Identity

Throughout the novel, the author uses Ruben’s first person point of view as a gateway into his explorations concerning identity. The author establishes this notion at the forefront of the novel, particularly via Ruben’s self-introduction at the start of Chapter 1. Ruben opens his account saying, “My name is Ruben Blum and I’m an, yes, an historian. Soon enough, though, I guess I’ll be historical” (11, Cohen’s italics). Although Ruben’s identity as the “first Jew in the whole entire school—faculty and . . . student-body included,” soon becomes a key source of narrative tension, Ruben does not immediately identify himself as a Jewish man (15). Indeed, he goes on to explain that he escaped “‘a useless past,’ the Jewish past, . . . for pagan academe and the hills and dales of my peaceful sub-Niagaran woodland” (15). For most of his life following his Jewish upbringing, Ruben admits that...