Giobbe

Di Joseph Roth

Introduzione di Giorgio Manacorda
Traduzione di Madeira Giacci
Edizione integrale

Mendel Singer è un uomo semplice e molto devoto, che insegna la Torah ai bambini in una remota provincia della Russia orientale. Il suo è un lavoro senza alcun prestigio sociale, con il quale – anzi – si fa la fame. Egli assiste impotente con la moglie Deborah allo sgretolarsi della sua famiglia: i tre figli più grandi partono, i due maschi arruolati nell’esercito e la femmina sposata in America; spinti dalla miseria, Mendel e sua moglie sono costretti ad abbandonare Menuchim, il loro ultimo nato, per raggiungere gli Stati Uniti. Il piccolo è affetto da una misteriosa forma di demenza di cui non si è mai scoperta l’origine. La vita di Mendel è un susseguirsi di disgrazie, che si abbattono con violenza su di lui e sulla sua famiglia. Il pover’uomo, che non riconosce più se stesso né il suo mondo, finirà per perdere l’orientamento e la fede in Dio, ma la vita ha in serbo per lui un risvolto inatteso, una consolazione insperata lo attende dopo tanto dolore.


Joseph Roth

nacque in Galizia nel 1894. Rimasto presto orfano del padre, morto in manicomio, crebbe con la madre e frequentò il ginnasio e l’università. Prestò servizio come addetto stampa dell’esercito austro-ungarico durante la prima guerra mondiale e proseguì la carriera giornalistica anche negli anni successivi, dedicandosi al tempo stesso alla narrativa. Con le prime leggi razziali della Germania nazista decise di emigrare in Francia, a Parigi, dove continuò a scrivere e dove morì nel 1939. Di Roth la Newton Compton ha pubblicato La Cripta dei Cappuccini, La leggenda del santo bevitore e Fuga senza fine, La Marcia di Radetzky e Giobbe.

• Lingua: Italiano
• Editore: Newton Compton Editori
• Data di uscita: 16 dic 2013
• ISBN: 9788854133532

Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth (1894-1939) nació en Brody, un pueblo situado hoy en Ucrania, que por entonces pertenecía a la Galitzia Oriental, provincia del viejo Imperio austrohúngaro. El escritor, hijo de una mujer judía cuyo marido desapareció antes de que él naciera, vio desmoronarse la milenaria corona de los Habsburgo y cantó el dolor por «la patria perdida» en narraciones como Fuga sin fin, La cripta de los Capuchinos o las magníficas novelas Job y La Marcha Radetzky. En El busto del emperador describió el desarraigo de quienes vieron desmembrarse aquella Europa cosmopolita bajo el odio de la guerra.  En su lápida quedaron reflejadas su procedencia y profesión: «Escritor austriaco muerto  en París».

Anteprima del libro

Recensioni su Giobbe

[thorold_1 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

Mendel Singer is a good, simple, pious Jew who's always done his best to serve God, his community and his family. He certainly hasn't had an easy time of it, but as he starts to look forward to the end of his life, he can be happy that he will be leaving all his four children better-placed in life than he could reasonably have hoped for. But then God, through the agency of the First World War, smashes everything Mendel depends on with a series of devastating hammer-blows. Or, to put it another way, the biblical story of Job transposed to a Galician stetl and the Jewish quarters of Manhattan in the early years of the 20th century. But with a twist, because Mendel finds his redemption not in his faith but in the searing flame of his anger with God, which allows him to rediscover his buried humanity.Up to 1929, Joseph Roth was effectively a very successful journalist who had also written a few books: with the publication of Hiob he suddenly established himself as an important - and bestselling - novelist. The book came out at about the same time as Berlin Alexanderplatz, but with its aggressively simple "fairy-tale" narrative style and its subjective, mythical theme, Roth was clearly signalling that he didn't want anything to do with modernist expressionism or "the new objectivity". Roth is probably also being deliberately provocative in setting the book in such a very Jewish context, against the background of the sort of small town where he grew up himself. Unlike Mendel, Roth was a pretty astute observer of politics, and he had a good idea of the way things were headed in the Europe of the late 1920s (although he was still working for a German paper, after 1926 he only accepted assignments outside Germany). He knew that the Jewish culture of Eastern Europe had little chance of surviving in between the equally hostile political forces that were emerging in Russia and Germany, and he wanted to make a record of it before it was too late. (I accidentally bought this in a Suhrkamp school edition with lots of unnecessary, distracting notes, but the small selection of critical essays in the back of the book were worth having)

