The Book of Daniel

In December 1967, Daniel flies to Los Angeles. His hippie-like appearance attracts the attention of the other passengers, who seem to worry that he may “hijack the plane” (317). Since a man with his appearance struggles to rent a car, he takes a cab to a place where he can hitchhike. A teaching assistant named Irvine picks up Daniel in a Volkswagen camper van. Irvine has recently been hired by the University of California. As they drive, Daniel is struck by the natural environment of the state, including the empty spaces. After traveling 3,000 miles, he already feels at home. Irvine takes Daniel to the trailer that he is sharing with three other university employees. Daniel is surprised by the way these men value human feelings. He telephones Phyllis, who is at the Lewins’ house. She mentions that the Lewins cannot understand why Daniel needed to travel to Los Angeles.

Daniel tries to telephone Selig Mindish. Linda, Selig’s daughter, answers the call. She is reluctant to engage with Daniel, lying about her identity and her father’s location. Finally, Daniel explains to her that he wishes to pay his respects to her father. Linda believes that Daniel is arrogant, which makes her resent him. Though she does not appreciate his request, she agrees to meet him. However, she warns him that her father is “an old man and he’s sick” (325). Daniel hangs up and reflects on the role he plays in Linda’s life. He wonders whether she would be excited by the idea of finally telling him everything that she has always wanted to tell him.

Daniel meets Linda at her home. Her father is not there. Linda still has her father’s face, Daniel notes, though she has grown older. Linda’s fiancé Dale is in the house. To Daniel, he seems like a pacifist, though he seems intent on protecting Linda from Daniel. Dale annoys Daniel. He quizzes Daniel about his plans. Daniel remembers Linda from when they were young. She treated him badly. Now, he knows that her dislike of him is based on his capacity to expose truths she does not want to be exposed. For some time now, Linda has been living under a different identity. She believes that Daniel represents the last connection to her past and the difficult truths she wants to sever from her life.

Daniel wants Linda to explain how her mother supported the family when her father was in prison. Linda is not keen to answer the question. She notes that she bore the greatest difficulties caused by her parents’ situation. While Linda learned plenty about herself during this time, she accepts that Susan and Daniel were not as lucky. Where she does envy the Isaacson children, however, is the way that “Selig Mindish was a hero to no one” (333), unlike the Isaacsons. At times, Linda wishes she could swap situations with Daniel and Susan. However, she tells Daniel that the Isaacsons were liars who took advantage of those around them due to their political zealotry. Dale interjects, trying to calm Linda, even though she seems calm. Daniel believes that he and Linda were similarly hardened by their experiences while Susan maintained her innocence throughout their trials. Daniel resumes his questioning, wanting to know why Linda’s father confessed. Daniel has long suspected that Mindish was innocent; without his confession, the case against him would have collapsed. The FBI, Daniel wonders, may have had secret information about Mindish that they could have used as blackmail. Alternatively, he theorizes that Mindish testified against Paul and Rochelle to protect the real guilty couple, who disappeared without explanation. Many people have suggested that this other couple were the real spies. Daniel believes this theory, even if he does not have enough evidence.

Daniel pauses his narrative to discuss the theory of the other couple. Next, he describes how members of the American Communist Party in the 1950s were enthusiastic believers. He imagines how his mother might have scrutinized Mindish during the trial, how she might have come to realize that Mindish was also a believer in the communist cause and that Paul really was guilty of some of the charges leveled against him. After the failure of the Isaacsons’ third appeal, communications between the couple ended. Whether they were permitted to be together on their final night is not clear, but commonly believed to be true.

Daniel returns to the meeting with Linda. She mocks him, claiming that she pities his naïve beliefs. She is certain that Paul and Rochelle were spies; she says that they “ran the show” (343). Daniel would rather discuss his theories with Linda’s father, but she refuses to say where he is, even as Daniel begins to shout. Daniel accuses Linda of changing and abandoning history. When Dale tries to get Daniel to leave, Daniel demands to see Mindish. Eventually, Linda changes her mind. She says that he is “spending the day at Disneyland” with his wife (346). Privately, Daniel wonders whether Linda secretly wants to be freed from the burden of her father’s story. She must want to know whether he really was an important spy, Daniel thinks. Together with Linda and Dale, Daniel sets off for Disneyland.

Daniel describes Disneyland in detail. For all the amusements and glamor, he believes it to be a testament to social superficiality. Those who go participate in the “mystic rituals of the culture” (347). As they tour around the busy park, Daniel notes the literary and historical figures who appear beside the Disney mascots on the amusements. Many of the guests do not know the identities of these figures. The mindless excitement of Disneyland is, to Daniel, the sign of a hollow, empty culture that is removed from reality. However, the park does succeed in its ability to move large masses of people. The transportation is excellent and efficient. With his hippie-like appearance, Daniel knows that he does not fit into the usual demographic of the park’s guests.

Daniel, Dale, and Linda enter the park. They visit the area known as Tomorrowland, as this is Mindish’s favorite part. Daniel spots Mindish, who has changed a great deal. He is driving a car on a facsimile version of the German highway system, his now-aged face occasionally breaking into expressions of childish glee. At Daniel’s request, Linda calls out to her parents. Daniel waits with Dale, who warns Daniel that Mindish is senile. With Linda at her father’s side, Daniel sits with Mindish. Daniel introduces himself and, slowly, Mindish realizes that he is the son of Paul and Rochelle. He kisses Daniel on the head, reminding Daniel of a hospital patient who has received a new heart.

Daniel returns to his past. After they escaped from the Shelter, Daniel and Susan were sent to live with the Fischers. This did not last long, as the Fischers hated the Isaacson children, so Daniel and Susan were taken in by the Lewins. Daniel accepts that the time has come for him to describe his parents’ deaths. Paul, visibly weak and upset, was electrocuted first. When Rochelle was brought into the execution chamber after, she stared down everyone in the room with a “carefully composed ironic smile” (362). Paul had not been able to look them in the eye. The people felt the need to look away. Rochelle was not killed by the first jolt of electricity, so she had to be electrocuted again.

Daniel titles the final part of the story “Three Endings.” In the first ending, he returns to his family home in the Bronx. He sees a new family living there and, after a short debate with himself, decides not to intrude on them. In the second ending, many people show up for the joint funeral of Paul and Rochelle. Many police were also present. Deemed by the locals to be “aristocracy,” Daniel and Susan rode in a limousine. This was the day that they met the Lewins for the first time, introduced by Ascher. At this time, Daniel felt a swelling of love for his sister.

The third ending is Susan’s funeral. Daniel attends with Phyllis and the Lewins. Daniel believes that his sister died of “a failure of analysis” (365). As he walks through the cemetery, he notes the various shapes and sizes of the headstones. He pays a group of old Jewish men to sing prayers by Susan’s grave. Daniel holds Phyllis’s hand, afraid that he may cry.

In the university library, Daniel is about to begin answering some of the questions he has raised in his book. However, his writing is interrupted by the announcement that student protestors have shut down the school. One student protestor tells Daniel that he can now put down his books, as he has been “liberated.” Daniel selects a title for his dissertation: “A Life Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Doctoral Degree in Social Biology, Gross Entomology, Women’s Anatomy, Children’s Cacophony, Arch Demonology, Eschatology, and Thermal Pollution” (368). He finishes his story by quoting from the Bible’s Book of Daniel, which ends with the words, “but thou, of Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book” (368).