Focus: Arthur Miller

I should not have waited for so long to write this review. I read the book almost a month back and kept postponing the review writing till I had something spectacular to say. I was busy and that added to the procrastination.
But here I am a month later falling terribly behind the goal of 1 book a week and still struggling with what to write.
It is safe to say that the book did not evoke extraordinary reactions from me. The book is not mediocre however my reactions to it are moderate, which cannot be coincidental given that the book deals with extremism and moderation. The book set in 1940s New York is almost a biographical account of Anti-Semitism from the great playwright Arthur Miller.
The protagonist of the book is Newman, a middle class American in his early 40s working in New York during the Second World War. Miller does an excellent job is creating the character of Newman as the quintessential middle class average bloke who well quire literally treads the middle path. Like a middle class person anywhere in the world at any given point of time, he is very sure of his moralities. He is neither the perpetuator of wrong neither is he is the savior of the destitute. He lives his life reassured of his indispensability to society and is not too perturbed by the evident lack of extraordinary progress in his career. Since the book is about social and cultural; prejudices, Newman’s social interactions are pivotal in understanding his character and the changes that will happen in due course of time. Newman maintains a respectable distance from most people, completely comfortable in the skin that he is in. As a white collar Christian worker he does not need anyone to ratify him, he goes about life stereotyping people and cultures, interacting with them through the mirror of those stereotypes.
This is what I definitely like about the book, it has a timeless appeal, the people and their insecurities, reactions and quirks did not seem dated to me. I know that somewhere in the backyard of America/India a character like Newman still exists. The grounds of discrimination also remain the same: “The Kikes will take away our jobs.
A twist of fate and a pair of spectacles later, Newman is forced to face life looking like a Jew. Though seemingly incredulous Miller builds this element in the story quite effortlessly and soon as the reader accompanies Newman on his travails as a Jew she forgets that is the spectacle that makes Newman look Jewish.
The fact that Newman is now looking like a Jew, turns his life (and his garbage can) upside down. From a detached fence sitter on the sidelines of the rising Anti Semitic sentiment, Newman is forcefully thrown into the middle of it. The transformation of Newman from a confident, assured and sometimes even politely brash citizen of the city to a tentative, apologetic and self conscious man, who is hoping to squash fewer toes than his mere presence does, is what to me the AHA moment of the book is. Miller superbly captures the confusion of Newman as he goes about recalibrating life as a Jew. His takes his loses in his stride and tries the supreme “middle class tactic” of staying out of trouble. You feel sorry for Newman as he tries his best to fit in, as he valiantly tries to prove he is not Jew, he ensures he has nothing to do with the other Jew on the street and much to his dislike even tries to be part of the Anti Semitic hooliganism. The book chronicles his journey till he finds peace with his new found existence.
The book is insightful as it captures the nuances of discrimination well; anyone who has been on the other side of the bargain is quick to notice the subtle but strong signals that
”normal people “give. I can say this with some experience for at least I have always felt discriminated against as a person who struggled with her weight for most of her life! Real or imagined, the fact that I thought I was not normal specially during my teenage years was enough for me to be super sensitive to what people said, or how they stared sometimes even blaming myself for the eve teasing that is a way of life for young girls in small town UP. You do what it takes to be normal and that’s what Newman did.

The book is to my mind is Arthur Miller’s attempt of making sense of the madness around him. He uses this incredulous situation of a normal Christian American suddenly transforming into a Jew overnight to steer his path on how to deal with the madness of it all. It is simplistic in how it seeks a solution to the ever increasing hate and its ramifications. Maybe this is the reason why the book fails to create the kind of impact I expected it to, it is too simplistic, insightful but ended as Arthur Miller finds the truth for himself.
What works for this book is its timelessness, most evident in the passage where Newman puts the face of Finkelstein his neighbor, on all the vices that Jews supposedly have. He struggles to find Finkelstein guilty of even one of them and yet is unable to let go off his own prejudices. The people and places have changed, yet the fact that the Muslim the world over, the Indian in Australia, the North Eastern student in Delhi, the North Indian in Mumbai all struggle to defend themselves individually against crimes they have committed collectively as a culture.
Will I recommend it, it is moderate in the impact it creates but yes it is a piece that will probably help in understanding that prejudice is not new hopefully how we will deal with it can be.