![]() The novel closes as the library in which Daniel is working is closed by student protests. The dénouement is the revisiting, in flashback, of the death of his parents, Rochelle and Paul Isaacson, and, in due course, the death from nervous disorder (and attempted suicide) of his sister Susan. Writing his doctoral thesis ('The Book of Daniel'), a political genealogy of the American Old Left, Daniel Isaacson confronts his own personal relationship to that historical narrative by investigating the background to his parents' conviction and execution by the State, with some assistance from his adoptive parents (the Lewins). Doctorow tells the story of Paul and Rochelle Isaacson (stand-ins for the Rosenbergs) through the persons of their older son, Daniel, and his sister, Susan, who are college students deeply involved in 1960s politics. Doctorow, loosely based on the lives, trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Book of Daniel (1971) is a semi-historical novel by E. ![]()
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