Another review of Spiró, Captivity

FIRST THINGS: THERE AND BACK AGAIN: A FIRST-CENTURY JEWISH TALE (Wesley Hill).

Captivity: A Novel
by György Spiró
New York: Restless Books, 864 pages, $29.99

Michael Chabon once wrote a novel titled Jews with Swords, then re-titled something tamer (Gentlemen of the Road). Explaining his initial choice, he said: “The story of the Jews centers around—one might almost say that it stars—the hazards and accidents, the misfortunes and disasters, the feats of inspiration, the travail and despair, and intermittent moments of glory and grace, that entail upon journeys from home and back again.” From Abraham’s first encounter with God and his reception of the First Commandment (which Chabon renders, “Thou shalt get lost”), Jewish history has been an epic adventure. When Chaim Potok came to write his history of the Jewish people, he titled it Wanderings: God’s chosen ones, whose promised land is lodged permanently in their hearts, are as much nomads as settlers. Well before Tolkien’s sojourning hobbits, the life of the Jewish people was the ultimate tale of “there and back again.”

Or so contends Captivity, the Hungarian Jewish novelist György Spiró’s 800-page-plus chronicle of the wanderings of a first-century Jew named Uri. ...

For earlier reviews, see here and links.