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English Master’s Theses
English
1984
Bernard Malamud: Metamorphosis of an Author
Susan S. Abbotson
The College at Brockport, [email protected]
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Abbotson, Susan S., "Bernard Malamud: Metamorphosis of an Author" (1984). English Master’s Theses. Paper 95.
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Bernard Malamud:
Metamorphosis of an Author
by
Susan
c.
Abbotson
A Thesis
Submitted to the Department of English of the State
University of New York, College at Brockport,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
1 9 84
'
For Mum and Dad
B ernard Malamud a
Metamorphosis o f an Author
by Susan C . Abbotson .
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.Table of Content s
Page
S ection
Intrpduct ion
Art and the Artist
Malamud as a J�wish/�merican�riter
Jl
The Magic Barrel
51
Rembrandt's Hat
110
ponclus ion
1 62
J3ibliography
168
iv.
I ntroduction
Laurel Canham once stated that the " Crit ics o�
B ernard Malamud ' s stories s eem to agree upon only one
thing , that the man is a truly great writer , but beyond
t hat they seem incapable of agreeing on anything else . " 1
Such a statement stresses the ambivalence with which
critics in the pas t have approached Malamud ' s work .
I ndeed , there have b een critics such as Anatole Broyard
or Norman Podhoretz who would even deny Malamud the
honour of bein& c lass i fied as a great writer . 2
The
J
fact is , conclus ive interpretations of his writings
become problemat ic s ince the author himself has been a
"
figure of such amb iguity . I n 1 975 Sanford P insker , in
a discussion o f Malamud ' s short stories , declared that
Malamud " has done l ittle more than rewrite The Magic
B arrel for the past fifteen years . " :3
I strongly
'
disagree and intend to illustrate the extreme
metamorphosis which I �eel occurred within Malamud ' s
stories , within that same fifteen year period . T hough
R embrandt ' s Hat did not enj oy the same critical success
as The Magic Barrel , I �eel it to be a more honest ,
and therefore superior piece of writing . Though many
feel The Magic Barrel was an exc ellent piece o� work ,
there is , as I have stated , s ome controversy over the
val idity of such a c onclus ion . By highlighting this
1.
controversy and �mphasising the as�ects of �he �agic
.
Barrel which can be takeq as j�sti:fying i...�s.
deprecation, I. w;sh to encourage a more appreciative
reevaluatio�·of Rembrandt's Hat, wpich I f.e�l, has
been sadly overlooked �nd mis�nterpreted in the light
of its predecessor.
As Joyce Fl�nt tells us; "writers react, eitl'l-er
implicitly or e�plicitly, to the tensions and
dilemmas of their age and thus their writings yield
valuable ins�ghts about the nature of the society, and
also offer visions of the d�rection in which that
society might move." 4
The Mag'-c Barrel was a true
r�flection of the American fifties, and, to an extent,
Rembrandt's Hat is represe11tati,ve o� the social beliefs
of the seventies; but it �s not just the society which
has in.trinsically changed, it is
. also the
wri t�r,
and
he has alte�ed rather dra� tically. This is something
I shall try to�rove by a �irect comparison betweep
The Magic Barrel and Rembrandt's Hat. As Cynthia Ozick
has asked concerning Malamud, ''Is it merely that;
soci�ty has changed so much since the late 19�0's,, or
is it that the author
•
•
•
was, even then, obtuse ?" 5
Malamud himself confesses when explaining abo�t the
seemingly different views he depicts in Rembrandt's
Hat as oppos�d to his earlier stories, "They're the
stories of an older man than the one who wrote The
2.
Magic Barrel and Idiots First, possib:ly a
who
n:an
knows more. than he did ten or !ifteen years ago.
''
6
As Feliks Levitans-ky proclaims in " Man in the Drawer,"
" I have YJritten alr.eady my fairy �ales
•
the time for truth without disguises." 7
•
•
Now is
I_n iroy reading,
Malamud v.icariously speaks through the mouth of
Lev.itansky, and a study of this character will tell us
a great deal about the author.
Malamud once said, "A short· st�ry is a way of
indicating the complexity of life in a few pages . . . ,. 8
There is a distinct advantage to this as Malamud also
points out, "I confess having been longer in love with
short fiction. If one begins early in life to make up
and tell stories, he has a better chance to be heard
out if he keeps them short." 9 This study concentrates
on two short story col�ections. To highlight the extreme
contrast b�tween,The Magic Barrel ( 1 9 58 ) , the first of
Malamud's collect·io:ps, and Rembrandt's Hat ( 1 9 7.3 ) , the
most recent original collection, and so as not t�
cloud the issue of this contrast, I have omitted any
close study of Idiots First ( 196.3 ) , which, in assence,
is very similar to The Magic B arrel. It is the
difference between The Magic Barrel and Rembrandt's
Hat on which I wish to concentrate. I feel that the
short stories of Malamud tell us the most about the
author and his ideals. In general the novels tend to
J.
lack the sharp pointedness of the short stories, often
becoming too wordy for their themes, which are in
danger of being buried. Many of Malamud's novels are
in fact just extended reworkings of one or more of his
short stories. Examples of such are The Assistant,
created out of "The Cost of Living" and "The First
l
Seven Years, " or A New Life, partially researched in
,_
.
" Choice of Profession." The short stories are evidently
the breeding ground for Malamud's main views on life
and art, and as such will proffer the most for a close
study.
I shall begin by discussing Malamud's views on
the role of the artist, with some close reference to
the character of Levitansky. This will lead into a
general discussion of Malamud's sociological background.
The rest of this thesis will deal solely with The Magic
Barrel and Rembrandt's Hat and the ideological co�trasts
between them. Showing, how Malamud ' s world view has
taken a complete reversal within so few years. How, he
has departed from a position of idealism and optimism
towards one declaring a disintegration of hope and
affirmative pessimism. I will depict the two extremes
which may exist within the one author, given both the
changes in the world around him and more importantly,
the changes within the author himself.
