The Latecomer

Joseph Oppenheimer is a famous ancestor of the Oppenheimer family, and his legacy is a touchstone for all of the children. His story becomes a motif that comes into play in many of the family members’ stories. Joseph Oppenheimer is an actual historical figure, and the novel accurately portrays both his life, and his misrepresentation after his death in an antisemitic Nazi propaganda film.

When Salo goes to Germany for the first time, the same trip that he discovers the Twombly, he is driving through Germany, and reflecting on his family’s heritage there: “He thought about these same towns and fields and roads at the time of Joseph Oppenheimer, our mythic ancestor, and at the same time of Goebbels’s Jud Süss” (18). This sets up both versions of Joseph Oppenheimer—the true history, and the propagandized version.

For Salo, Joseph’s legacy is a way to connect to his family’s Jewish heritage which, as a modern American man, he feels increasingly distant from. Both Lewyn and Harrison refer to Joseph Oppenheimer, in the same way, when they want to emphasize their Jewish identity—Lewyn to his roommate, Jonas, and Harrison to Eli Absalom Stone. Neither of them do it to link themselves to fame; rather, it is an effort to illustrate the depth of their Jewish heritage and the way it resonates through their family.

Jean Hanff Korelitz also uses Joseph Oppenheimer’s story to highlight the historical scapegoating of Jewish people, pulling Jewish history and heritage into a story that constantly reminds the reader that the Oppenheimers are, as Lewyn puts it, “more cultural Jews” (174). It also emphasizes the fact that, even though the family does not think of themselves as particularly Jewish, especially when it comes to faith, their ties to their Jewishness are strong and deep.