ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD New and Selected Stories

As Doctorow points out in his introduction, the conception of a story differs greatly from that of a novel. The writing skills differ as well, a reality that makes it possible to understand how the author of such greats as RAGTIME and WELCOME TO HARD TIMES could produce such a disappointing collection as this. The three narrators do what they can with the generally subdued, alienated characters, but when passion is inferential, there’s only so much a narrator can do. Some of these characters appear in the novels BILLY BATHGATE and CITY OF GOD; after much revision and expansion they are engaging. But here they’re not, and the narration of the stories cannot transcend the limitations of the text. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2011]