The Book of Daniel (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Book of Daniel (1971) is semi-historical novel by E. L. Doctorow, loosely based on the trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Doctorow tells the story of Paul & Rochelle Isaacson (the Rosenbergs) through the person of their older son, Daniel and his sister, Susan, who are both students heavily involved in 1960s student politics. Writing his thesis ('The Book of Daniel') Daniel investigates the background to his parents conviction and execution with his adoptive parents (the Lewins). The final denouement is the revisiting, in flashback, of the death of his parents, and in due course the death from nervous disorder (and attempted suicide) of Daniel's sister.The novel closes with the library in which Daniel is working being closed by student unrest, and Daniel closing his work with a parody of lines from Chapter 12 of the Biblical Book of Daniel.

The book is written in four parts, and in each Daniel is the principal narrator; the narrative moves fluidly and rapidly between 1967 ('the present') and flashback (to the late 40s/early 50s), and between first and third person:-

1. Memorial Day - Opens, in 1967, with Daniel, his young wife, Phyllis and baby Paul, walking to the sanatorium to see Susan; closes with the dropping of atom bomb in Japan

2. Halloween - closes with the lawyer, Ascher, telling Daniel and Susan of the forthcoming start of the Isaacsons' trial

3. Starfish - closes with Daniel's bruising involvement in an anti-draft march, whilst his sister (the starfish of the title) is lying dying from complications following her suicide attempt.

Daniel says with irony to Phyllis through broken teeth '...It looks worse than it is. There was nothing to it. It is a lot easier to be a revolutionary nowadays than it used to be.'

4 Christmas - recalls the closing moments of the trial, including the key evidence from their co-accused, Selig Mindish; Daniel's later search for, and discovery of Mindish, now senile, in Disneyland; and the funerals of Daniel's parents and his sister Susan.

The book was subsequently (1983) made into a film, Daniel, directed by Sidney Lumet. Lumet somewhat changes the emphasis of the novel, to concentrate more on 1940s left-wing politics of the parents. This was an era which Lumet had close personal experience of - however, the film is generally less well-regarded than the book.

Neither the book nor the film make direct reference to the Rosenberg events (though Lumet did claim that the execution scene was 'as it happened'). In particular the introduction of Susan as the younger child, and her lingering death, is a clear attempt to distance the novel from being considered biographical. Other key differences include - Rochelle is a graduate, Paul is not - (this is the reverse of the Rosenberg case, but perhaps makes for a stronger delineation of Rochelle's character). Mindish appears to be a fusion of two characters, Morton Sobell and David Greenglass. A key scene (in part 1), is the family's attendance at the Robeson concert at Peekskill (1949); in the novel Paul leaves the bus to argue with the right-wing protesters and is violently set upon by them.