Little in Ragtime has caused me surprise or delight as far as imagery or eloquence, although I would say that Doctorow employs a staccato burst of information sometimes that sets an unmistakable tone of what he wishes to impart. Often, the lack of adjectives aside from clear-cut relevance is a way of distancing the narrative voice from the drama, thus adding to it by contrast to the event.
But this, this phrase caught and held me:
It was a darkness as impudently close as his brow. It choked him by its closeness. And what was most terrifying was its treachery. He would wake up in the morning and see the sun coming in the window, and sit up in his bed and think it was gone, and then find it there after all, behind his ears or in his heart. (p. 207)
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology