[Ragtime] is distinguished from most other music by its use of rhythm, its syncopation. As the pianist opposes syncopations in his right hand against a precise and regularly accented bass, the delayed and misplaced accents and their conjunction with regular meters set up the complex polyrhythms of ragtime. These subtle conflicting rhythms with their own free "inner voices" provide both the structural and metaphorical basis for E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime….

At first glance Doctorow's novel may be "simplified" … by dividing it into three movements, each with its own meaning: the families of Father and Mother …, of Tateh and Mameh …, of Coalhouse Walker Jr., his fiancee Sarah, and their son. Gradually—for we "do not play this piece fast. It is never right to play Ragtime fast"—the movements and the families merge into a projected picture of "Our Gang" at the end of the novel.

But in...