4.
�------ �-�-
Notes
1
Laurel Canham , "Matrix and Al legory in Selected
·
Malamud Short Stories , ., Linguistics in Literature , 2,
No. 3 (1 9 7 7), 8 6 .
2
Anatole Broyard, "If the Hat doesn't fit . .
New York Times, 17 May 1 9 7 3 ,
p.
.
, "
4 1. Norman Podhoretz,
"The New Nihilism in the American Novel," in Doings
( New
and Undoingsa The Fifties and After in America
York� Farrar, Straus , and Giroux , 1 9 6 4),
pp.
17 6 -7 8 .
3 Sanford Pinsker, "Bernard Mal amud's Ironic
Heroes," in Bernard Malamud: A Collection of Critical
Essays, eds. Leslie A. Field and Joyce
( Englewood Cliffs, N . J. : Prentice-Hal l ,
w.
Field
19 7 5 ), p. 47.
4 Joyce lV!arlene Flint, "In Search of :rv:eaning:
Bernard Malamud, Norman �iailer, John Updike," DAI, 30
(1 9 6 9), 3 00 6 A
( Washington State University) ,
p.
iv.
5 Cynthia Ozick, "Literary Blacks and Jews," in
Bernard Malamud: A Collection of Critical Essays, eds.
Leslie A. Field and Joyce W. Field
( Englewood Cl iffs,
N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 19 7 5), p. 8 1.
6 Leslie A. Field and Joyce W. Field, "An
5-
-
Interview with Bernard "Malamud , " in Bernard Malamud:
A Collection of Critical Essays , eds. Leslie A. Field
and Joyce W. Field (Englewood Cliffs , N. J.: Prentice­
Ha1.1 , 197.5) , p
"
·•
16".
7 Bernard If.ala'mud , Rembrandt's Hat (London: Penguin ,
1980), p. 60.
8
Daniel Stern , "The Art of Fiction: Bernard
Malamud , " Paris Review , f6, No. 61 (Spring l97.5), 62 .
9 Bernard Malamud , "Pleasures of the Fast Payoff , "
New York Times Book Review , 28 Aug. 1983, p. J.
6.
Art and the· Artist
·
The fupction of art �nd the role an� responsibility
of the artist, featur��trongly in all of Malamud's
writing. Therefore, to discuss Malamud in any d�pth,
one muet first determine e��ctly what Malamud qel�eves
these functions and responsibi�iti�� to be.
In discussing the relationship of art and the
artist with Joe W,ershba in 1958, Malamud stated that
"The work comes firs�
•
•
•
the artie.t is secondary." 1
Evidently .he is placing the greater importance on the
product than on the prodl:lcer. In "Man in the Drawer,"
Harvit� asks, "Ho� far do you go for art ?" 2
Malamud's
answer would most likely be, "All the way :" I am going
to examine the funct�on of art nox as a universal, but
as Malamud sees it.
Malamud has E?t�ted that·"Art must interpret, or it
is· mindless." J
What is it that Malamud is trying to
interpret ? As he declared in the article cited above,
you need to choose a theme that excites your experience
and speaks to your talent. 4
This is the choic � which
Iska Alter talks of when she mentions that "one of the
I.
more crucial problems faced by the artist in Malamud's
fiction is the discovery and choice of the appropriate
t
source of nourishment for both spirit and talent." 5
So already we can see Malamud has perhaps been using
his "artist character.s" to help himself make this
chQice. I am nQt saying that,Malamud ie a .selfish
writer writing only for himself, though at times he
may appe�r soL but that he is a writer str�ving the
only way he knows, through his writing, to discover a
sense Q:f' purpose. As Malamud has 'Said, "Some are born
whole; other& must seek this blessed state in
to achieve order .
matter of fiction."
a
struggle
such seeking becomes the subject
6
Robert Alter. is worxied about
Malamud's sense of purpose in that "What seems to
underlie a large part of Malamud's work is a private
obsession presenting itself.as a universal moral
vision." 7
This may be true, bu.t it is not what
Malaml.ld really wants; ·he himself has said, "No good
writer writes only to write as he p1eases.. He writes
for a purpose, an idea, an effect; .he writes fto make
himself fe�t and understood." 8
In 1963 Malamud said :
The writer's involvement in writing is
!.
involvement with social problems; he doesn't
need political involvement. A writer must
say something worthwhile, but it must be art;
his problem is to handle social issues so
imaginatively and uniquely that they become
art. 9
8.
Is Malamud inadvertently defining the function of art
here as enabling the writer to hi'de behi'nd hi's work ?
Art allows you openly to say things which you may not
otherwise be able to ? Harold Ribalow �a1ks of
Malamud's "search for freedom through art." 10
Perhaps
the freedom Malamud finds is a freedom�of speech without
having to face the consequences ? This may be �ru�. 'but
it is not a suggestion which Malamud would welcome,
though he is aware of the dangers inherent in free
thinking. He once declared, "I'm for freedorr. of thought,
but one must recogriise-that"it doesn't necessarily lead
to art. Free thought may come close to self deceit." 11
Malamud sees art ideally, as a way of facing up to the
truth, rather thah edging arouhd it. Art is a weapon
against injustice, as it gives the writer an opportunity
to wield his mighty pen against the wrongs of the world.
Malamud's alter-ego, Levitansky, declares in "Man in the
Drawer," ·that "Whatever is the injustice, the product
must be art
••.
12
Though naturally one should use his art to aid
mankind, or so Malamud believes, he also recognises
art's quality as an ultimate form of self-expression.
As Karla Harris declares in "Notes from a Lady at a
Dinner Party," " I like to write to people I like. I
like to write things that suddenly occur to me
You have to let me be who I am." 1.3
9.
· ·•.;
•
.
.
