Doctorow’s memoirs as a young writer and end with sharp commentary on the gathering cynicism in the American soul post-9/11, one of the few national eras not yet addressed in Doctorow’s novels. The chapters of this short book are bracing and essential and in the beginning offer a glimpse of the writer as a boy, already flexing his formidable imagination.