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Vie tvs and Reviews
The genius of Malamud
by Joseph Cohen
When Bernard Malamud died
on March 17, he left behind a rich
literary legacy that was unique.
Though he was for years identified
with Philip Roth and Saul Bellow
as the Hart Schaffner & Marx of
American Jewish writing, he was
remarkably different from both of
his fellow novelists. Roth has ad
dressed our manners and behavior,
Bellow has addressed our intellec
tual concerns, but Malamud has
addressed nothing less than our
souls. Each in his own way has
enriched 20th century American
literature; no one of them needs to
he praised at the expense of the
others.
Yet now at the time of Malamud’s
passing, we have an obligation to
reflect upon the special ways in
which his genius manifested itself
in order better to apprehend his
gifts and place them in an appro
priate perspective.
What was his genius? Wherein
did it find expression? How was it
unique? For me, the answers to
these questions rest in Malamud’s
perception of what it meant to be
an American Jewish writer. For
him, more than for Roth and Bel
low. there was a dual conscious
ness involved: “Jewish” was Jewish
but "American” was Christian. Per
haps it was his marriage to Ann de
Chiara, a Catholic, that impressed
this duality upon him. J ust as there
was a need to balance their dispar
ate backgrounds in marriage, so
Malamud seems to have sought a
similar balance in his writing in
order to bring the dual conscious
ness of Judaism and Christianity
Bernard Malamud
tween self-interest and altruism,
provides Malamud with the opportu
nity to insist upon a mutual regard
for justice and mercy, love, a com
mitment to life and benevolent
action, and a respect for compas
sion and sharing.
When the poor, depressed and
resigned Jewish grocer in “The
Assistant,” Morris Bober, finds a
son in the poor non-Jewish drifter
Frank Alpine, and Frank, despite
the gulfs which must be traversed,
finds his father in Bober, fulfill
ment and redemption become pos
sible for both of them. Their tortu
rous journeys toward each other
are marked literally by a basic
question of survival, but beyond
and above that literal level Ma
lamud brings into play a richly var
iegated symbolism, both Jewish and
Christian, which gives meaning to
their struggles. Tsedakah and the
apocalyptic suffering of the Jews is
combined with the Parzival and
the Fisher King stories from the
Holy Grail legends, and to this is
added the spiritual import of St.
Francis of Assisi’s vows of poverty
and the theme of self-denial impli
cit in the medieval stories ot the
romance of the rose. The symbolic
layering is as complex and as sophis
ticated as anything we have in
modern literature—and as success
ful.
Indeed, it could be argued that
“ I he Assistant” functions at a high
er level than that more famous
story of the uniting of father and
son, James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” be
cause in “Ulysses” Leopold Bloom
and Stephen Daedalus are seeking
personal rather than spiritual con
solations. For Malamud, it is the
spiritual consolation that counts.
In his last novel, “God's Grace,”
Malamud returned to the same
Jewish-Christian tensions, draw
ing heavily from both the Old and
New Testaments, adding sophisti
cated symbolic constructs from
Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” Jew-
ish holidays, Freud, Einstein, and
the behavior patterns of the larger
primates. The moral imperative
that emerges is one that extends
the commands of love and caring
beyond humankind to all of God’s
creatures.
Moving easily through his nar
ratives of fable and fantasy, Mala
mud was always as much at home
in the supernatural world as in the
natural one. In this regard, he is
closer to Isaac Bashevis Singer
than to any other modern writer,
but with one pronounced differ
ence. Singer is attracted more to
the vicissitudes of evil and in his
stories morality is forced to enter
by the back door. With Malamud
the attraction has been to the good
for which the front door is always
open even if we do not sometimes
allow' it to enter.
Copyright 19Kh. Joseph C ohen
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:nto a unified cohesiveness.
Of course, it was possible to
embrace either experience separ
ately and throughout his career
Malamud moved back and forth
between the two experiences. His
lirst novel, “The Natural," has no
Jews in it at all. One of the best
known of the later novels, “The
Fixer,” depends entirely upon a
Jewish consciousness for its suc
cess: to comprehend it fully re
quires a sensitivity to the sufferings
of the Jews in Russia at the turn of
ihe century and an understanding
of menschleitkeit as a basic stand
ard of Jewish life.
At other times Malamud brought
the two experiences into a fruitful
coalescence which became the struc
tural support for those two ol his
novels which, in my view, are likely
to endure. One, “The Assistant,” is
already a classic; the other, “God’s
Grace,” is studded with levels of
meaning which have not yet been
fully explored.
In each of these works Malamud
juxtaposes the meaning of being
Jewish in the Christian diaspora
against the Christian’s obligation
to accept the Jew as his brother.
I he content and the intent ot both
theologies, one balanced against
the other, are revealed in their
outward thrusts and in their inward
sanctions. An emotionally charged
tension, ambivalent, always mov
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PAGE 19 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 11, 1986