Daniel Stern asks
Malamud if art is a force which can change the world,
and Malamud replied ;1 "It 'changes me. It affirms me. " 1 4
Art becomes a creator of personality in the freedom it
allows the artist. "Ultimately a ,writer's mind and
heart, if any, are revealed in his fiction." 15
Indeed,
a lack of art in one's 11fe, if the ·artist has �ost his
direction, can reduce tke artist to a nonen�ity like
Mitka in "The Girl of My Dreams.\, In this tale we 'are
s h own an artist struggling to reengage with reality
after he has allowed 'his imagination to take over his
life. As Iska Alter tells us, "Without his writing to
give him identit y, Mitka is' reduced to a silent nullity." 16
Mitka has retreated from all worldly encounters into
a solipcist existence in'his "bare" room, which in its
emptiness only adds �o.hi� lack of presence. Mitka has
been artisticall y defeated and has for the moment given
in. His landlady cannot even tempt him sexual·ly. Thus
his creative sterility is reflected in his sexual
sterility.
Anothe�remark which Malamud made to Daniel Stern
is that "the· real mystery to crack is you." l 7
He
suggests also that writing is a good way of te�ting
and finding yourself. 18
When you.know yourself, you
can write better fiction. Perhaps this is precisely
what Ma�amud has been doing between The Magic· Barrel
and Rem�randt's Hat, finding himself through art ?
10.
This is sornetnirtg I will deal with in some depth in
the later half of this thes'i·s; I wilJ:, however, make
one further comment at this point. During this search
for identity, there must be an equal chance that tne
artist may head off on the wrong track, as well as the
right one. Therefore, one must guard against the
danger of moving further away from one's sense of self
rather than towards it. As Rene Winegarten�ointed out,
"Underlying Malamud's work is the dilemma 'of the
r
conflicting claims of art and life which preoccupied
the writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth
century." l 9
·
(This is a very traditional view, and I
shall comment on Malamud's fondness for the traditional
in a moment.) Howe�er, there is the danger tnat if you
allow art to take over completely, then you may lose
track of life. A ·balance of some kind must be preserved,
and Malamud feels that, ultimately, art should be
subordinate to li�e. Art should reflect life, and we
should not allow life to be seen solely through art. I
shalt itlustrate this danger more fully towards the end
of the chapter when I return to my discussion on Mitka.
I have been discussing in the broadest t'erms
Malamud's conceptions as to the function of art. I will
now deal with the role and responsibility of the artist.
In the characters of Mitka, Fidelman, Levitansky, or
any of numerous others, .Malamud shows his deep interest
11.
in the role
of the... artist. Is not.- this because
he is
'
{
�
constantly looking for a satisfactory �rtistic role
for himse+f ?
As an artist , Malamud displays a certain insecurity,
e�pecia�ly early on in his career. Even by 1973 he still
has a strong dislike of interviews and ehows a
pre;f�renc.e to write , rather than repl;y spontaneously,
to any queries about h�s work. He declares, "I like
privacy and as m�ch as possible t9 stay out of rey
books. " 20
A_ need for privacy is one thing, but an
inability to f,eel �t ease discussing a piece of "fiction"
which you have written sugges�s the author may be trying
to hide something. Leslie A. ?ield and Joyce W. Field
tell us that "He felt strongly th�t one shouldn't
CQnfuse the �uthor's life witp his fic�ion or even
deyote much effort to relating the two. "
21
Malamud is
full of contradiction. He declare? th�t none of his
"fiction" is autobiographical , yet also strongly
st�tes that an author rna� only write effective+y out of
�xp�rience. In a rare interview with Stern in 1975 ,
Malamud talks of "inventing" the writer befpre you can
begin to write.
22
This could be viewed as a
displacement of responsibility, for if an artist really
belieyes in what he is writing, why sho�ld h� hide so
consistently behind his characters , or attempt to
create a false p�rsona ? Is it so he can then blame
12.
therr. if things go wrong , rather than take the
responsibility of what he writes ? Is it that Malamud ,
like Harvitz in "The Man in the Drawer," is scared
of
the truth and of openly �ssisting his fellow man ? As
Irving, Saposnik �tates , "Harvitz is frightened and
reluctant to assume the burqen of assi
- stance. " 2 3
.
Maybe Malam\ld the man is also "frightened and reluctant"
to take on that burden; �et , in .feeling he must take
on som� responsibility , he creat,es "Malamud the writer"
�o speak out for him.
Another question we should ask is why Malamud
concerns himself so often with �truggling and frustrated
artists who f�equently fail in what they do; with his
Pulitzer Prize and two National Book Awards , he must
surely be deemed a ,success. Does his concern stern from
a secret knowledge that he is not b�ing as open with
his audience as he feels ,an artist shou.ld be ? The
artists we perceLve in·The Magic Barrel are not of the
same breed as the ones we find in Rembrandt's Hat.
Those shown in The Magic Barrel Sftem a lot mor�
confused and uncertain as to where �xactly t�ey are
going. This is because Malamud the artist has changed
his perspectives between the two collections apd by
Rembrandt's Hat is allowing himself to come closer to
the surface. He is therefore being a more honest writer
in Rembrandt's Hat , and , in this , finds
13 .
a
greater
contentment than before. Ha is finally finding some
sec�r1ty in his. role �s artist, wh�ph is naturally
refl�cted in the artist� he portrays\ However, despite
this progr�ssion, there are still many invari�ble
elements in his attitude towards art and ar�ists.
Be!or� I look further into the differences betwe�n the
artists of The Magic Barrel and those of Rembrandt's
Hat, I shall first outline these elements.
