Cheap Rebellion (Book) (Joseph Roth, Michael Hofmann) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rebellion

"Rebellion" is the first novel Roth has written. I read it right after "The Radetzky March", in the wrong order, so to speak. Surely it's even less nuanced, but there's some great truth in Roth's writing, ability to present general and symbolic ideas using everyday life details.

The book is a bit sentimental and melodramatic, still it has something real about it, like any other great work of literature. I am planning to continue with Josef Roth, with his fiction - and, especially - with his journalism. Considering the quality of his fictional prose, it must be of the highest quality.

Permit to Live
As relevant today as in the 1920's when it was first published, this slim but remarkable work, Rebellion, chronicles the downward spiral of Andreas Pum. A simple man destined for a simple life founded on trust in god and the government, his life slowly crumbles as that destiny gradually evaporates. World War I takes his leg, yet he accepts his fate and proudly wearing his medal on his chest as he parades on his peg leg through the streets practicing his new trade as an organ grinder, complete with his official permit from the state. As he selects from the 8 cylinders of music, playing to the mood of the street, he sees himself as a true musician and patriot: "Was he not fulfilling his duty when he played his hurdy gurdy? Was not the permit pressed into his hands by the government in person, so to speak, as much an obligation as a concession?...his occupation could only be compared to that of service to the state, and his role with that of an official..." Life hangs by that permit and faith.

Like Job he gradually loses that faith, not denying, by reviling god. His child-like trust and dependence on the beneficence of the state are shattered as his permit, his right to exist, is taken. Chapter 7 and 8 of the book in particular capture how easily our lives can change by a simple encounter with others whom we do not know. Herr Arnold enters the tale in chapter 7, totally from the blue and in only a few pages, Roth captures as well as any author the psychology or rage and its transference onto others - road rage without the automobiles. Rebellion, though little known or read, belongs in the same exclusive club as the The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek and Kafka's The Trial. Each is unique, but they have in common protagonists who face a world that cares little for them, or more accurately is unaware of them. Svejk bumbles through and unwittingly overcomes in spite of everything; K struggles against the injustice of it all, and Andreas faith in god and state gradually dissolve and his life with it.

But for the grace of god (or luck) there go I echo's throughout the pages of this marvelous little work. Few writers capture the paradox of man's need for others and man as alone from others as well as Joseph Roth. Andrea's cry, when all is literally gone, "I don't want Your mercy! I want to go to Hell," brings him life in death. A man of perpetual concessions, he rises in rebellion. Fortunately for us, Roth's works have not been thrown into the Inferno, but only have been mired in publication limbo, and nearly all his novels, short stories, and his marvelous book of essays, The Wandering Jews, have been resurrected. There is much despair in Rebellion, but in its humanity, it is not a despairing work. As good a place as any to begin reading the cannon of Joseph Roth!

Rebel With A Cause
At the close of the Great War, Andreas Pum - the protagonist of this, Joseph Roth's third novel - has lost his leg in the service of an empire that no longer exists. It seems to him a small price to pay for what he soon gains: a valuable permit from the authorities to operate a hurdy-gurdy anywhere in the city, a plump widow and her affectionate daughter, even an obedient donkey named Mooli who is his best companion, carting around the instrument for Andreas as he travels the city to play for pennies. Andreas is one of the few of his station who has not become disillusioned with his predicament, for he still believes in the old order, in the beneficence of his God and Government; indeed, he brands those who have lost their faith as "heathens." It is then that Andrea Pum begins his Job-like descent into despair, a Kafkaesque combination of bad luck and spitefulness which conspire to destroy him - he is deprived of his permit, his donkey, his wife and he is then jailed. He spends his final days as a bathroom attendant in a nightclub. Andreas rebels. But his rebellion is not so much against society as it is a rebellion against his perception of himself within this society, against the presupposed image of his self. Pum is a victim of a rules change where the order of the "belle epoque" has denigrated into the chaos of the modern world. Joseph Roth has crafted a compelling parable about a world in flux and its effect on the individual; we the reader can sympathize with the plight of Andreas Pum because we know that is just as easily could be us.