I had somehow overlooked The Legend of the Holy Drinker, one of Roth’s last works (published posthumously in 1939, the year Roth died). There is an elegiac fable-like tone, although a mere recounting of the story sounds light and superficial: a homeless vagrant in Paris is given 200 francs by a mysterious stranger who requests that if the money is ever repaid, that it be given to the priest at the nearby church of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Almost predictably, the man spends the money unwisely. Then, by a series of fortuitous events—are they lucky breaks or are they miracles?—more money comes to him. Twice. The story is concerned quite simply with what happens each time he comes into new money. But the simplicity of the story is belied by Roth’s enormous talent as a writer. What would have been unworthy of the time it took to read in the hands of many writers is here transformed into a deeply thoughtful, dry-eyed parable. ( )

Of the three novellas, almost long short stories, in this collection, the second, "The Bust of the Emperor," treads the most familiar Joseph Roth territory: the end of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the change in borders, the rise of "nationalities," and the longing for what is lost. Both of the other venture into less familiar ground: "Fallmereyer the Stationmaster," while providing a vivid portrait of the far reaches of the empire, also shows a man obsessed by and transformed by love, while "The Legend of the Holy Drinker," my favorite of the three, portrays a poverty-stricken drunkard who, enobled by kindness, transforms himself, at least for a while. It is an unusual sign of hope in Roth's work, and was one of the last things he wrote before essentially dying of alcoholism himself.

This was an excellent introduction to Roth, which consisted of three very good novellas:

Fallmerayer the Stationmaster: The life of a stationmaster in a small Austrian town is permanently altered after he rescues a Russian countess from a horrible train crash a short distance away.

The Bust of the Emperor: An aging count and relic of the defeated Hapsburg Empire is forced to come to terms with the changes in post World War I Europe and his diminished status.

The Legend of the Holy Drinker: A vagrant in Paris experiences a series of good strokes of luck, which renew his faith and self worth. He is indebted to his original benefactor, and makes several futile but humorous attempts to repay the saint who inspired his gentleman friend. ( )