In an article which M�lamud recently wrote for
the New York Times Book Review, he declared that
"There are standards in literature that a would-be
writer must bec9me familiar with anq uphold, like thos�
in the work of the finest writers of the past." 2 4
Malamud is in many respects both conservative and
traditional, emulating rather than dispelling the views
..
of earlier American writers such as Hawthorne. Hershinow
talks of this trait: " Following the lead of Hawthorne,
Malamud writes moral allegories intended to delight
readers while teaching them lessons of faith �nd
humane behaviour. " 25 Malamud is pe.rfectly open about
these traditional attitudes, "Li.:terature, since it
values man by describing him, tends to�ard a morality in
the same way Robert Frost's poem is 'a mpmentary stay
against confusion. • Art celebrates life and gives us
6
our measure." 2
By illustrating aging values, one rray
uphold them a little longer. This attitude towards a
14.
preBervation of the past is very clear in The Magic
Barrel , but by Rembrandt's Hat it has well nigh
vanished. This may be because , by·that·time , the
mo'dern world had grown too insistent to i�nore any
longer. By the·time of Rembrandt's flat , Maiamud has
lost much of his sense of tradition and is beginning
to experiment openly with new s�yles of writing , as
well as facing more contemporary subject matter.
In his'work Malamud tries to reveal individual
possibilities and demonstrate the heroic potential of
contemporary man , while simultaneously criticising
American society. As Ribalow declares:
Mr. Malamud's vision of life is not original
but it is artfully projected. He believes
that man , often helpless in his society and
before his fleshly desires , is worth saving ,
worth worrying about , worth mourning. 27
Malamud desires to help man , and has decided that the
best way to do this is to show him the "errors of his
ways. " Malamud , just like Levitansky in "The Man in the
Drawer , " 2 8
does not write to complain about the way
things are , he simply states the way it is as'he sees
it. He uses his art as a weapon against evil ,
revitalising man to goodness , by portaying him as lost
unless he changes his ways. He sees his writing as
15.
innately constructive rather than des�ructive since
he
is pointing his finger only at what he sees as bad
and crlppling to mankind. As he declares through
·
Levitansky , "A great country does not fear what artist
writes. A great country breathes into its lungs work
of writers , painters , musicians , and becomes more
My' purpose in
great , more healthy .
to show its true heart. " 29
Levitansky seems to , 3 0
my
work is
Malamud believes , as
that we should all take an
.
'
active role in assisting the rest of mankind towards
salvation; since we are all a part of the same genus
and , therefor� , have a collective responsibility
towards each other from birth. Harvitz is made to feel
this responsi'qility in "The Man in the Drawer": "My
God , I thought , why should I feel myself part of
Russian history ? It's a contagious business , what
happens to men.· " 3 1
Malamud has a "desire to find a certain heroism
in the artist" s· role. " 3 2
To this end , the artist must
go beyond himself to help others; he must rise above
any preoccupation with his own suffering and embrace
responsibility for other people. A difficulty arises
when the artist is unable to recognise his responsibility.
However , an artist should never preach: "The purpose of
the writer , " Malamud believes , "is to keep civilization
from destroying itself. But without preachment. Artists
16 .
cannot be minis �ers. As ,soo� as they atterrBt it, they
destroy their artistry." 33
An artist s erves his
readers and should never try to dominate 9r overwhelrr.
them �ith his ideas; he must attemp� instead to subtly
educate them. If he does not succeed the first time,
he should not give up if he is a true ar1;��t .. He
should follow the advice �lga gives Mitka in order to
keep &9ing, whatever happenss
After you've been wri�ing so long as I you'll
learn a s ystem to keep yourself going. It
depends on your view of life. If you're
mature you'll find out how to work . . .
You'll invent your way out . . . if you only
keep trying. 34
In an article he wrote for tne New York Times Book
Review in 1967, Malamud declared, "What a fool I'd be
not to say what I think of the world." 3 5
Like many
oth�r artists, Malamud doe.s not wish merely to s peak,
he passionately needs to. This process of speak�ng out,
however, will not fulfil the artist's need in the
writing alone; it must also be see� to reach its
audience; it must be heard. As Levitansky declares,
"it will be a great relief to me to know that at least
in one language is alive my art." 3
6
It must be an
artist's nightmare, that once he has found his voice,
17.
there is noone to listen. This is Levitansky's
co�tinuous wprry,
"I feel· I am locked in drawer with
7
my poor stpri�s. Now I must get out or I suffocate. " 3
N}�l�Jil:Ud has. been,· "listened " to virtually from the
start of his career -- but just what has his audience
"beard " ? The majority cannot have been listening
�losely eno�gh, for they have failed to notice the
uncertai�ty in his earlier writings, and the acute turn
around which has surfaced in his later work.
The artist figure as depicted in The Magic Barrel
has·evolved into something far different by Rembrandt's
Hat. To illustrate the change, I will consider the
figure of a single artist from each collection and
contrast them. Three of the tales in The ·Magic Barrel
are c9ncerned directly with artistsJ I will consider
Mitka itl "The Girl of My Dreams " as most ,illustrative
of my case. It is interesting to note that, in a recent
collected edition of Malamud's tales,
JB
"The 'Girl of
My Dreams " was omitted, whereas other tales such as
"The Bil-l " or "The Loan, " which have not excited· nearly
as much critical attention as "The Girl of My Dreams, "
were included. This makes me wonder whether or not there
is something in. "The Girl of My Dreams " of 'which
Malamud is unsure and wishes to dismiss, or feels that
he has gone beyond and should now forget. Mitka is the
novice writer, just as Malamud was at that time. Maybe
18.
they shared just a little too much, anp Mitka shows
.just a little too w.ell the inte.r:niil pr.oble;ns Malamud
faced early on in his career; probl� he� now feels
he has oyerpome and so can dispense with.
Mitka'� �ain problem ar�ses out oi- his inabiljty
to distinguish between reality and i�agination. He sees
Madeleine Thorn's story as real since it "seems " real
+
to him. He insists on meeting the author, having alre ady
created his own (fake) picture of her. He is then upset
because her physical reality d�es not match up to his
conceptualised reality, which is, in fact, pure
imagination. Mitka '.s writing similarly has no real
solidity because it is too much a product of his
imagination, an� not enough of the reality around him.
