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Journal Entry 1 by LeishaCamden from Alna bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Tuesday, November 28, 2006
 I've only read one book by Doctorow, 'Ragtime', and that was quite a while ago, but I do remember that I absolutely loved that book. I was very impressed with it and I cared a great deal about the characters. So although it's not the kind of thing I typically read, I'm definitely open to try something else by him. And here we are. :-) Update will follow ... :-)
I got this book at a flea market at Vinderen elementary school in Oslo on Sunday, November 5th, 2006.
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Journal Entry 3 by LeishaCamden from Alna bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Sunday, July 19, 2009
Am reading this book now, started a few days ago. A slightly weird book but an intriguing and realistic story.
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Journal Entry 4 by LeishaCamden from Alna bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Saturday, July 25, 2009
Finished the book today, review coming up.
I don't know quite what to say about this book. It's a very unusual novel. The story is very interesting and, sadly, still relevant today, many years later. The plot is a fictionalized account of the Rosenberg affair, I'd say ... a young Jewish couple are arrested for espionage, or rather, conspiracy to committ espionage ... rather different charges, unfortunately. The story is told in a sort of flashback style by their son Daniel who was 8 when they were arrested and is now in his early twenties, married and father of a baby son. His sister Susan who was 5 at the time of the arrest has found it extremely difficult to deal with their shared past, and at the beginning of the novel she has been admitted to a psychiatric hospital. His sister's troubles prompts Daniel to look back through his family's history.
I found the book interesting, but difficult to read. The subject matter interests me, and the plot here does seem very credible and believable. But I found the writing style quite difficult. It's very unusual ... I've never read a book anything like it. It jumps back and forth from present day narration to flashbacks, and these from different periods ... and, weirdest of all, it jumps back and forth from first person POV to third person. Sometimes in the same paragraph, at least once in the same sentence!! There are lots of different POVs and they're constantly changing. So it was hard to keep track, the reader really has to be attentive all the time while reading. It's a very unusual and demanding book.
I did enjoy reading it, but it took a while to get through it, because of this bizarre writing style. I hope to get some other readers for it, so, we'll see if other BCers agree with me. :-)
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Journal Entry 5 by LeishaCamden from Alna bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Tuesday, July 28, 2009
From the back cover:
'The central figure of this novel is a young man whose parents were executed for conspiring to steal atomic secrets. His name is Daniel Isaacson, and as the story opens, his parents have been dead for many years. He has had a long time to adjust to their deaths. He has not adjusted. Out of the shambles of his childhood, he has constructed a new life - marriage to an adoring girl who gives him a son of his own, and a career in scholarship. It is a life that enrages him. In the silence of the library at Columbia University, where he is supposedly writing a Ph.D. dissertation, Daniel composes something quite different. It is a confession of his most intimate relationships - with his wife, his foster parents, and his kid sister Susan, whose own radicalism so reproaches him. It is a book of memories - visits with his mother and father in the Death House - a book of judgments, of investigation, a book about the '50s, about some of the most beautiful and terrible feelings of childhood. It is about the nature of guilt and innocence. It is THE BOOK OF DANIEL.'
This is a paperback edition from Bantam Books, published in the Windstone series in 1981. The book was originally published in 1971.
This book is #357 on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
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The Book of Daniel
