Focus

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.

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.

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.

Astounded by the book as well as the recent film which followed closely the delineations of both characters and plot. Focus as a book should now be judged alongside the film. Both pick up on the bigotry unleashed by WW11 in America. Both show the irony and incomprehensibility of such implacable hatred. Lawrence Newman, the flawed wasp "hero" does not see himself as similar to any of his neighbors,and cries, "I am not a heeb," as if that is a rationale for the terror inflicted on the Jewish newstand owner.He stolidly ignores Mr. Finkelstein's plight, as well as the Puerto Rican girl being attacked beneath his window. And his wife (resembling Marilyn Monroe) also is stigmatized as a Jew and has her own demons to fight from her past. Read and View!