As Iska Alter points out,
"to feed solely off one's
own consciousness leads not to vjsi�n but to self­
annihilation. "
.'39
Malamud's problem in The Magic Barrel is that he,
too, is relying too much on his imagination and is
avoiding many of the realities of his time. He restricts
his vision in order to maintain an optimis� in man and
his world. In Rembrandt,'s Hat we discover a .growing
acceptance of man with all his faults and limitations.
Malamud has expanded his vision, and, in �oing
$0,
has
come to realise that man's situation is far worse in
reality than he had at first comprehended. Olga
1 9.
recognises Mitka's pr9blerr. and tries to set hi� right.
However, it is questionable whether or not he follows
the sensible advice of Olga (a possible alxer-ego for
the dictates of Malamud's conscience) . Mitka still will
not �ccept Olga's physicality, since she failed his
vision of her:
"Will we meet again, Mitka ? "
"Better no, " he said.
"Why not ? "
"It makes me sad. "
40
Many critics, including Iska Alter who deals in some
depth with this .tale,
41
feel that Mitka reenters the
real world and a life of meaningful creativity, as he
returns to Mrs. Lutz.
A
point
they miss is that this
·
future union with Mrs. Lutz means nothing, as it is
still only a product of Mitka's imagination, and does
not become a physical reality.
Goldman tells us that "Malamud has himself
insisted on the truism that a writer must cre�te out
-of the world he knows. "
42
Therefore, i1' the artist
has doubts and insecurities about the world he perceives,
they will naturally manifest themselves in th� work,
if the writer is honest. Malamud feels these doubts,
but cannot find the means to fully voice them;
therefore, he ameliorates them through his imagination
20 .
i
and produces The Magic Barrel. Much the same as Mitka,
who seeing the world around him·. Y'i:annot· accept itt and
so compromises what he sees by modifying it through
his imagination to a more acceptable level. In doing
this Malamud fails his own first commandment'as a
writer, for he is being dishonest to himself and to
his audience, since he is evading reality.
He is not depicting the world as he sees it, but
the world as he would like to see it. Malamud deceives
both himself and his readers by this action. Malamud
has said, "Art, in essence, celebrates life and gives
us our measure."
4.3
Malamud may be celebrating life,
but he cannot give a measure, for he has adulterated
his pictures of life with his own imagination; what
he creates is not of the world he knows, but of a
world he has charadterised from his fancy. He once told
Stern that he disapproved of such characterisation as
"it reduces to stereotypes people of complex
motivations and fates."
44
Unfortunately, t·his is just
what he does in The Magic Barrel; we see it especially
in such characters as Henry Levin, Shimon Susskind,
Angel Levine, Leo Salzman or Tommy Castelli. They all
become stereotypes of what they represent, whether
that is the young Jew rejecting his faith, the
impoverished Jewish refugee, a negro, a Jewish
matchmaker or a reformed juvenile delinquent. They have
21.
little, if any, life beyond these narrow roles . The
characters which we
flnd
in Rembrandtis Hat tend to
be far more complex, such as Howard Harvitz, Max Adler,
Harry, Abramowitz or Goldberg. �hese men pan be
d�scribed on one level, as a ne.rvous traveller, a
'
competent architeet, a young man worried by. th� state..
of the wopld, a talking horse or a deaf-mute; but they
are more than this . They are not �o easily definable.
Ha1'v.i tz may be a nervous trave,ller, but he is also a
representative of the Jewis� brotherhood or a smuggler
o£ subversive li�erature. Max is not only an architect,
�ut also a materialist and a letch who suff�rs from a
mammo.th Oedipa+. complex. Harry is both passive and
violent, rejecting all responsibility yet still keenly
feeling the weight of the responsibility inherent in
being alive. Abramowitz, like Goldberg, is multi­
representational, both characters constantly transmuting
. '
from legend to a circus act, to pure myth.
When Malamud was still at college in New York,
his composition teacher, Theodor Goodman, h�d �dvis�d
4
'
him, "Either you go in hones t or you sink ." 5
Was
Malamud therefore aware of his "dishones-t?y" in The
Magic Barrel and so chose to amend his ways in
Rembrandt's Hat to avoid sinking ? Malamud's main
problem in The Magic Barrel is one which not only
Mitka experiences, but also Fidelman:
22 .
The words were there but the spirit was
missing. 46
He knew what he wanted to say, but could not £ind the
strength to say it. As Al£red Kazin says, "He is so
con�erned with the dread, the £limsiness o£ the human
material in our age, that he has to outwit his own
possible sentimentality. " 47
It is not until
Rembrandt's Hat that he finds the strength to outwit
that sentimentality and to condemn man as he fully
deserves. His achievements in The Magic .Barrel are
purely "artistic " in the general sense, rather than
"artistic " as Malamud sees art; that is, the stories
are entertaining and have a literary interest, but they
do not have the didactic quality whi·ch we find in
Rembrandt's Hat. This is because Malamud is speaking
with his head and not his heart in The Magic Barrel;
he is creating rather than relating a world picture.
As Iska Alter says, "The artist who views pedple as a
reflection of his own imagination, to be used as
characters, will fail because he reduces, if not
eliminates, his own capacity to feel, just as he also
reduces the humanity of others. " ··48
Malamud must learn to confront the reality of the
world face on in his works to produce what he would
call "meaningful literature. " If his work has no sense
23.
of reality,
then by his, o� criteria it must fail as
art. The Magic Barrel lac$s this sep�e of reality and
is, therefore, a ;.failure.., Howevel;',_ by Rembrandt 's Hat,
M�l�mud has �tured et:tough to surmount his
insecurities and ful�y acknowledge the co�plete
implications of the world around him in his writing.