[bookomaniac-1 · Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle]

Mendel Singer, joodse armoedige onderwijzer in het westen van Rusland, emigreert naar zijn zoon Samuel in Amerika, daarbij zijn zwakzinnige zoon Menoechem achterlatend. Die blijkt later een succesvol musicus. De wereld rond Mendel is intussen ingestort. Klassieke, breedvertellende stijl, erg beschrijvend, veel bijvoeglijke naamwoordenThematiek: Job, migratie en acculturatie

[buchstabendompteurin · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

In diesem Roman erzählt Joseph Roth die Geschichte eines einfachen Mannes, des jüdischen Lehrers Mendel Singer, und seiner Familie. Vorbild für Mendel Singer ist der biblische Hiob, und genau wie Hiob widerfährt dem bescheidenen Lehrer viel Unglück. Mendel Singer lebt mit seiner Frau und den vier Kindern ärmlich in einem kleinen russischen Städtchen. Der älteste Sohn Jonas wird zum Militär eingezogen. Der zweite Sohn, Schemarjah, entgeht diesem Schicksal, indem er nach Amerika flieht. Mendels Tochter Mirjam gibt sich bereits als junge Frau vielen Männern hin, und der jüngste Sohn, Menuchim, leidet an einer scheinbar unheilbaren Behinderung. Die Übersiedelung der Familie nach Amerika, die Schemarjah ermöglicht, bringt nur eine vorübergehende Verbesserung der Lage. Besonders schmerzhaft für Mendel Singer und seine Frau Deborah ist, dass sie ihren jüngsten Sohn, den behinderten Menuchim, nicht mit nach Amerika nehmen können. Die Schicksalsschläge reißen nicht ab, und am Ende verliert Mendel Singer, der Zeit seines Lebens ein gläubiger Jude war, seinen Glauben. Die Geschichte Mendel Singers ist eine starke und bewegende Auseinandersetzung mit der Frage nach der Gerechtigkeit Gottes. Hier werden Fragen aufgeworfen, die sich jeder Mensch stellt, der sich schon einmal Gedanken über Religion gemacht hat. Auch Joseph Roth findet keine schlüssige Antwort auf diese Fragen. Aber mit dem Wunder, das er am Schluss seiner Erzählung geschehen lässt, vermittelt er dem Leser, dass es vielleicht doch eine Gerechtigkeit gibt. Letztendlich muss jeder selbst heraus finden, ob er dieser Vorstellung folgen kann. Als Stilmittel ist das Wunder, das Joseph Roth am Schluss inszeniert, unzulässig, wenn auch sehr anrührend. Nach all dem vorausgegangenen Unglück kann man den plötzlichen Umschwung kaum glauben, er ist unrealistisch. Aber natürlich freut man sich als Leser mit Mendel Singer, der am Ende seines Lebens doch noch Glück hat. Kraftvoll dargestellt in diesem Roman ist Deborah, die Frau Mendel Singers. Sie ist die aktivere Hälfte des Ehepaares, weniger dem Schicksal ergeben als ihr Mann, und versucht, mehr in die Wege zu leiten, um die Lebensumstände zu verbessern. Deborah leidet besonders darunter, den jüngsten Sohn bei der Auswanderung nicht mitnehmen zu können. In Amerika zerbricht sie schließlich am Übermaß des Unglücks. Nur ein Punkt noch bleibt fragwürdig, ob es denn nicht in der Macht der Eltern gestanden hätte, die Tochter Mirjam vor der Verwahrlosung zu retten? Man möchte ihnen vorwerfen, dass sie das Mädchen nicht genügend behütet haben. Erschreckend auch, wie der Verfall der Ehe von Mendel und Deborah dargestellt wird, die sich nach vielen gemeinsamen Jahren nur noch wenig zu sagen haben und allein aus Gewohnheit zusammen bleiben. Joseph Roth versteht es meisterhaft, das Seelenleben seiner handelnden Personen darzustellen. Zugleich ist seine Sprache so anschaulich, kraftvoll und klar, dass es eine Freude ist. „Hiob“ ist ein sehr interessantes Buch.

