Out of Zion MR JAconsoN's latest novel is about a
Jewish family settled in South Africa. Benjamin Glick- man's father left Lithuania at the beginning of the century. Benjamin and his wife Sarah have three children—Joel, Rachel and David. Mr Jacobson wants to show how a Jewish family is shaped by the major historical events of our time, how it comes to terms with Nazi racialism, and finds its identity in the context of South African nationalism and Zionism.
So his novel is a huge undertaking. And yet it has few of the faults which we have learnt to expect from books which try to dole out half- century slabs of modern history. It is not pre- tentious, it does not romanticise, it does not bully the reader with big events and sprawling rhetoric. Mr Jacobson's faults are rather those of over-subtlety and evasiveness—not of foist- ing himself upon his vast social scene, but of ducking behind his characters. He keeps his om- niscience too much to himself, so that sometimes you wonder if the events of the novel are merely random.
But such moments are rare. Most of the time Mr Jacobson has a tenacious but unobtrusive hold upon the lives of his many characters, and he brings each of them to remarkable fullness. The three children, especially, are full and fluent characters, and they give interest and life to the historical forces which surround them. The Beginners presents a bland and massive face. Underneath, it is a moving and subtle work.
BILL BYROM
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