
The Magic Worlds of Bernard Malamud
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Offers personal recollections of and critical perspectives on this major American author.
Description
In the best literary tradition, Bernard Malamud uses the particular experiences of his subjects—Eastern European Jews, immigrant Americans, and urban African Americans—to express the universal. This book offers an exploration of this beloved American writer's fiction, which has won two National Book Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. In addition to the literary studies, personal recollections by son Paul Malamud, memoirs and portraits by good friends, colleagues, and fellow writers such as Cynthia Ozick, Daniel Stern, and Nicolas Delbanco illuminate Malamud's life and work. The contributors reveal that in an age that deconstructs, Malamud's voice does not. Instead, it speaks clearly and imaginatively with the weight of ancient traditions and the understanding of modern conditions.
Evelyn Avery is Professor of English and Coordinator of Jewish Studies at Towson University. She is the author of Rebels and Victims: The Fiction of Richard Wright and Bernard Malamud.
Reviews
"He wrote about suffering Jews, about poor Jews, about grocers and fixers and birds and horses and angels in Harlem and matchmakers and salesmen and rabbis and landlords and tenants and egg chandlers and writers and chimpanzees; he wrote about the plentitude and unity of the world...May the memory of this great and humane Master be blessed and forever green. As it will be, as long as there are readers." — Cynthia Ozick, from chapter 3, "Remembrances: Bernard Malamud"
"The book offers a remarkably vivid and consistent portrait of this significant American writer and marks a valuable contribution to what we know about Malamud." — Andrew Furman, author of Israel Through the Jewish-American Imagination