Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- A Broadway revival of “Ragtime” opens Nov. 15, bringing back E.L. Doctorow’s dizzying mix of Jewish immigrants, black musicians and upper-class WASPs crossing paths in turn of the century New York.

Like Doctorow’s 1975 novel, the musical (now in previews at the Neil Simon Theatre, following a lauded run in Washington) weaves fact and fiction, providing star turns for famous moguls Henry Ford and J.P. Morgan and infamous chorus girl Evelyn Nesbit.

The show’s 1998 premier was clouded by dramatic events offstage: “Ragtime” was produced by Garth Drabinsky, whose company, Livent, declared bankruptcy during the run. Convicted of fraud, Drabinsky was sentenced in August by a Toronto judge to seven years in prison, which the former impresario is now appealing.

Doctorow spoke about his work over lunch at Bloomberg world headquarters in New York.

Lundborg: Did the success of “Ragtime” blow up your life?

Doctorow: It was a shock, very dissociating to get your face in People magazine. That was difficult to deal with.

Lundborg: How do you like the musical?

Doctorow: It’s different in spirit from the book. When they came to me and proposed it, I said all right, but I need to have approval of the music, the composer, the lyricist, the librettist, the director.

Even so, I had great misgivings, but then I thought, the same thing happened to Bernard Shaw and Victor Hugo. They were safely dead, though.

‘Too Literal’

Lundborg: What about Milos Forman’s 1981 movie?

Doctorow: The film is pretty good for the first ten minutes, but unfortunately it goes on for over two hours. Movies are too literal.

Lundborg: Your most recent novel, “Homer and Langley” tells the story of the Collyer brothers, who were such infamous hoarders the police had to cart away 100 tons of junk before being able to locate the dead Langley. How did you decide on this subject?

Doctorow: I was a kid when their bodies were discovered and they became instant folklore. They were mythological figures in my mind, and I am giving you my reading of the idea of these lives.

‘Opting Out’

This kind of opting out has always interested me, but I didn’t have a plan until I wrote the first line: “I’m Homer, I’m the blind brother.”

Lundborg: You say opting out is a traditional American thing. Why is that?

Doctorow: When people opt out like that, for whatever eccentric reasons, they have the idea of creating meaning for themselves they aren’t getting otherwise.

I use the idea of the outer world pressing in metaphorically. I thought of my writing as a form of breaking and entering, getting into that house, their minds and imaginations.

Lundborg: You begin with a sentence, an image?

Doctorow: Yes, I get intrigued by a first line and I write to find out why it means something to me. You make discoveries just the way the reader does, so you’re simultaneously the writer and the reader.

If something is not right, you just have this instinctive feeling that you’ve gone off the track.

Going Digital

Lundborg: What do you use to write?

Doctorow: I started on computers with “Billy Bathgate,” a little orange screen with black letters. I thought it was really cool, but it actually slowed me up for a while because it’s so easy to revise, I tended to stay on the same page. I’ve learned to discipline myself.

Lundborg: History flows through your book, so how does this moment in America feel to you?

Doctorow: I wrote the book while Bush and Cheney were still running things and really the book tracks entropy. It’s about everything falling apart and coming to an end, so I must have been reflecting my feelings about what was happening in this country during that time.

Some of the things Bush and Cheney did make them subversives, and they were closer to overthrowing the Constitution than any punk Communist in the 1950’s.

Lost Identity

Lundborg: Will President Obama be able to turn things around?

Doctorow: This country has lost its sense of identity -- we don’t know who we are anymore. There’s a lack of coherence, and we’re all fighting one another.

Some of the irrationality is beyond belief, such as calling Barack Obama a Maoist for telling kids in school to work hard. That degree of insanity is promulgated by the people who profit from it.

A large basis of it is racist. There are those who simply can’t abide the fact that Barack Obama is President. It just torments them.

Lundborg: You’re not optimistic?

Doctorow: Washington is designed not to solve problems. Congress is so beholden to the money that any solution in the general interest will be frustrated and subverted by the corporate interests who feel they will be damaged by progress, fair play and justice.

But there’s always hope. Obama is a great man who’s just beginning to understand the realities. And I’m not just saying that because he reads my books. I would have voted for him anyway.

For information on the revival of “Ragtime,” call +1-877- 250-2929 or go to http://www.ragtimebroadway.com. To buy “Homer and Langley” in North America, click here.

(Zinta Lundborg is a writer for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own. This interview was adapted from a longer conversation.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Zinta Lundborg in New York zlundborg@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 00:00 EST