The Story Archive

The Book of Daniel

E. L. Doctorow · 1971 CE · Novel · Modern / American · Contemporary

In a Columbia library carrel in 1967 a graduate student abandons his dissertation and starts writing what he actually knows: that his parents were arrested as atomic spies when he was a boy, tried on the word of a family friend, and put to death. He moves between that memory, his sister's collapse, and a New Left he cannot take seriously. Doctorow's third book takes the Rosenberg case for its material and the biblical prophet's book for its title, neither of which is catalogued here.

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Attributes

Genre
HistoricalPoliticalPsychological
Theme
Justice & RevengeGuilt & ConscienceMemory & TimePower & Corruption
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
ScapegoatAnti-Hero
Plot structure
Nonlinear / FracturedUnreliable NarratorConfession
Symbol / motif
The TrialThe PrisonThe Book / Manuscript
Conflict
vs Societyvs Self
Mode / tone
IronicElegiac
Culture / tradition
Modern / American

Closest analogues