Billy Bathgate

William Lavelle's delivery is deliberate, and he punctuates his sentences in a way that is far from natural. Yet the genius of his performance quickly becomes apparent as his reading fixes attention on the radiance of E.L. Doctorow's writing in this, perhaps his most fully realized novel. The story follows Billy, a New York street urchin, who becomes a junior member of a gang headed by one of the most notorious mobsters of the era, the volatile, murderous, and increasingly unhinged Dutch Schultz. With perfect pacing and modulation, Lavelle captures the hilarity, acuity, and richness that make this a quintessential American coming-of-age masterpiece. M.O. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine