Reporting the Universe

Whether he's contemplating the irony of our""God-soaked country"" being officially secular, or his father's love of Edgar Allan Poe,""our greatest bad writer"" (for whom he was named Edgar), or deriding the""mendacity"" of politicians, Doctorow is here, as in his fiction, a wordsmith of the first order. It's a pleasure to read these essays--some autobiographical, some literary, some dealing with issues of the day--full of memorable phrases and evocative images, as well as incisive ideas. While recovering from a burst appendix as a boy during the Depression, he discovered Jack London, whose tales made him long to leave his difficult life in the Bronx""to be in the wild, loping at the head of my pack, ready to leap up and plunge my incisors into the throats of all who would harm me or my family."" For readers who aren't familiar with Doctorow's work, this is a delightful and bracing introduction.