The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow
"The Book of Daniel" by E. L. Doctorow is a complex narrative that intertwines personal and political themes through the lens of Daniel, a young man grappling with the legacy of his parents' execution during the Cold War. The story begins with Daniel and his sister losing their parents, who are viewed as martyrs by some and traitors by others, leading Daniel to feel abandoned and isolated. As he navigates his fragmented identity, he seeks to understand his parents' choices and the broader implications of their actions, which have turned them into symbols in ideological conflicts.
The novel alternates between first-person and third-person perspectives, reflecting Daniel's struggle between personal obsession and a broader historical context. This oscillation highlights how the past is often distorted, either forgotten or overly romanticized. Through a critical lens, Doctorow addresses how American culture can commodify history, exemplified in a vivid description of Disneyland, where historical artifacts are stripped of their deeper significance. Ultimately, Daniel's journey toward reconciling his parents' humanity with their ideological representations becomes essential for him to forge a meaningful life as a husband and father. The narrative raises profound questions about individual identity, family loyalty, and the complexities of historical memory.
On this Page
The Book of Daniel by E. L. Doctorow
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1971
Type of work: Novel
The Work
The Book of Daniel is in many ways a political mystery story. As young children, Daniel and his sister lose their parents. Condemned as spies and betrayed by members of their own family, Daniel’s parents are martyrs in the view of the Left, which is sure they are innocent. As far as Daniel is concerned, however, his parents abandoned him, and he is doubtful that they understood the implications of their actions or how much their behavior actually played into the hands of the government that executed them.
Daniel finds it both fascinating and frustrating to try to piece together the past. When he finally tracks down the relative who informed on his parents, for example, Daniel finds that he is senile. So many years have passed that it is difficult either to re-create the feelings of another age or to determine the truth of the charges against his parents. Without a heritage he can share with others, Daniel feels isolated and without an identity. He wonders on what basis he can live his own life when he has such fundamental and apparently unanswerable questions about his own parents.
As a student of history, however, Daniel is capable of seeing things in terms larger than his own personal obsessions. The chapters of the novel alternate between first-person and third-person narration as Daniel himself swings from subjectivity to objectivity. His plight, he gradually realizes, is not so different from that of his country, which tends either to obliterate the past or to sentimentalize it. Daniel’s images of his parents lack a certain substance, as they have become figures in Cold War ideological battles, and the truth often eludes Americans who are fed a steady diet of entertaining, pacific, and nostalgic pictures of the past.
Near the end of The Book of Daniel, there is a brilliant set-piece description of Disneyland, which comes to stand for the forces in American life that threaten a complex sense of history. At Disneyland, which resembles a film set, are arranged the figures and artifacts of American history, the symbols and the tokens of the national heritage, wrenched from their social and historical context, abstracted into a series of entertainments for customers who do not have to analyze what is presented to them. This spectacle of history substitutes for the real thing, demeaning the past and replacing it with a comfortable and convenient product that need only be enjoyed and consumed.
What fuels Daniel’s anger is the way his parents allowed themselves to become symbols in the ideologies of the Left and the Right. Their willingness to sacrifice themselves, no matter what the cost to their family, appalls him. The human element, the complexity of loyalties to family and friends and country, is what distinguishes Doctorow’s novel, taking it out of the realm of the merely political while at the same time asking the most fundamental questions about the relationship between ideology and individualism. Until Daniel comes to terms with the humanity of his parents, he finds it impossible to get on with his own life and to care for his wife and child. Only by reclaiming his mother and father in terms that are far more complex than those of their public immolation can Daniel function as a husband and father.
Bibliography
Bloom, Harold, ed. E. L. Doctorow. New York: Chelsea House, 2001.
Fowler, Douglas. Understanding E. L. Doctorow. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1992.
Kakutani, Michiko. “Do Facts and Fiction Mix?” The New York Times Book Review, January 27, 1980, pp. 2-3, 28-29.
Levine, Paul. E. L. Doctorow. London: Methuen, 1985.
Morris, Christopher D. Conversations with E. L. Doctorow. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
Strout, Cushing. “Historizing Fiction and Fictionalizing History: The Case of E. L. Doctorow.” Prospects, 1980, 423-437.
Trenner, Richard. E. L. Doctorow: Essays and Conversations. Princeton, N.J.: Ontario Review Press, 1983.
Weber, Richard. “E. L. Doctorow: Myth Maker.” The New York Times Magazine, October 20, 1985, 25-26, 42-43, 74-77.