,
1,
•
This growth in maturity becomes obvious whe� we 9ompare
Levitansky to Mitka.
Rembrandt's Hat is dominated by the tale of
Levitansky, which comprises a th�rd of the �otal work.
�·Man in the Drawer " is a tale of a socially responsible
Russian artist. His government restricts him from
publication for they disapprove of what he writes about;
e
we are shown his attempts to enlist a tourist's aid to
smuggle the manuscripts out of the country. I am taking
"Man in the Drawer" as a statemet:tt of Malamup '�.
reformation a� an artist. The parallels between Malareud
and Levitansky, as I have alr�ady hinted, are so close
that the charac�er could be the author and the autnor
his character. Much of what Levitansky has to say about
49
the actual making of fiction
echoes what Malamud
pimself has said in an interview with Israel Shenker.
"When I write about Jews comes out stories, so I w,rite
on subjects that make for me stories. Is not important
that I am half-Jew. What is important is observation,
feeling, also the art."
5!
This declaration is
24.
50
�·
'
Levitansky's, but it could just as easily be Malamud
.
speaking of himself. Levitansky's brother-in-law has
('
'
told him that he should write acceptable stories; that
is stories a public would accept. This is precisely
what Malamud had been doing in The Magic Barrel.
L'evitansky's reply is that writing "acceptable stories"
is no longer enough, he has.finished writing "fairy
tales," and now declares his stories "must be acceptable
to me:"
52
· If Levitansky is Malamud in a thin disguise,
then in this declaration we can take it that Malamud
found the tales of The Magic Barrel and Idiots First
as unacceptable, and is now wrfting more to please
himself than his audience.
.
Levitansky/Malamud is certainly more committed
to his writing than Mitka/Malamud. Levitansky's
commitment is so severe that it even leads Harvitz
to first question, and then amend, his own life.
Levitansky faces greater restrictions than Mitka, yet
is far more secure in his role as artist; as his wife
tells Harvitz, "If they take him away in prison he
will write on toilet paper. " 53
Levitansky knows
where he is going and will not be stopped. He is unable
to publish in Russia, so he entraps Harvitz into taking
his manuscripts out of Russia to get them published.
U�ike Mitka, Levitansky strongly believes in what he
is doing, so strongly he will risk all, and go against
25.
the face of such authority as the Soviet government.
Levitansky is accepting fully his responsibility as
a writer:
"My purpose belongs to me, " 54
and that
purpose is to fight, regardless of the cost, against
the injustice he sees in the world around him.
Levitansky is risking his freedom and possibly his
.,
life; Malamud does not go so far, but he does place
his secured reputation on the line. Malamud has
finally managed to inject, regardless of pleasing
his readership, his true spirit into the words he has
been forming.
Before extending this comparison of The Magic
Barrel and"Rembrandt's Hat beyond Mitka and Levitansky,
I will first, in the nature of general background,
review some of Malamud's sociological attitudes.
26.
Notes
1
[New
Joe Wershba , "Not Horror but 'Sadness , '" Post
York] , 14 sept . 1958, p. M-2 .
2
Malamud , Rembrandt's Hat , p . 65.
J
Bernard Malamud , "Theme , Content and the 'New
Novel , '" New York Times Book Review , 26 War. 1967,
P•
29.
4
Malamud , "New Novel , " p. 2.
5
Iska Alter , The Good Man's Dilemma: Social
Criticism in the Fiction of Bernard Malamud , AMS Studies
in Modern Literature, 5 (New York: AMS , 1981), p . 122.
6
7
Malamud , "Pleasures , " p. J.
Robert Alter , "Updike , Malamud , and the Fire
this Time , " Commentary , 54 (1972), 70.
8 Malamud , "Pleasures , " pp . J, 19.
9
"Interview with Bernard Malamud , " New York Times
Book Review , iJ Oct . 196J, p. 5.
10
Harold Ribalow , "Bernard Malamud:
Suffering of Jews
•
•
•
, ' " Reconstructionist , 9 June
1967, p. 1) .
11
'The
Malamud , "Pleasures , " p. 19.
2? .
12 Malamud, Rembrandt's
Hat, p. 5 3·
-
1J
Ma).amud, Rembrandt's Hat, P•
14
122.
Stern, "Art of Fiction," PP· 5 1-52 .
15
S-tern, "Art of Fiction," P• 5 3·
16
.iJ.lter, The Good Man's Dilemma, p. 122.
17 Stern, "
Art of Fiction," p. 48.
18 Stern, "Ait of Fiction," p. 4
7.
19
Renee Winegarten, "Malamud's Head (Rembrandt's
Hat) ," in Bernard Malamud: A Collection of Critical
Essays, eds. Leslie A. Field and Joyce W. Field
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1975), p. 100 .
20
Stern, "Art of Fiction," p. 4 3 .
21 Field
arid Field, "Interview," p. 8 .
22
Stern, "Art of Fiction," p. 50.
23
Irving Saposnik, "Insistent Assistance: The
Stories of Bernard Malamud," Studies in American Jewish
Literature, 4, No. 1 (19f8),
24
25
17.
M,a 1amud, "Pleasures,". p.
.
19 •
Sheldon Hershinow, Bernard Malamud ( New York:
Ungar, 1980), p. 12 .
26
27
Malamud, ''Pleasures," p. 19 .
Harold Ribalow, "A Collection of Malamud Short
Stories," Congress Bi-Weekly, 18 Nov. 1963, p. 18 .
28
29
Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat, p. 4 7.
Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat·, pp. 53, 62.
J O Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat, p. 62 .
28.
3 1 t':al�mud, Rembrandt's Hat,
p.
57.
32 "Poor in Spirit, " Times Literary Supplerr.ent,
5 Oct. 1973,
P•
1158.
33.Dean Cadle, "Bernard Malamud, " Wilson Library
Bulletin, 33 (1958), 266.
