Reviews

El Libro de Daniel by E.L. Doctorow

krep___'s review against another edition

3.0

Fictionalized story based conceptually on the Julius & Ethel Rosenberg espionage case and what the lives of their children would have been like. I am a big Doctorow fan, having read six other novels of his. His writing here is accomplished, certainly, and evocative of time and place but consistently unpleasant. This is my least favorite. It is presented as autobiography of one of those children, but it's voice is inconsistent. The story is meandering and ends inconclusively. It does make me want to go back and re-read my favorites though.

alciewms's review against another edition

4.0

This was a re-read for me; the first time since early in college. I'm a much better reader now, and so the book has improved over the years as well. It's a wild ride through the psyche of a person broken by events far out of his control and his efforts to make sense of it all. It is peppered with thoughts on family, justice, and mid-20th century world history. The main character (and/or the author) can be extremely unlikeable, and the story is quite dark, but the book is a beautifully crafted work of art.

And then there are those violin spiders...

sputniksweetheart's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

rdhuff's review against another edition

dark informative sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

sarah_dietrich's review against another edition

2.0

I first read The Book of Daniel when I was 18, half my lifetime ago. Since then it has always sat on my bookshelf, coming with me each time I moved, displayed in each of my homes. Reading it again at 37, I am struck by how much I have changed. The book's misogyny blares at me now, impossible to ignore and I ask myself, why am I reading this? Doctorow's use of sex as a metaphor for domination and control doesn't feel clever, it's heavy handed and makes me cringe.

I won't read this a third time, or keeping it on the bookshelf any longer.

pearlpool's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

read this bad boy for class. pretty challenging and not up my usual alley at all BUT still a super cool example of historiographical metafiction and i enjoyed the narration voice :) always fun to have a truly unlikeable protagonist 

leiasoph's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

mendelbot's review against another edition

5.0

An outstanding piece of historical fiction. Angry, but passionately, righteously so. The book is an examination of two different leftist movements in the middle part of the 20th century, warts and all. It also explores the collateral damage of witch hunts, fear mongering, and state-sponsored propaganda. While the novel is about politics and is in its own way political, it is very even handed in its depiction of both the Communist left of the post-WWII years and the anti-war left of the 1960s. It never comes down explicitly for or against these movements (though the author's sympathies are pretty evident); rather it explores them for what they were: passionate, well-meaning, divisive, messy, and in many ways self-destructive. The prose can take some getting used to as the narration flips between first and third person quite often, sometimes in the middle of a paragraph. Inherently what makes this novel worth recommending - highly - is the passionate telling of the tale.

wickedwitchofthewords's review against another edition

5.0

Review, second time around:
Still a five stars read.
A tragedy.
Magnificent.
*******************
What can I honestly say about this book?
My words can't do it justice!
It was a story, it taught me history and politics of America... It pained me, it caused me to cringe and my face to contort at some events and descriptions and all. It confused the hell out of me because of its multiple narrators: Daniel himself, third person, then Daniel addressing the reader... Reading the book was a labor on its own, I had to be careful and pay attention to ever detail all through the story so that I wouldn't miss a thing... I got mentally tired after reading it, not in a bad way though, in a way a day of hard work that you absolutely love makes you tired...
Idk,,, It just was a great a book... It made you feel the pain by using a very realistic, matter-of-fact language, and that is art!

jesstaurant's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0