Focus

Set in New York City during the final months of World War II, the novel follows Lawrence Newman, a fastidious, middle-aged personnel manager living on a residential block in Queens. Newman leads a regimented life: He maintains his house with obsessive care and looks after his mother, who is paralyzed below the hips. Each morning he buys a newspaper from Mr. Finkelstein, the Jewish candy store owner on the corner, careful not to touch the man's hands. On the subway, he plays a game of classifying passengers by ethnicity, taking particular satisfaction in spotting a Jew others might miss. His neighbor Fred, who works at the same company, regularly talks about driving Jews and Puerto Ricans from the neighborhood through a local anti-Semitic organization called the Christian Front. Newman declines to attend meetings but is privately stirred by the talk.

For over 20 years, Newman has worked at a large corporation, where he designed a glass-enclosed office to oversee 70 stenographers. His eyesight has deteriorated so badly that he can no longer see through the glass. His boss, Mr. Gargan, discovers the problem when Newman accidentally hires a Jewish applicant, violating the company's unwritten exclusionary policy, and orders Newman to get glasses immediately.

When Newman puts on his new glasses and looks in the mirror, he is horrified: The frames and magnified lenses make him look, in his estimation, unmistakably Jewish. His mother confirms the resemblance. Emboldened by sharper vision, Newman interviews candidates and encounters Gertrude Hart, a striking woman who stirs in him a powerful attraction recalling a fantasy he has carried since the trenches of World War I. When Newman moves to reject Gertrude for lacking qualifications, she explodes, insisting she is a Christian, not Jewish. She has taken Newman for a Jew and believes he is discriminating against her. Frozen, Newman recognizes that his lifelong hatred of Jews reflects his own projected desires and insecurities. Gertrude storms out, leaving him shaken.

Shortly after, a vice-president visiting the building objects to Newman's appearance in his public-facing office, and Gargan demotes him to a back-office position. Unable to accept the humiliation, Newman quits.

On the block, the atmosphere shifts. Fred, Carlson the bank teller, and a newspaper peddler position themselves on Finkelstein's corner in an act of intimidation. Newman buys from the peddler rather than from Finkelstein, aware the others are watching. That evening, Fred presses Newman to join the organization, and Newman agrees, feeling a rush of belonging.

Newman's job search in Manhattan is humiliating. At the Akron Corporation, a personnel manager named Stevens seems interested until Newman gives his name, then pauses imperceptibly and refuses him. That night, an acquaintance recommends Newman try the very same man, revealing that Stevens is actively seeking someone with Newman's qualifications. Sitting alone near Trinity Church, Newman realizes Stevens rejected him for looking Jewish and that no proof of identity could reverse such a judgment.

Days of fruitless searching erode him further. Fred and Carlson begin snubbing him. One morning Newman finds his garbage can overturned, its contents spread across his lawn, while every other can on the block stands upright. Finkelstein's garbage has also been scattered repeatedly; the storekeeper shows Newman a threatening note ordering Finkelstein to leave the neighborhood in five days. Finkelstein attributes the vandalism to the Christian Front and suggests Newman's targeting was probably a mistake. Newman walks away without confirming or denying.

Following a help-wanted ad, Newman discovers Gertrude at the Meyers-Peterson Corporation. She reveals she is not Jewish; her features simply caused employers to assume so, just as Newman's glasses do for him. His perception of her transforms: The same face he once read as crudely Jewish now appears spirited and dignified. She arranges a job for him, and they begin dating. She tells him stories about her past, many later revealed as fabricated, and speaks admiringly of Father Coughlin, a popular radio priest known for anti-Semitic broadcasts. Newman proposes in Central Park, and Gertrude accepts.

Their honeymoon weekend goes badly. They drive to an upstate hotel where Newman once vacationed, not registering that its sign reads "Restricted clientele" (115). The owner refuses them a room despite a nearly empty parking lot. Newman stands paralyzed, unable to beg for admission. The incident exposes a fault line: Gertrude sees their problem as mistaken identity to be corrected, while Newman senses something deeper.

Back home, Gertrude reveals her real history: She grew up on Staten Island and lived for three years in California with a man who ran an anti-Semitic organization. She recognizes a visitor to Fred's house as someone who travels the country funding such groups and insists Newman attend the upcoming rally to establish himself on the right side.

In a parallel chapter, Finkelstein visits a Jewish cemetery and recalls his father's story of Itzik, a peddler in old Poland. A baron commanded Itzik to sell wares to serfs who had unknowingly stolen the baron's fortune, intending to stage a pogrom, an organized massacre of Jews, to recover the money. Itzik accepted the role, and his family was slaughtered. Finkelstein draws the moral: Itzik should never have accepted the part designed for him. Seeing a headstone smashed and marked with a swastika, Finkelstein resolves that no one will make an Itzik out of him.

Newman attends the rally in a sweltering hall, where a priest from Boston delivers a fiery anti-Semitic speech. The man beside Newman notices that Newman has not clapped and grabs his collar. Despite frantic protests, Newman is beaten and ejected. Walking home through dark lots, weeping, he is intercepted by Finkelstein, who had been watching from outside. Finkelstein presses him: What does Newman see when he looks at a Jew that makes him want Jews gone? Newman offers standard accusations, but each time Finkelstein asks whether he personally has done these things, Newman cannot say yes. He realizes he dislikes Finkelstein because Finkelstein's face is the face of someone who should act in an abhorrent way, the same logic now applied to Newman's own face. Finkelstein erupts: Jews are merely a tool for the Front to seize power; the real targets are ordinary citizens like Newman. Finkelstein declares he will not move.

That night, Newman confronts Fred and demands to be left alone. Fred admits some members believe Newman is Jewish, especially after marrying Gertrude. Newman declares he will not give up his house. Over the following weeks, Newman experiences the city as a place of constant surveillance: He monitors his gestures in restaurants, leaves larger tips, and scans every face for hostility, having lost his anonymity.

On a winter evening, after Newman and Gertrude see a film depicting Jewish persecution, young men follow them home. Near Finkelstein's store, attackers surround them and Gertrude runs. As Newman is knocked down, Finkelstein bursts from the store wielding two baseball bats and hands one to Newman. Standing back to back, the two men fight off the assailants. Newman discovers that Gertrude fled to Fred's house rather than calling for help, a failure he experiences as a profound betrayal. He walks away from both of them and goes to the police precinct.

When the officer asks how many "of you people" (216) live on the street, assuming Newman is Jewish, Newman does not correct him. He answers that there are the Finkelsteins on the corner, and just them and himself. Rather than deny the identity forced upon him, Newman chooses to stand with Finkelstein. As he tells his story, he feels as though he is setting down a weight he has been carrying his entire life.