A Bernard Malamud Reader

even mysterious, of American Jewish writes. Bernard Malamud is the author of four novels and two

volumes of short stories, he has received several National prizes. He has been appraised as a special sort of genre-

writer, dealing with the "laughter through tears," the habits of life, exotic to outsiders, of

immigrant Jews, an ethnic group considered to stand in a marginal relation to American

sciety at large. Bernard Malamuds "Jewishness" as he understands and above all feels it,

is one of teh principal sources of value in his work as it effects both his conception of

experience in general, and his conception of imaginative writing in particular. I recently

read a short story by Malamud called, "The Magic Barrel." A jewish trait I noticed while

reading Malamuds short story is how he demonstrates his feeling for human suffering on

the one hand and for a life of value, order, and dignity on the other. “The Magic Barrel”

cleary demonstrates Malamud’s style of writing.

Of all Malamud’s stories, surely the most masterful is “The Magic Barrel,” perhaps the

. . .

Malamuds universality is rooted in distinctive character types, settings, and details. e read written by an American writer in my recent years.

Jewish in style and character types, Bernard Malamud’s fiction may appeal to a broad

range of people who may appreciate the author’s warmth, ironic humor, and memorable

characters. Brother-

in – law owns garment business.

The fable about the business doings between Leo Finkle, a lonely rabbinical student, and

Pinye Salzman, a matchmaker, is still as funny and sad and searching as it was the first time I read

this particular short story.

I strongly feel that “The Magic Barrel,” is probably the most famous of Malamud’s shorter

works and the title of his first collection, which brought him the first of two National Book Awards. The description of the picture is full of mystery, yet admirably

concrete; it is as good as, if not better than, the description of the picture of Nastasya Filippovna

which makes so much for the vitality of the first part of The Idiot, another short story written by

Malamud. Salzman, leaning against a wall, chanted prayers for the dead. Who can ever forget the the

matchmaker Salzman, “a commercial Cupid,” smelling “frankly of fish which he loved to eat,” who

looked as if her were about to expire but who somehow managed, by a trick of his facial muscles,

“to display a broad smile”? The pictures of prospective brides that the matchmaker shows the

rabbinical student Finkle, intent on marimony, prove very discouraging-all these girls turn out to be

either old maids or cripples. Suffering is Malamuds focus, and in my opinion I believe that no other author probes the

subject more intensely. The sufferings of

a rabbinic student, Leo Finkle, and his heroic but ungainly attempt to turn his life inside out, as he

grasps desperately with his forlorn search for a marriage partner, are wrenching and inexpressibly

moving.

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Approximate Word count = 1189
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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