A comparison of Jewish life in the work of the two novelists becoming a form of social critique and controversy. Anti-Semitism appearing in both authors framed by the acceptance or rejection of Jewish identity. Judaism for Proust and Roth as a complicated but sustained topic that became a psychological, as much as a religious, question which in turn became the concept of “Jewishness” rather than Judaism. Its link in Proust to homosexuality, in Roth to sexuality. Parallel focus on the tenuous role of Jews in non-Jewish societies. Also in Proust, the stylistic and Judaic role of the Talmud. In both writers, characters negotiate difficult social and sexual roles, with love always a troublesome state variously referred to in Proust as “a mutual torment” or “reciprocal torture.” Love in Roth is no different.