History and fiction are put together all over the book. Despite the fact that Daniel is a fictitious character, the events reported in the book really happened at that time. The book makes reference, for example, to the red scare and the Vietnam War. The narrative is, then, a device to depict this historical moment, slightly disguising some events by means of changing names -as it happens with the Rosenbergs - maintaining the real facts almost untouched. This juxtaposition of fiction and history makes it difficult for the reader to tell whether some passages of the book are really fictional or a representation of historical facts.
Doctorow style brings innovation to literary forms, being considered a post-modern narrative, breaking up with some literary values and devices that had been used before since the romantic era. Maybe this shift in the literary form implemented by Doctorow is an evidence that the old forms did not apply anymore to that kind of society - which is the same thing that happened with the developing of the romantic narrative- and it works to show us how art can be a good clue, once one contextualises it, to understand the way a society is structured.
The plot brings up two issues, one of them in a personal level and the other one, historical. All through the novel, the character Daniel tries to put past and present together in order to understand the events that take place during the era involved, whereas understanding the culture of the society he is part of. .
While standing in a library at Columbia University, Daniel - who was supposed to be writing his PhD. Dissertation starts to write about his memories and discuss his relationship with his wife, parents and his sister Susan. Daniel reports the important moments in his life such as the one in which the FBI took his father away accusing him of espionage, the protests he and Susan took part to claim his father's innocence, and other relevant moments of his life.