Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “bookkaddict said: 4 stars |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“I started reading this one, but found that I didn't have the mindset to read a fictionalized rendition of the Julies & Ethel Rosenberg story. I liked it enough to want to go back and continue at a later date, so would recommend it.”
Peter H wrote this review Thursday, October 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No1 of 1 members found this review helpful“bookkaddict said: 4 stars
Play Book Tag Shelf wrote this review Thursday, September 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
This novel (Doctorow’s third and the one that initially brought him wide recognition) is a fictionalization of the controversial execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for conspiracy to commit espionage, specifically passing atom-bomb secrets to the Russians. The family’s name is Isaacson in Doctorow’s novel. Daniel is their son and oldest child (they also have a daughter Susan) and he plays the dual role of “narrator” of the novel and “character” in the autobiographical novel that he is writing as part of his doctoral thesis. He writes as a sort of therapy, and rather obsessively, as he struggles to interpret and understand his thoughts and feelings about the events that occurred in his childhood and tragically forever transformed his life. He hopes to answer some questions about what really happened and perhaps reach an absolute truth about the seemingly meaningless deaths of his parents.
Doctorow is a wonderful writer and he really evokes the times of the novel well, I think. His narrative moves back and forth between two politically charged eras of the recent past—the late 1960’s (which is present time for Daniel) with its revolutionary anti-war student movements, and the late 1940’s and early 1950’s with its post-WWII paranoia and fear of all things “Red.” Though the story is fictionalized and only loosely based on the real events, the similarities are undeniably there; enough to satisfy anyone interested in or familiar with the continued controversy over the question of the morality and the rightness of the justice received by the Rosenbergs (Isaacsons).
My interest in the book came about when I saw a program on C-Span Book TV recently with Ivy Meeropol, who is the real-life granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, and her father (the Rosenberg’s son who was adopted and raised with his brother by the Meeropol family after his parents were executed). They were discussing Ivy’s documentary film “Heir to an Execution” which focuses on the legacy of her grandparents and in which she asks some of the same questions that Daniel, the character, asks in “The Book of Daniel”. They talked as well about E.L. Doctorow and this novel. As I said, it piqued my interest.
“The Book of Daniel” is worth reading if just for the historical information alone, but Doctorow also takes the reader inside Daniel’s head as we explore his notes for his thesis/novel that take shape as he pieces together the fragments of his memories, obsesses over developing a theory on “why his parents?”, and tries to reconcile the newspaper accounts of the times and the official governmental explanation of the events. We sense Daniel’s confusion, anger, loss and frustration as he tries to resist allowing the tragedy of his past to define his future. One gets a real sense of what it must have been like to be that child, terrified, powerless, and confronted by an unimaginable horror that can’t be understood and can’t be stopped. I give it 4 stars.
”
“This novel (Doctorow’s third and the one that initially brought him wide recognition) is a fictionalization of the controversial execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg for conspiracy to commit espionage, specifically passing atom-bomb secrets to the Russians. The family’s name is Isaacson in Doctorow’s novel. Daniel is their son and oldest child (they also have a daughter Susan) and he plays the dual role of “narrator” of the novel and “character” in the autobiographical novel that he is writing as part of his doctoral thesis. He writes as a sort of therapy, and rather obsessively, as he struggles to interpret and understand his thoughts and feelings about the events that occurred in his childhood and tragically forever transformed his life. He hopes to answer some questions about what really happened and perhaps reach an absolute truth about the seemingly meaningless deaths of his parents.
bookkaddict wrote this review Wednesday, September 23 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Doctorow is a wonderful writer and he really evokes the times of the novel well, I think. His narrative moves back and forth between two politically charged eras of the recent past—the late 1960’s (which is present time for Daniel) with its revolutionary anti-war student movements, and the late 1940’s and early 1950’s with its post-WWII paranoia and fear of all things “Red.” Though the story is fictionalized and only loosely based on the real events, the similarities are undeniably there; enough to satisfy anyone interested in or familiar with the continued controversy over the question of the morality and the rightness of the justice received by the Rosenbergs (Isaacsons).
My interest in the book came about when I saw a program on C-Span Book TV recently with Ivy Meeropol, who is the real-life granddaughter of the Rosenbergs, and her father (the Rosenberg’s son who was adopted and raised with his brother by the Meeropol family after his parents were executed). They were discussing Ivy’s documentary film “Heir to an Execution” which focuses on the legacy of her grandparents and in which she asks some of the same questions that Daniel, the character, asks in “The Book of Daniel”. They talked as well about E.L. Doctorow and this novel. As I said, it piqued my interest.
“The Book of Daniel” is worth reading if just for the historical information alone, but Doctorow also takes the reader inside Daniel’s head as we explore his notes for his thesis/novel that take shape as he pieces together the fragments of his memories, obsesses over developing a theory on “why his parents?”, and tries to reconcile the newspaper accounts of the times and the official governmental explanation of the events. We sense Daniel’s confusion, anger, loss and frustration as he tries to resist allowing the tragedy of his past to define his future. One gets a real sense of what it must have been like to be that child, terrified, powerless, and confronted by an unimaginable horror that can’t be understood and can’t be stopped. I give it 4 stars.
”
“This book is bad ass. read it. Helps if you know a little Soviet and U.S. history. ”
Claudia S wrote this review Monday, June 8 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“ I certainly can't describe this novel nearly as well as the "Book Info" review available here. It is based on the story of the Rosenbergs: Americans who were executed as spies at the height of the Cold War for supposedly stealing the secrets of the Atomic Bomb and giving them to the Soviet Union. The Rosenbergs left two young children; this book is clearly a fictionalized re-creation of what may have happened to those two children who lived through the trauma of their parents' arrest, trial, and electocution for spying. The "Daniel" of the title is the elder of the two orphaned children, now a young man, a college graduate, when the book begins. He is, however, obsessed w/ his childhood, with the stilll debated question of whether or not his parents were guilty of spying, and with the political problems of his own time (it is the late 1960's and the VietNam is still raging, and like many young people then he and his wife oppose it strongly.) The Left-wing, probably Communist or Socialist beliefs of his dead parents are contrasted with his own 60's era leftish politics. He is lost, conflicted, and confused. His childhood memories are traumatic, and were even more so for his younger sibling, who is now a violent radical. He cannot decide whether to finish his graduate degree and live a "normal" life with his wife and young son or if somehow by doing so he is letting down the memorieis of his parents and not living up to the example set by his sister. He wants to know the truth about his parents, and know what, if anything, they really did. An engrossing book, intense, and highly recommended. (NOTE: in most of the fictional Daniel's memories of his childhood, the book does tell the story of the Rosenbergs and their children. ) ”
gilly 8 wrote this review Wednesday, June 3 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Writing at its finest”
Jean B wrote this review Sunday, April 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“The pathos for the RosenburgsIsaacsons becomes apparent early on. Overall, I liked it for its sympathy for presenting another perspective against the popular, stereotypical viewpoint.”
Mark V wrote this review Sunday, March 22 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Great, disturbing novel of the 50s-60s-70s. Loosely based on the Rosenbergs. ”
Olivia Gentile wrote this review Thursday, November 27 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“This is one of my favorite books and the movie adaptation is awesome.
BARBARA G wrote this review Tuesday, March 11 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Doctorow took tremendous literary license in telling the story of the children of Rosenbergs who were executed as spies in the 1950s. But although the book is fiction and reworked so as not to be read as a biography instead of 2 sons they have a son and a daughter upon which the novel centers. The story is told in gilden prose and evokes the pain these children suffered at the hands of greedy people who betrayed the whole family.
I highly recommend this book”