[mattresslessness · Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle]

Roth's adaptation of the story of Job in the person of a Russian Jew. Adaptation is a bit of a strong word actually. Not quite sure what to make of it. Isn't picking one of the pillars of Western literature a little ambitious, something a little too deeply established for such an unassuming retelling? Can you really wring any more insight out of the book of Job if someone shuffled the names around a bit and substituted historical turmoil for the wind of God? Roth has a gift for elemental storytelling, but it seems more the labour of love of someone going through a personal spiritual renaissance than having anything new to bring to the table.

[kidzdoc_1 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

This novel was written in 1930 and reissued by Archipelago Books last month. Mendel Singer is a pious and ordinary Jewish man who is barely able to provide for his wife and children as a teacher of young children in early 20th century Russia. His life has been one of struggle and misery, compounded by a loveless marriage and the birth of his last child, who is severely delayed and epileptic. His two adult sons are called into military service; Jonas joins the Russian Army willingly, but Shemariah deserts to America, leaving Singer with his wife, their promiscuous daughter and their afflicted son. A rabbi instructs Mrs Singer to never leave the young Menuchim, and predicts that his situation is not a hopeless one, but one that will take many years before he begins to improve.Years later, as the Singers sink deeper into poverty they are encouraged to emigrate to America by their son, who has found success in New York. Torn between their responsibility to Menuchim, their familiarity with their neighbors, and the possibility of a better life in America, the Singers decide to emigrate. However, new challenges await them, and for Mendel his personal suffering is magnified, as his faith in God is severely tested.This modernized retelling of the Biblical story of Job was very well done, with sympathetic and realistic characters, and excellent portrayals of the crushing poverty and struggles of pre-revolutionary Russia contrasted with the chaos and stresses of life in New York's Lower East Side, and is highly recommended.

[vaellus · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

Deeply humane and compassionate; poetic storytelling, heartfelt story.

[dreamingtereza_1 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

Rather beautiful - both wise and poignant, though a little predictable toward the end. Definitely worth reading.

[jwhenderson_1 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

I have just read the novel Job and find it to be a moving retelling of the Job story from the perspective of the Jews from the netherland border between Poland and Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. It was published in 1930 and marks a turning point in Roth's career. With this novel, Roth takes a transformation of socio-politically motivated journalism to author as a poet of conservative myths. Roth takes for his presentation of Jewish existence within the elements of traditional storytelling. "Job" for Roth meant his breakthrough as a novelist.Mendel Singer is a pious, God-fearing and ordinary Jew who lives in the idyllic Schtetl Zuchnow and performs there with his family a modest life as a village teacher. But the rest of his life will not be long because it through a chain of hard blows from the meaninglessness of his existence is torn by fate. Still he believed humbly that misfortune was just a test from God. The first blow hit him when his youngest son Menuchim is born with epilepsy. This was followed by the drafting of his oldest son Jonas into the military, with which his traditional Jewish faith did not agree. His second son Schemariah flees to America. Ultimately, Mendel Singer must discover that his daughter Miriam is with Cossacks, French, and what the strictly devout Jews considered the epitome of depravity. The Singers decide to emigrate to America. This trip can only be bought while leaving his youngest son Menuchim behind. In New York Mendel meets a new fate: He loses both sons in World War I, and his wife dies from grief over it. When his daughter becomes insane, he loses his strength, to tolerate and to believe, leading from humility and piety to rebellion and spite; Mendel loses his faith in God. From now on he no longer prays and lives quietly and inward. But now he learns the grace of the Lord; and the prophesy of a rabbi's wonder that his sick son Menuchim would become healthy is fulfilled. When the gifted composer and conductor Alexei Kossak (really Menuchim) comes to America he introduces himself to his father.Joseph Roth tells the story of Mendel Singer in a language both allegorical and with biblical directness, whose theme is one of divine visitation and the wonder of God's grace. Roth's answer to the question of the meaning of suffering in the spirit of the Bible is the answer of a skeptic, whose life was visitation, the redeeming grace one fervently longs for, but do not to believe they could find or receive.