LIKE A TEAR IN THE OCEAN (Qu'une larme dans l'ocean)

Novels by Manés Sperber, 1951

Like a Tear in the Ocean (1988; originally published in French in 1951), Manés Sperber's trilogy of novels about the major political and social processes of the period from 1931 to 1944, is set against the background of the spread of Fascism and the Holocaust. (Confusion frequently arises because the same title is often applied to the third volume of the trilogy, and it does serve as the title of one of the chapters of that volume. That chapter was also published as a separate volume in French under the same title, with a preface by André Malraux.) Although vigorously denied by the author, many consider the trilogy to be autobiographical or a roman á clef. His protestations notwithstanding, at the very least it reflects many aspects of Sperber's personal and complex journey through political and ideological commitment, betrayal, and discovery during those turbulent years. Sperber was one of that group of politically engaged intellectuals who supported revolutionary Communism but gradually came to see that the movement's humanitarian goals had been corrupted by its Soviet managers, and inevitably he arrived at the realization that its claims to ultimate truth were as vacuous as similar claims of any other movement or organization. Indeed, in Sperber's case he had already rejected religion and Zionism, and in 1937 he parted from the Communist Party and resigned from the high posts he held within it.

The central conflict of the trilogy involves the dilemma faced by individuals who, once committed to the humanitarian values of the left, have since rejected its manifest tyranny but now must come to terms with the pressing need to oppose Nazism, which, however, necessarily implies allying themselves with the agents of Stalin and the Soviet Union and the evil they in turn present. The choices are between two evils, neither of which, in the long view, is lesser. Faber, Rubin, and the others who arrive at the same crossroads, as Sperber liked to describe it, elect to struggle against the Nazis out of love for humanity, for a greater though undefined good, and against evil, but not for any ideology or political alignment. The uncertainty of such a goal requires a much more powerful and profound personal commitment than to a packaged ideology.

If this had been played out in abstract terms—that is, as a debate of ideas—it would have been a simple political treatise, as indeed some readers have referred to it. In fact Sperber avoids this by having his characters not only debate ideas but also be actively and passionately involved in the struggles with which they are intellectually engaged. They are passionate and fallible, and they change and grow. Moreover, they do not simply read or hear about the treachery of Soviet GPU agents and the evil and violent policies of the Nazis; these things arrive at their doors and claim as victims not only their conscience and innocence but frequently also their own lives, their families, friends, and collaborators.

The peripatetic protagonists cross back and forth across continental Europe, from East to West, and their moral and ideological struggles intersect in complex ways. Sperber's training and experience as an Adlerian psychologist is compellingly manifested in the drama and passion of his characters' inner struggles and social confrontations.

Perhaps the most dramatic and pointed section of the entire trilogy, and certainly one of its most artistically successful parts, is the penultimate chapter of the third volume, the one entitled "Like a Tear in the Ocean." It describes the fate of the inhabitants of the town of Wolynya, a Jewish enclave in eastern Poland in 1944. It is virtually the only remaining Jewish community in Poland, and its Jewish residents are faced with a hopeless situation. They are to be rounded up and either killed or sent to camps. Their perceived options can be reduced to two: martyrdom or resistance. Resistance is a complex option because not only will it likely not succeed, but for some it presents the morally unacceptable choice of violence, and it hinges on an alliance with local Poles, most of whom represent the same threat as the Nazis. The majority are wiped out by the Nazis, and only a small number choose resistance. Their fate is as predicted. The portrayal of Bynie, the memorable and enigmatic rabbinical leader of this last group, is imbued with the same tragic ambiguity as Isaac Babel's Last Rebbe from Red Cavalry.

The tragedy of Wolynya is consistent with the entire trilogy: Sperber provides no easy solutions, no simple answers, and no comfort. The intellectual resolution he suggests is that to search for wisdom and understanding for the sake of humanity is endless but unequivocally worthwhile; while the psychological resolution he indicates in the innocence and promise of children is entirely Camusian.

—Allan Reid