Aharon Appelfeld
The Conversion
Trans. from the Hebrew by Jeffrey M. Green
New York: Schocken Books, 1998. Pp. 228+. $17.95
Reviewed by Ronald Charles Epstein

Aharon Appelfeld, a child Holocaust survivor from Czernowitz, in Bukovina, Rumania, is one of Israel's internationally acclaimed novelists. He is inspired by his Eastern European background, recalling the "old country" in such novels as The Iron Tracks, Badenheim 1939, and The Conversion. Appelfeld's European stories may not be popular in Israel, as some Israelis view European Jews as people to be transformed into heroic new citizens. Others commemorate the tragic past, even as they transcend it. Such considerations are irrelevant to North American literary critics. The Conversion has been praised by the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, which named it the Best Fiction Book of 1995.

This novel's protagonist is Karl Hübner, an Austro-Hungarian civic employee who abandoned his Jewish faith for Catholicism, in order to become his town's municipal secretary. His religious conversion is complicated by the fact that he develops an emotional attachment to his people. These sentiments are reinforced when Gloria, his family's pro-Jewish peasant housekeeper, returns to the Hübner household. Eventually Karl and Gloria become lovers. Karl's loyalties are tested when Hochut, a local industrialist, proposes a redevelopment project that would dispossess poor Jewish merchants; his opposition to the plan alienates many people. Karl's growing sense of isolation leads him to resign and move with Gloria to Rosow, a distant small town. Unfortunately, his courageous stand against anti-Semitism leads him to a fateful confrontation with the local peasants.

The writer's attitude toward conversion is surely demonstrated by the fact that he lives in Israel. He affirms his Jewish heritage without producing an anti- assimilationist tract. Although the protagonist chooses his career over his people, the author merely observes him. Karl's act does not make him popular, even among Christians. Father Merser may view his converts as redeemed souls, but his lay peers may not share his opinion. When a typist learns about the ceremony, she repeats an anti-Semitic slur, "Jews are willing to do anything, even to convert" (28), uttered by her boss, Hübner's rival. Karl's conscience may be quiet, but his soul is restive. Although his deceased parents encouraged his conversion, he continues to feel Jewish and is unable to assume full membership in the Christian community. Ironically, he leaves his faith to serve all the people, but is ultimately unable to serve any.

Appelfeld's positive view of Gloria raises questions about his attitudes towards women. Chava Rosenfarb, a Canadian Jewish writer, charged the author with the glorification of Christian women, at the expense of Jewish ones, at a York University literary seminar. If she used only The Conversion to support her charges, one might state that she has mistaken Appelfeld for Philip Roth or Mordecai Richler. Gloria is an aging woman, fourteen years Carl's senior, when they became lovers. Perhaps the relationship is pseudo-Oedipal, since she functions as a surrogate mother to him. She is no "trophy shiksa," but a kind Christian woman, whose philo-Semitic inclinations are valued by the Jewish novelist.

The author was born in 1932, long after the Austro-Hungarian Empire crumbled, and had to rely on second-hand accounts to create his fictional town. This is at times problematic, such as when Karl and his friend Freddy meet in "the hospital café." In those days, European hospitals did not have cafés. Perhaps only older European readers would catch this error, but they are likely to be just as upset as a World War II veteran who reads a Canadian novel in which the characters celebrate V-E Day in a Fredericton Starbucks.

Despite these misgivings, this novel is worth reading because it presents a protagonist who must abandon his heritage in order to fulfill his ambition. Despite his success, he finds that only Gloria, a person who accepts him the way he is, stands by him in the end. The Conversion is yet another vote in favor of personal integrity.