34 Bernard Malamud, The Magic Barrel (London:
Penguin, 1980), p. 4 1.
35 Malamud, "New Novel, " p. 2 .
36 Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat, p. 55·
37 Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat, p.
54 •
38 Bernard Malamud, The Stories of Bernard Malamud
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983).
39 Alter, The Good Man's r.ilemma, pp. 122-2 .
3
40
N:alamud, Magic Barrel, p. 42.
41
42
Alter, The Good Man's rilemma,
p.
129.
Mark Goldman, "Bernard Malamud's Comic Vision
and the Theme of Identity, " in Bernard Malamud and the
Critics., eds. Leslie A. Field and Joyce W. Field (New
York: New York Univ. Press, 1970), p. 154.
43
44
45
Stern, "Art of Fiction, "
P•
51.
Stern, "Art of Fiction, "
P·
59.
Ronald Sheppard, "About Bernard Malamud, " Book
Week, 1, No. 5 (Oct. , 1963), 5.
46
47
Malamud, Magic Barrel, p. 161.
Alfred Kazin, "The Magic and the rread, " in
Contemporaries (Boston : Little, Brown, 1962),
29 .
p.
206.
48 Alter, The Good Man's tile��a,
49
50
Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat,
pp.
pp .
59-60.
Isr�el Shenker, "Interview with Bernard IV;alarr.ud,"
New York Times Book Review, J Oct. �971,
51
52
53
54
'
.
125-26.
Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat,
P•
52.
Mal,amud, Rembrandt's Hat,
P•
60.
Malamud, Rembrandt's Hat,
P•
65.
Malamu�, Rembrandt's Hat,
P•
5).
J O.
pp.
17-18.
Malamud as a Jewish /American Writer
In this chapter I will consider Malarr.ud's
sociological background, and the exten� to which his
so..cietal role influences his writing
that as Samuel Weiss describes,
•.
It is only natural
"The setting of
Malamud's work is the world he has experienced and
engaged. " 1
Therefore, to comn ent upon his work, we
should know a little about this world.
Despite Malamud 's insistence that his readers
should not conSider any of his tales as autobiographical,
as Sheldon Hershinow points out,
"Malamud's experiences
in Brooklyn, his close ties with his parents, and his
observation of·his neighbours contribute to the rich
texture and vitality of many of his memorable stories
and characters. "
2
What is interes�ing here, especially
in The Magic Barrel, is the part of his life which
Malamud chooses to take his material from. As Robert
Alter tells us,
"Malamud's vision is pre-eminently
that of a writer whose formative years were spent in
the Great Depression. " J
Though written some twenty­
five years on from the Great Depression, -The Magic
Barrel clearly evokes the Jewish ghettos of the 1930's:
"It is a world largely populated by Jews without money,
anxious, luckless and frustrated, and engaged in a
fundemental struggle to survive or to find and fix a
.3 1.
purpose in life. "
4
This gives us a key as to what
Malamud was thinking. In the idealistic fifties, he
has returned to that fundemental· struggle for survival
and quest for purpose which he recognises from the
thirties. This is because at this time, as a writer
he felt b-oth insecure and without .direction. He J:ooks
for an�nswer in this 1930's era for both persona� and
historical reasons. Personally that was a time when
he felt more secure, since he was still in the innocent
realm of childhood and under the protective care of
his parents. Historically, he sees that the 1930's
was a time of great trouble, yet the people were then
able to find direction and survive in a far more
hostile environment than currently existed; therefore,
he may better learn from them. the techniques of
survival, as they must surely have been masters at the
game. �hrough exploring the avenues open to these
luckless Jews of his past, he may discover where he
is now heading in the present. .
By the seventies and Rembrandt 's Hatt he has
found both his direction and a greater. sense of security,
and so these scenes of the past vanish as he hauls
himself into a present he now feels he can cope with.
This is one of the notable changes in attitude between
The Magic Barrel and Rembrandt's Hat, and is a subject
I will enlarge upon in the next two chapters. Meanwhile,
32 .
I wil} consider. why it is that Malamud writes aln:ost
exclusively about Jews.
M9E?t obviously, Malamud writes about Jews:,
because he is Jewish and therefore knows something of
his subject. As he tells us, he " writes about Jews and
Jewish life . . . because they represent the segment
p
of hurranity I ha pen to know best."
5
a recent interview, " I was glad I was
He declares in
(a
my father had his doubts about that." 6
J
Jew , although
Malamud's
father was an orthodox Jew, and was disappointed in
his son's apparent lack of interest in the faith.
Malamud had not even married a Jewish girl, but a
Gentil�. In th� same interview I just cited, Malamud
also confessed, " I would ·often be writing about Jews,
in celebration and expiation." 7
The " expiation" was
of a guilt he had over his father's disappointment in
him. As M�l�mud tells us in the interview, hrs father
was very upset over his apparent unorthodoxy and felt
that Malamud was trying to hide his own Jewishness. 8
Malamud writes about Jews, partially to show his
father that he has not entirely shunned or forgotten
his racial origins. The " celebration, " however, is more
important to note in considering Malamud's writing.
Malamud felt, as Frederick Hoffman says, that " the
Jew
•
•
.
[has]
special kinds of experience to offer
the c,ontemporary American." 9
JJ .
Malamud offers us his
Jews as paradigms of how to survive in the modern age
we 'have created for ourselves. As he �old Leslie A.
Field and Joyce W.
Field in answer to a query about
an earlier statement he had made:
I think I said "All men·are Jews except
they don't know it. " I doubt I expected
anyone to take the statement literally.
But I think it's an understandable
statement and a metaphoric way of
indicating how history, sooner or later,
treats all men.
10
As Ihab Hassan asks, "the house of Western
civilization is already cracking if not crumbling down.
Can the ironic conscience of the Jew help shore up
these ruins ?"
