Next week I start classed at Senior U at the University of MN in Duluth. One of my classes will be on the works of E.L. Doctorow so that is why I read The Book Of Daniel. The story is about a family of four living in the Bronx in 1950 when the father is arrested. Soon the mother is also arrested. The two children, Daniel and Susan, are sent to live with an aunt, then to an orphanage, and finally adopted by a married man and woman who are friends of the family. The story is loosely based on the Rosenberg family. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed via electric chair in June of 1953. The author changed the children from two boys to a boy and a girl. He changed other details as well. He tries to capture the McCarthy era. He also tries to capture the hippie era of the 1960's when Daniel is trying to investigate what happened to his parents. In doing so he makes Daniel out to be a absolute jerk, a domestic abuser, and possibly a criminal, There is nothing to like about Daniel. The actual children of the Rosenbergs turned out to be normal people so I don't know why the author went in this direction. Sometimes the author changes the point of view from one person to another within the same sentence which drives me batty. I found one paragraph with no punctuation at all. I really enjoyed the author's other book, Homer and Langley, but was disappointed with this one.
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