The Number Hall

Andrzej H. Mrozewski is a librarian at Laurentian University.

This is a story of Raphael Zontag, an elderly “ordinary” man of our
times, a Jew who survived Nazi atrocities in occupied Poland and now
lives in Montreal. The book could also be titled “the two lives of a
Jew named Raphael Zontag” because, as with the majority of his
European contemporaries (Jews and non-Jews), Zontag’s earthly
existence was mercilessly partitioned by the cataclysm of World War II.

The plot is simple: Zontag meets Joseph, a young Jew who is addicted to
drugs, in the Number Hall, a gambling place where the participants are
both players and numbers. Zontag, whose wife and child were murdered in
Baranowicze ghetto, is guilt-ridden, believing that he was a bad husband
and father. He decides to save Joseph and his family from
self-destruction.

This deceptively simple novel relates a powerful story with a wide
range of emotions. There is something Dostoyevskian in the author’s
treatment of human nature, his attitude toward children, and his
frequent recourse to the Holy Scriptures.

There is a constant mix of description, ranging from the realistic,
very clinical description of people’s behavior in the scene involving
the man with AIDS in the Number Hall to the almost lyrical evocation of
nature in a small garden plot or the nostalgic account of Jewish life in
Montreal. (A minor quibble: Jagellonian University is located in Cracow,
not Lwow.)

This book deserves a wide audience. Oberon Press must be commended for
publishing it.