Customer Reviews

Focus (Library of Modern Jewish Literature)

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Arthur Miller's "Focus" is a brilliant indictment of anti-Semitism in America. It was first published in 1945 and hasn't lost an iota of its relevance or power since then. In fact, it may be even more timely today than it was in the 1940s. One of the most surprising things about "Focus" is just how suspenseful it is. Miller makes his beleaguered hero's plight as riveting as a Patricia Highsmith novel. The dialog is witty and sharp and prefigures both David Mamet and Raymond Carver. Miller has an amazing ability to reveal a character's thoughts in lines of dialog that say exactly the opposite of what that character is really thinking. He also has a knack for exposing the tortured reasoning of those who abandon their ideals in a misguided effort to fit in with the crowd. Miller understands that sometimes it's not so much a desire to belong that inspires such an abandonment, as it is a desire to be left alone. But finding yourself left alone can sometimes be the most dangerous thing that can happen to a person.
Miller brilliantly exploits his protagonist's need for eye-glasses as a metaphor for the shortsidedness at the heart of all bigotry. Ironically, the spectacles that help Lawrence Newman better perceive the world around him are the very instruments that cause him to be so dangerously mispercieved by his bigotted neighbors and business colleagues. And only when he finds himself so radically misunderstood by his former "friends" is Newman able to understand his own racial myopia. This is a brilliant and beautiful novel, which never gives in to politicking or preachiness and remains gripping to its very satisfying final paragraph.

The WASPish main character, Lawrence Newman, learns about bigotry first hand when, after getting fitted with eyeglasses, he is suddenly perceived as "looking Jewish" by his neighbors and business colleagues. His life becomes a nightmare as he first tries to disassociate himself from Jews and gradually begins to identify with them.

Newman himself is a bigot, although he's very gentlemanly about it. He just does not question the origin, fairness, or rationale behind the warped thinking that underlies his own assumptions. He is sleepwalking through life, trying to avoid any surprises or danger, when he is thrust into a disorderly, ugly world that was there all along, but which he had steadfastly refused to see. Newman's life is utterly banal, with a vague dreamlike quality that gradually becomes a nightmare.

With a masterful combination of description and dialogue, the author takes the reader on a grimly fascinating and disturbing journey through the side of human nature that lurks just under the surface of civilization.

Focus is an incredible story, written in a bizarre window in time. Before the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe were known, Miller writes of anti-Semitism and prejudice in America. The story could have just as easily taken place in 1930's Germany. The thesis of this book is how much inhumanity will you passively allow, until you become a victim of it? Some condemn Newman's catharsis as being too slow or weak, but history has shown us time and time again how unprotestingly we put up with cruelty and barbarism. In the end, I find Newman is a person to be proud of: he turns his back on the "easy way out" his wife offers. He fully realises the injustice in the society, and he is ready to confront it. Focus shows us a world many didn't know existed, and offers hope in its courage.

Focus, by Arthur Miller (228 pgs., 1945, 1984). Miller is one of this country's most famous playwrights. I never knew he wrote & published prose, until I recently read a newly published collection of some of his short stories. Focus is not only his first published novel, but it's also his first full-length published work of any kind, except for some previously published essays in 1944. This novel was published in 1945, when Miller was merely 30 years old. His first published play, All My Sons, appeared in 1947.
Apparently, Miller never published anything but excellent, mature, hefty writing. This book is a wonderful read. The writing is emotive & muscular. There are smacks of Hemingway, but I think many young American writers of that era was influenced by Papa.
Miller wrote a contemporary novel. It takes place mostly in Queens, NY in 1945, before the end of WWII. Miller deals with an anti-Semitism that I didn't know was so prevalent in NYC in those years. My parents never told me stories about that. Maybe, where they lived in Brooklyn, NY they were more sheltered from the anti-Semitism Miller writes about in this novel. I do remember them telling me about resorts in CT which were closed to Jews, even well into the 1950's. Miller has a brief episode in this novel where his characters come face-to-face with that bigotry in CT.
Laurence Newman is the main character in this novel. He is descended from an old, English family that has been well established in the States for hundreds of years. He has moved up the corporate ladder at his place of work. He is quiet & keeps to himself. Newman lives in a home he owns on a quiet street in Queens. His mother lives with him. His neighbors are all in his economic strata. They are working class or lower middle management types who have fled to this part of Queens to escape from the "lower" elements. Newman is a bigoted escapee, like all the rest. None of his bosses & none of his neighbors think he is Jewish.
There is one Jewish family on the block. On the corner there is a candy store/newsstand. Mr. Finkelstein owns the shop & lives above it with his wife & young daughter. Newman passes by everyday & buys his daily newspaper there for his mother to read. He muses little on Finkelstein as an individual human being. Finkelstein has never cheated him, is not unclean, has never shown a knack for getting rich & is always polite & friendly. But Newman still thinks all Jews are dirty, clannish, rude, unclean & cheaters in business.
Newman finds out that his closest friends on the block belong to the Christian Front. Their most pressing local need is to rid the street of Finkelstein. Newman gives his assent to this proposal.
Soon after, he finds his eyesight failing & he gets a pair of glasses. Newman "looks Jewish," when he wears his glasses, because of some ironic quirk of nature. His immediate superior, who has known him for five years, transfers him to a place in the business where the public won't see him. He says he knows that Newman isn't Jewish, but he can't take the risks of him representing the company to the public. He gets married to a woman who he mistakenly thought was Jewish, but isn't. Everyone now assumes he married a Jewish girl. His friends on the street begin to think of him as Jewish.
The rest of the novel deals with Newman's change of sensibilities. His genteel anti-Semitism gives way to confusion & then to anger & finally to a sense of shared fate with the Finkelsteins of the world. His wife tries ever harder to fit into the Christian world & gets cozy with the Christian Front.
This novel is a very interesting analysis of a certain time & place in NYC & how people in similar situations can react differently to bigotry & stress & violence. This slender novel packs a wallop that belies its size.

