The Book of Daniel

Several months later, Daniel and Phyllis are working to repair their broken relationship. They both agree that Daniel is the problem. He continues to work on his dissertation, and Phyllis visits him in the library. Daniel looks to his past, remembering a time when he returned home from a shopping trip with his mother and sister. He recalls seeing a crowd gathered in front of his father’s store to see “the first television set to come to 174th street” (125). While the crowd looked at the television, Paul told Rochelle that Mindish had been arrested. If anyone were to be arrested, Daniel remembers thinking, then the untrustworthy Mindish seemed the best option. He hated Mindish. The following day, the FBI visited the Isaacson home. The FBI agents asked Paul and Rochelle questions about their association with Mindish. Paul refused to answer their questions and, over the following days, became convinced that he was being watched. Often, Daniel saw the agents sitting in a car outside the home. The Isaacsons refused to leave their home. Everyone in their social circle was being arrested. There is a “chain action of arrests around the world” after atomic secrets are stolen (133). Anyone with left-wing politics, Daniel remembers, was taken by the FBI.

Daniel remembers when the two agents—Tom Davis and John Bradley—knocked on the door of the family home. By this time, they had almost become familiar faces. On this morning, however, they were accompanied by “a dozen FBI men” (137), who were let into the house by Rochelle. Paul was arrested and the agents searched the family home. Daniel watched the agents rummaging through his childhood toys; he saw one agent opening “the belly of [Susan’s] monkey doll with a penknife” to search for evidence (139). The neighbors gathered to watch. Cold and afraid, Daniel remembers watching the FBI carry his family’s possessions out of the house. When his sister cried, Daniel tried to attack the FBI agents. He was quickly pushed aside as his father was taken away. The family was left on a quiet street and Daniel realized that his father was really gone.

After the arrest of his father, Daniel remembers meeting Ascher. He was a kind, respectable Jewish lawyer who, despite the political turmoil, agreed to take on Paul Isaacson’s case. After Paul’s arrest, the family struggled financially. They were socially ostracized and could not afford Paul’s bail money after he and Mindish were charged with “conspiring to violate the Espionage Act of 1917” (148). Daniel remembers his father’s notoriety growing in the media, even as the family’s world seemed to be shrinking. As their friends tried to help, Daniel became afraid. His mother told him that his father was not guilty of espionage but was guilty of “wanting a new world of socialism without want” (151). At school, Daniel was shunned by his classmates. When they did talk to him, they asked him questions and told him dark stories about life in prison. When Rochelle went to testify before the Grand Jury, Daniel and Susan stayed with Mrs. Bittelman, a neighbor. Rochelle “never came home” (155); the children heard on the radio that their mother had also been arrested.

Daniel compares the treatment of his parents to archaic punishments used in the Russian empire. Class-based societies are maintained, he believes, by corporal punishment. He visits a park with his wife and son. To outsider observers, he thinks, they must seem like a happy family. Daniel throws baby Paul up and down in the air until Paul becomes scared. He is thrilled by Phyllis’s fear for their son. When she takes Paul from him, he walks away, reflecting on the “murderous feeling” that he enjoyed.

He visits Artie Sternlicht, a political activist. Also present are Artie’s girlfriend, Baby, who works as a magazine journalist, and her photographer. Artie talks at length about the failure of the counterculture movement. He critiques the anti-war movement as an ineffective middle-class distraction. Meanwhile, the photographer takes Artie’s picture against a backdrop of images of celebrities and historical scenes. The narration turns into a series of staccato declarations by Artie regarding the nature of revolution. He explains how he wants to adapt the theories of advertising to “overthrow the United States with images” (172). Daniel has his own ideas about the development process of any revolution. After periods of intense creativity, he believes, many such movements quickly become exhausted. Society turns on these radicals and begins to destroy the revolution that they are trying to inspire.

