![]() ![]() Some of the best prose here consists of the narrator's reflections on his era. This chase, which has ghost-story overtones, is set against a murky New York where Boss Tweed is falling from power, and there are clear allegorical connections between Pemberton's story and the political arena. After speaking of this vision to a pastor, he disappears, and our narrator plays the intrepid reporter and tracks him down. He is certain that he has spotted his father in a carriage full of old, withered men driving up Broadway. ![]() Although Pemberton's father - a former slave trader who made big money during the Civil War by selling poor-quality equipment and clothing to the Union army - has died and been buried, Pemberton is consumed with a vision. He pays little attention to himself, however, choosing instead to focus on Martin Pemberton, a freelance employee. This time around the narrator is a newspaper editor in the self-consciously modern New York City of 1871. Doctorow ( Billy Bathgate, 1989, etc.) does his customary outstanding job in creating a specific voice, era, and place. ![]()
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