Arthur Miller's Focus is never dull it has suspense, humor, and violence. His story of Lawrence, the main charactor afraid of the world, gives the reader an insight into the nature of prejudice. He writes about the beliefs middle-class white Americans have about Jews in 1945. His poignant way of explaining Lawrence to the reader gives us a forum to better understand our own feelings. This book is a definite read for anyone that wants to become more socially aware.

I absolutely loved this book. I couldn't put it down from the second I started reading it. I had no idea that Jews faced so much discrimination in American during WWII (as a recreation major, my history is a bit lacking). This book really makes you think, not only about the past and what happened, but about yourself and your personal prejudices. I've been telling everyone I know to read this book because it truly does make an impact.

It amazes me how this short novel isn't mandatory reading for high school or college courses! Arthur Miller touches on so many themes and in turn touched my heart at the same time. After reading the back cover of the book, I was anticipating a shallow and predictable anti-semitism novel. I mean, how can one man's glasses a book make, right? Wrong...

Anyone who has ever felt alienated for any reason can empathize with Lawrence Newman, the Christian protagonist, who attempts to no end to conform to his antisemitic neighbors' absurd standards, but to no avail. His boss orders him to purchase glasses due to his myopia(irony indeed) and then his perfect world turns upside down as he himself is branded as "looking Jewish" by his neighbors, his boss, and even his mother. He is poked, prodded and pushed to the brink.

William H. Macy is perfect for the role of Newman. I enjoyed the movie as well, albeit the book should be read prior to viewing the movie in order to fully appreciate Miller's descriptive use of the English language and his prodigious character development.

"Focus," by Arthur Miller, was written during WWII, when there was widespread anti-Semitism in America and a holocaust was taking place in Europe. For a non-Jewish person to be taken for a Jew because he "looked" Jewish in his new glasses must have been quite a shock as well as a revelation to the main charcter. As the story progresses, the reader becomes increasingly aware of what the hatred toward Jews engendered as the protagonist suffers the consequences of his appearance. There are those who perpetrate, those who standby, and those who suffer. At the end, there is only the question. Why?

This book was an insightful account of anti-semitism during WWII in the United States, specifically in the boroughs of New York City. Arthur Miller has once again written a piece where every sentence and paragraph is artistically weighted with nuance and symbolism. The character, through a happening of circumstances, is forced to face the social cruelty in his world of which he himself is a part. At some point he has to choose where he stands and what kind of person he wants to be. This is where Miller is at his best in digging deep into the very essence of one's character.

Before coming across this book, I was not aware of the prejudice that faced Jews in America during World War II and the years before the war. The idea of the book is an interesting concept. Lawrence Newman is mistaken for a Jew because of his glasses. Even though he is actually a Gentile, he endures anti-semitic prejudice.

The story has two serious flaws that take away from the overall story. Lawrence's wife, Gertrude, is foul and annoying women. Arthur Miller seems to create most of his female leads with great flaws. I desperately wanted Lawrence to just tell her to shut up. The other flaw is the passive nature of Lawrence. I wanted him to stand up for himself. The issue in the story is not so much anti-semitism as it is Lawrence's extremely passive nature. It is almost predictable that he does not get angry enough to strike back until after he gets beat up and there is nobody around.

The flaws written into the characters take away from the serious issue addressed in the story. While Miller is to be commended for raising the issue, he failed to make a serious statement about it. In other words, it lacks focus. The book claims to be Miller's most controversial work, but it never fully attacks the issue. Finkelstein, an actual Jew, is most compelling character because he is real and has something to say. He fought back, making him the only character that the reader can identify with.

Certainly this is not Miller's best work. Death of a Saleman is one of my favorites stories. This story is solid, but fails to meet expectations.