Daniel returns to his childhood. He explains how he and Susan were taken to their Aunt Frieda, but she refused to keep them. Daniel remembers hating her as Ascher accused her of abandoning the children when they had been left alone. Ascher then explained to the children that their parents were jailed and that they must live with their aunt, as they are “the children of paupers” (177). Daniel thinks about the relationship between imprisonment and death. Ascher assured Daniel and Susan that he would prove their parents’ innocence and that they would return eventually to their normal lives.

In 1967, Daniel lingers with Artie and Baby. They talk about Susan, who described Daniel as “politically underdeveloped.” Artie talks about the downfall of the American Communist Party, including the “pathetic” behavior of Paul and Rochelle during their trial. They accepted the integrity of the system, he believes, rather than rebelling against it. If he were on trial, Artie explains, he would use his showmanship to turn the courtroom into a venue for his radical ideas to be broadcast. Though Artie is interested in visiting Susan, Daniel does not believe he should do so. Baby prepares dinner for the three friends as Daniel talks to Artie about the Foundation. As the evening comes to a close, the trio smoke marijuana and sing Which Side Are You On? together on the roof of the building.

In September, Daniel writes to his adoptive father. Robert responds, detailing the difficulties surrounding Susan’s legal authority while she is in the hospital. Either Daniel or a third party, he suggests, could take over guardianship of Susan and her affairs.

In his mind, Daniel can still remember watching television while his parents were in prison. While they were castigated in the press, General Douglas Macarthur was widely praised even though he came “closer to overthrowing the government of the U.S. than any person in modern times” (192). Daniel and Susan stayed with their Aunt Frieda, despite her protestations, as they watched the espionage charges be handed out to their parents. Daniel presents a letter, written to him by his mother during this period. The simple language creates an impersonal tone, even amid the assurances of love. Daniel struggled with life at Aunt Frieda’s house. He suffered from breathing problems and would occasionally steal newspapers for any information about his parents’ trial. Eventually, Daniel and Susan were sent to the Shelter. Daniel remembers missing his father, who was portrayed in the press as some kind of masterful spy. Daniel does not believe this, but he has begun to doubt whether he truly knew his father. Ascher assured him, however, that the government sought to punish the Isaacsons.

Daniel describes life in the East Bronx Children’s Shelter. He was kept away from Susan in the gendered dorms. Among the many other residents, Daniel believes some were “obviously sick” (199) and others suffered from mental health conditions. Schooling was simple and most of the focus for the children was on sports. Few children had clothes that fit, the food was very rarely pleasant, and the building smelled of vomit and ammonia. Punishments were common. In the brief moments when he could see Susan, Daniel recognized that his sister was terrified. The resident psychologist, Mr. Guglielmi, asked Daniel for advice about how to help Susan. Daniel told him that Susan considered the Shelter to be just like a prison. Daniel wonders whether the FBI compelled his parents to allow their children to be sent to the Shelter. As a compromise, Daniel is allowed to sit with Susan for a brief period each day.

In 1967, Daniel describes how Phyllis cared for him when he had the flu. She “likes to forgive [him]” (207), he believes, which may be psychosexual. When they have sex several weeks later, Daniel wonders why his “cruel” (208) treatment of her cannot be read in her postcoital expression. He thinks again about the Shelter and his efforts to stand out from his peers. He settled on performance as a way to distinguish himself and developed cruel imitations of the other boys. At the same time, he planned to escape with Susan. Daniel’s plan worked at first and the pair reached the East Bronx but soon became lost. When they reached the “rich markets of Bathgate Avenue” (216), Daniel hoped that they were near to their parents’ home. He led Susan to their old neighborhood. When they reached their house, however, it was abandoned. The windows were boarded up. Susan wet herself as they realized that their plan had failed and that they would not meet their parents at the old house. Ascher took them back to the Shelter, warning them that their parents’ trial would soon begin. Daniel lists several traitors from American history, highlighting the writer Edgar Allen Poe as the “master subversive” whose treachery is often overlooked.