The Tribe by Bari Wood
Holocaust survivors get a taste for revenge
The Tribe is a horror novel based around the mythical Golem: a humanoid creature of Judaic folklore which is shaped out of clay and then brought to life to defend God’s chosen people.
The novel begins eerily enough in the immediate aftermath of WWII, as the Belzec extermination camp is liberated by the Allied forces. One barrack of Jewish captives appear to have been kept extraordinarily comfortable despite the horrors that abounded all around them. In fact, they seem better fed than even their German captors. Their good condition is a mystery, to be sure — but they’re not telling anyone the secret of how they not only survived but apparently thrived.
Flash forward to late 1970’s Brooklyn, and those very same men who were was prisoners of the Nazis, led by Rabbi Joseph Levy, remain tightly close-knit in a New York City that isn’t only not-exactly-friendly, but outright antagonistic.
All of NYC is a dump, and racial tensions run sky high. But this small tribe of Polish Jews persist, content in their insular community and unbothered by the outside world.
At least, until a tragedy occurs.
Levy’s son, Adam, is killed. Brutally slaughtered in the middle of the street by a violent gang on his way home from work. Leaving behind his distraught father and young wife, Rachel.
Not long after, the thugs who killed Adam are themselves murdered. Viciously torn limb from limb. No-one can explain quite how the wrath visited upon them might have been possible… nor can anyone explain the mysterious presence of grey clay all over their bloody corpses.
It falls to Black police detective and longtime friend of the Levys, Roger Hawkins, to try to put the pieces together, but everything about this case is so strange and nonsensical…
As The Tribe continues, it grows evermore epic, but it also means the book suffers somewhat from stretches that often feels somewhat directionless and meanders down narrative cul de sacs.
That said, while lengthy chapters focusing on Rachel’s love life, for example, feel unnecessary in terms of plot, in truth they are essential to paint a fuller picture of her character and how she evolves to become the person she must become for the events of the book’s climax. Sometimes you just have to take several steps back to see the bigger picture.
Rachel and Levy move to Long Island. She attempts to move on from Adam but can’t quite bring herself to untether herself from the past. And then there’s another death, which is subsequently followed by yet another retaliatory slaying with more grey clay left behind once again.
Rachel and Hawkins join forces, determined to uncover the truth, and to confront those who are responsible — no matter how much they might love them.
The Tribe deals with a lot of heavy themes such as morality, racism and antisemitism, and vigilante justice and for all its pulpiness, it transcends the limitations of a paperback horror novel.