The Wandering Jews. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, June, 2001

The Wandering Jews. Joseph Roth. Michael Hofmann, translator. Granta Books. [pound]12.99. 146 pages. Granta Books has earned considerable praise for republishing all the writings of Joseph Roth and for commissioning new translations of his works never before available in English. Among the second group is this translation of Juden auf Wanderschaft.

To those interested in the Austrian writer's fiction this collection of essays gives us a different Roth: the observer and analyst of contemporary life whether in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, the Soviet Union, or America. To those interested in twentieth century history, the essays give valuable first-hand impressions. The condition of Europe's Jews grew out of Roth's journalistic investigations into the plight of those displaced by the First World War. Roth saw that the future looked bleak for Jews, given the new forces coming to the surface in Germany. He identified with them and was fascinated by their diversity. He recognised the problem, largely caused by the destru ction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but offered no solution. These essays make a valuable contribution to our understanding not just of Roth the novelist but of Europe's history between the wars and their publication, along with the admirable introduction, is much to be praised. (E.B.)