It’s for a personal project I’m working on. I’m a big fan of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and recently Whistling In The Dark by Tamara Allen— both take place in early 20th century New York, and both are character-driven and more slow paced. I don’t like fantasy or SciFi or anything along those lines, just some plain old historical fiction. Preferably early 20th century but I’ll take mid and even late 20th century; anything before the year 2000, basically. I’ve already read most of James Baldwin’s stuff before anyone suggests that, and I’ve also already read A Little Life. I love James Baldwin and am Neutral on A Little Life. I’ve also already read TSHOEH (set partially in NYC) and didn’t care for it all that much, to give you an idea of what I’m into. Thanks !
by positivelybisexual
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Ragtime- Doctorow
Published in 1975, *Ragtime* changed our very concept of what a novel could be. An extraordinary tapestry, Ragtime captures the spirit of America in the era between the turn of the century & the First World War. The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, NY, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. Almost magically, the line between fantasy & historical fact, between real & imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J.P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud & Emiliano Zapata slip in & out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow’s imagined family & other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler & a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.
*Call it Sleep* by Henry Roth
*Manhattan Transfer* by John Dos Passos
Paradise Alley, by Kevin Baker. Novel about the Civil War draft riots in NYC.
Upon reflection, depending on how you think about this, perhaps Edith Wharton for society in the more distant past and Louis Auchincloss for the more recent past (mid 20th century).
[Fortune Favors the Dead](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/eb8c7ae9-41b0-442b-b3f1-8e01870fe219) by Stephan Spotswood
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin is slow-paced and character driven