It Still Provokes Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                   Let me explain, girls!  I was getting tired of classical literature, and the book stores had not opened up yet, and I was clamoring for some good, contemporary fiction.  Nothing on my personal shelf appealed to me, so I turned to David's, and found, next to "Ragtime," my second favorite E.L. Doctorow book, "The Book Of Daniel," which became a vastly underrated movie, in 1983, directed by Sidney Lumet, and adapted to the screen, rather faithfully, by Doctorow himself.

                                   Here, the Rosenbergs are called Paul and Rochelle Isaacson, superbly played by Mandy Patinkin, and, especially, Lindsay Crouse.  She, Amanda Plummer, as Susan Isaacson (the actual couple had two boys, Michael and Robert, now in their seventies, and who were adopted by a couple named Meeropol--Abel and his wife, Anne.)  Those scumbags, the Greenglasses, refused to adopt their own flesh and blood nephews.  They are represented in the novel by two characters--Selig Mindish, a party member and the Isaacsons' dentist, and his daughter, Linda, who later becomes a dentist, and in a scorching, scene stealing performance by Tovah Feldshuh, denounces Daniel (Timothy Hutton) for what his parents did to she and her family, in a blistering monologue, making it clear she wants nothing to do with him or his sister.  To the Greenglass children, if still alive, I say live with the shame of how your parents betrayed your entire family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     The sister, Susan Isaacson, is played in another show grabbing performance by Amanda Plummer.  The depth of love for her parents, and what their persecution and ultimate execution did to her is graphically outlined by this actress.  She, Crouse, and Feldshuh, walk off with the movie, despite the excellent male cast.

                                       The Meeropols are played in the film by John Rubinstein and Maria Tucci.

                                        The execution sequence, in both book and film are wrenching.  Julius'/Paul's legs give out from under him, but Ethel/ Rochelle marches staunchly to her death, requiring an added dosage of electricity; so strong was her constitution it took more than the usual amount of voltage to render her dead.

                                          The book and film play out the same, ending in the suicide of Susan.  And the Greenglasses going into hiding.   There are plenty of non-fiction books on this subject, but Doctorow's use of fiction to lay out this travesty of justice is a good place to start.

                                            The execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg I consider one of the top crimes of the last century.  Doctorow's book, which I first read many years ago, convinced me.  And then led me to  investigate.

                                               Which I am sure, readers, it will make you do, as well.

                                                But read this brilliant novel, first!

Here are whom should have taken Julius and Ethel's place--David and Ruth Greenglass.  Scum!  That Ruth, what a bitch!  Just like Ruthie Medoff, another famous Ruth!