SOURCE: "Alienation and Analysis in Doctorow's The Book of Daniel," in Critique: Studies in Modern Fiction, Vol. XVI, No. 3, 1975, pp. 101-10.

In the following essay, Stark explores the relationship between E. L. Doctorow's Book of Daniel and the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

E. L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel, a fine recent novel that has received insufficient attention, perhaps will benefit from renewed interest in Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Although the novel's tenuous relation to the Rosenberg case creates some of its fascination, the themes that Doctorow develops create most of its substantial intrinsic merit. Doctorow's allusion in his title to the Biblical book of Daniel hints at these themes. The Biblical book describes the Jews enduring as aliens in Babylon and Daniel preserving himself by correctly analyzing bizarre dreams. Similarly, Doctorow makes alienation and analysis the most important themes in The Book of Daniel.

Doctorow...