READING GROUP GUIDE

There was a man in the land of Uz named Job. That man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him; his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-asses, and a very large household. . . . The LORD said to the Adversary, “Have you noticed My servant Job? There is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil!” The Adversary answered the LORD, “Does Job not have good reason to fear God? Why, it is You who have fenced him round, him and his household and all that he has. You have blessed his efforts so that his possessions spread out in the land. But lay Your hand upon all that he has and he will surely blaspheme You to Your face.” The LORD replied to the Adversary, “See, all that he has is in your power, only do not lay a hand on him.”

—Job 1:1–4, 7–13

“Rabbi Levi bar Lachma said Job lived in the days of Moses. . . . But then one could say Job lived in the days of Isaac . . . or one could say in the days of Jacob . . . or one could say in the days of Joseph. . . . A certain rabbi [hearing the dispute] said: Job never lived and was never created, but was just a parable.”

—Talmud (Bava Batra 15a)

“From the start, the forces were unequal: Satan a grand seigneur in heaven, Job mere flesh and blood. And anyway, the contest was unfair. Job, who had lost all his wealth and had been bereaved of his sons and daughters and stricken with loathsome boils, wasn’t even aware that it was a contest.

“Because he complained too much, the referee silenced him. So, having accepted this decision, in silence, he defeated his opponent without even realizing it. Therefore his wealth was restored, he was given sons and daughters—new ones, of course—and his grief for the first children was taken away.

“We might imagine that this retribution was the most terrible thing of all. We might imagine that the most terrible thing was Job’s ignorance: not understanding whom he had defeated, or even that he had won. But in fact, the most terrible thing of all is that Job never existed and was just a parable.”

—Dan Pagis (1930–1986)*

*From Dan Pagis, The Selected Poetry of Dan Pagis. Stephen Mitchell, ed. & trans. Copyright 1996, The Regents of the University of California. Courtesy of University of California Press.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. The novel begins with a description of the main characters, Leora and Bill Landsmann, as “tourists.” What makes them tourists, besides their travels? Can one ever stop being a tourist in this sense?