Wandering Jew: The Search for Joseph Roth

by Dennis Marks

Joseph Roth, whose many novels included The Radetsky March, was one of the most seductive, disturbing, and enigmatic writers of the twentieth century. Born in the Habsburg Empire in what is now Ukraine, and dying in Paris 1939, he was a perpetual displaced person, a traveller, a prophet, a compulsive liar, and a man who covered his tracks. In this revealing 'psycho-geography', Dennis Marks makes a journey through the eastern borderlands of Europe to uncover the truth about Roth's lost world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Essays, Jewish, Books About Books, History

140 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2011

Reviews

[Mile · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a analysis of the work of Joseph Roth. It was lent to me by a friend and despite never having read any of Roth's work I found it very interesting. I see from the cover that it is published by Notting Hill Editions who focus on the publication of extended essays in book form.

Dennis Marks' book is about Joseph Roth, but it is also a historical work, looking at the last years of the Austro-hungarian empire and then what happened in 'Mittel Europe' after the first world war. Austro-hungary is presented as a multi-cultural supra-state, or benevolent (and often confusing) empire, in which minority groups, including Jews enjoyed a certain degree of recognition.

Roth's work is then interpreted as exploring what happened to people when this empire was dismembered after WW1 and several new, sometimes transient, nation states were created. For many it was a time of displacement and vulnerability, of loss of identity and a search for new lives. In his novels Roth views these times through the eyes of ordinary people from the margins of society.

Dennis Marks provides a useful glossary of Roth's work translated into English. I will definately be reading one of these in the not too distant future.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In Russian and in Ruthenian -- the nineteenth-century term for the local Slavic vernacular -- U kraina means 'at the border'. It is neither one place nor another. Ukraine is one of the most displaced places in Europe and Joseph Roth was its unreliable laureate." (8)

"His language is German, but his subject matte is often Slavic, sometimes Jewish and always extra-territorial." (25-6)

"He writes in German but he is not really a German writer." (75)

"The dream is the pre-lapsarian Hapsburg Empire where everything and everyone have their own space by the grace of the commander-in-chief. This is where Roth is almost alone among early twentieth-century Austro-German writers, even his friend Stefan Zweig. It is also where the two halves of his creative personality -- the ironic and the romantic -- underpin each other." (82)

"What could be more perverse than to apply for Austrian citizenship when Austria was on its knees and his native Galicia was being absorbed into a reborn Polish Republic? Even in the midst of inflation and political murder it was better to be supra-national than live under a mutant species of nationalism. When Austria followed the same path, he continued his restless pursuit of paradox in the Weimar Republic and Soviet Russia. The greatest irony of his life was the way in which his very despair ... opened his eyes to the darkness around him." (131-2)

[Carlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of connected essays regarding the “Austrian” author, Joseph Roth who is best known for The Radetzky March.
This book of five short essays should only be read (I would suggest) after you have read a few books by Joseph Roth, and are primarily about the novels, rather than Roth’s essays. As well as seeking to place Roth’s varied novels in their time, the essays also explore Roth’s experience as a self exiled Galician Jew and why this was central to his novels.
Although sometimes repetitive in making his points, Marks’ short essays published in 2011 are well written and made me want to read more by Joseph Roth.

Not included in the selected works section at the back of the book is The Hotel Years: Wanderings in Europe between the Wars as it was not published in an English translation until 2015, but I recommend this selection of Roth’s essays.

[Alison]

Less a "search for Joseph Roth" (whom, one must admit, it would be impossible to find) and more a "reflection on themes in Roth's fiction." Pleasant to read, but only if you know the literature to which it refers. I can't say it enhanced my ability to appreciate works I already loved or clarified anything for me. Not reliable on the history it claims is relevant to Roth's life and work, but perhaps that is fitting for a collection of essays about a fabulist.

[Ad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This small book is an introduction to Joseph Roth, not a biography, so for me it was a bit disappointing. The beginning is the best part, when Marks travels to the cities in what is now the Ukraine where Roth lived in his youth (nothing is left, however); also that Marks emphasizes the aspect of "wandering," of being stateless in a world in which passports became increasingly important, rather than Roth's Jewishness, is interesting. But this book could have been so much more.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite not having read any of Roth’s books, this book about his life and writing, placing them within a historic and geographic context was a useful exploration of a history and location I know little about and did enough to make me want to read more of Roth and his work

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intressant och givande. Måste läsa mer Joseph Roth

[LRKK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brief, thoughtful and elegant essay on the life and work of the under-read Joseph Roth.

[Cooper Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

2d reading 2025. Excellent investigation of Roth’s work.