Job by Joseph Roth – Reviewed by Guy Portman
Biblical teacher Mendel and his family are Jews residing in the town of Zuchnow, in Tsarist Russia. Mendel has a wife called Deborah, three sons and a daughter. The youngest son, Menuchim, is mute and seemingly retarded. Deborah, who is intent on finding a cure for him, visits a special rabbi. He furnishes her with a somewhat cryptic appraisal of his condition and where it is heading.
Later, the family migrate to New York, but without Menuchim who stays in Zuchnow in the care of friends. In America our protagonist Mendel spends much of his time in a melancholic mood, pondering his former life in Russia and pining for his missing son. While the family prosper in New York, they also have to deal with tragedy in the form of death and the mental breakdown of daughter Miriam.
The book’s themes include loss, faith and, as is the case with all of Roth’s fiction, nostalgia. While Job is far from being his finest work, this moving, fableesque story with its obvious parallels to the Biblical character by the same name will appeal to all fans of the Austro-Hungarian author.
