cover image Billy Bathgate

Billy Bathgate

E. L. Doctorow. HarperPrism, $5.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-06-100007-2

During the Depression, street kid Billy Bathgate comes to the attention of his idol, gangster Dutch Schulz. ``Billy's apprenticeship to Schulz and his education at the hands of the mobster's minions is related by Doctorow with masterful skill, grace and lucidity of prose, inspired inventiveness of scene and true-voiced dialogue. . . . It is mesmerizing reading,'' praised PW. (Feb.)