11
T. S. Eliot advocates Christianity
as the answer to this problem. Malamud declares that
it is from the traditional figure of the Jew we must
learn our answers. We may learn a sense of order, not
so much from the religion of the Jews, but from their
history. As David Boroff tells us,
"the Jewish
experience with catastrophe and with exile' has, in
recent years, become the paradigm of the experience
of all mankind."
12
Malamud has discovered a parallel
between the age old persecution of the Jews and modern
man's persecution of his fellow human beings. In the
J4.
\
face of this destructive onslaught, rran rr.ust learn
from the n-ews, how to survive, for the Jew d.s well
experienced in such survival. As Hershinow says:
Malamud uses Jewishness as an ethical
symbol. In his works the Jew becomes a
metaphor for the good �an striving to
"
withstand the dehumanising pressures of
the modern world. His characters hold
their ethical stances out of a sense of
humanity, and this humanity is only
indirectly linked to their religious
heritage.
1 .3
To point· out how deeply Malamud believes this,
we may consider something Sidney Richman highlights,
"it is only his Jews
•
.
•
who ultimately succeed in
his fiction. �he Gentile may chart the way
he cannot attain the goal .."
14
.
•
. but
�
The Je s are shown: to
have a bond which strengthens them and gives them a
unity against the troubles of the world. This bond is
mystical, intangible and difficult to define, but it
is externally depicted in the commonality of Yiddish.
We see Harvitz wandering lost in a Russian town: " On
impulse I tried him in halting Yiddish that my
grandfather had taught me when
I was a child, and was
then directed in an undertone in the same lang.uage,
35.
l5
to a nearby bus stop."
Such a commonality gives
the Jewish figure an advantage here; without it
Harvitz would still most likely be wandering the streets
(
of Russia. Malamud wishes us to take note of the Jewish
experience, to give us that same advantage. To ignore
his prompt�ngs is to suffer as the "goyim " in .his tales
do:
"the non-Jewish f!tories, deprived of the narrator's
presence and the resources of Jewish agony, most often
end in total defeat. "
16
The penalty for ignoring the
lessons of Jewishness which Malamud �roffers -- is
failure in whatev�r we were attempting.
What needs cl�rifipation here is that when
Malamud talks of Jewishness and depicts the Jewish
experience, he is trying to universalise the figure
of the Jew as an emblem of "right action. " We see this
for example, in such characters as Sobel, the Panessas,
Isabella della Seta, or maybe even Manischevitz. A
-
point of interest is that such figures are more evident
in The Magic Barrel, than in Rembrandt's Hat, which
has broadened its scope beyond the singular figure of
the Jew and truly matches up to Malamud's declaration
that "All men are Jews, " by embodying these "universal
Jewish qualities'' in men who are not especially Jewish.
As Leslie A. �ield and Joyce W. Field say:
We believe that his definition of Jewishness
includes such universal human virtues as
36 .
moral obligation to one's fellQw man and
the community; acceptance Qf responsibility;
peing involved in the suffering of others,
and learning from one's own suffering.
17
He is not promoting the religion, but more the
cultural morality behind the Jew. Malamud's Jewish
figures are not that far from the virtuous men and
women we often find in eighteenth century English
literature; they are mere ciphers showing us a winning
moral code, which we are encouraged to adopt. W.alamud
is not specifically interested in solving the
problems of all mankind, through the Jew. He openly
admits:
There are times when I write about Jews but
not about Jewish concerns
.
. . . I would
say tha� my subject matter mixes the
universal and the particularly Jqwish. Some
borderline figures in my work act under the
18
influence of their Jewish background.
This leads to a situation which Laurel C�nham
describes,
"Malamud has been condemned by Orthod ox
Jews as being overtly anglicised and not sufficiently
reverent of traditional Judaic thought."
19
That is
to say, some Jews feel that Malamud has forsaKen the
37 .
Jewish fa ith in his work because he d o e s not prorr.ote
it . I nfac t, r�·alamud is very caut i ous over the is sue
of religi on, and is unwill ing to make any
c ommittment either for or against the Jewish fai th :
" I don ' t feel� inhibited in inventing G od-haunted
c haracters , which has nothing to d o with whether I am
or am not religi ous . " 20 " God, " hides in the
background of Malamud ' s tal es, but never fully declares
H imself ; this way Malamud avo ids c onfronting religi ous
i s sues, yet without d eny ing that they exist . T herefore,
Malamud i s being ho , n est with us when he states tpa t,
" J ewishne s s is important to me, but I d on ' t c o ns id er
mys elf only a Jewi sh wri�er
. I have interests
1
b eyond that, and I feel I ' m writ ing for all men." 2
A s R obert Alter says, "Malamud ' s special provinc e
has b een the grotesque ind ignities of the everyday,
unspectacular anguish of ordinary people . " 22 The fac t
that most o f h i s ord inary p e ople are J ews has l e s s t o
.
d o with the ir Judai c qual i t i e s than their rac ial
·
moral ity . A s Ruth B lackman tells us, "T he. respons ib ility
o f b e ing, first o f all, a man and then a Jew, involves
all the s e c haracters . " 2.3 When we v i ew a Malamud ian
character, we should s e e a normal human b eing with all
the everyday human faults and frailti e s ; rather than
get caught up in the fac t that he i s proba�ly Jewish,
for that i s largely irrel evant and will only s e rve to
.38 .
c loud the real i s sues Malamud i s d i s cuss ing. A s
G erald Weales s o succ inctly categorises Malamud ' s
tal es , "'fhe i d i om i s Jewi sh : the c entral c oncern is
human . " 24
As S a:rr.u el W e i s s says , ":for Malamud the
Jew transc ends rac ial identity and b e comes a metaphor
:for all su:f:fering humani ty who have gathered :from
su:f:fering what has b e en called ' moral intelligenc e , •
a .scrupulous regard :for :fair and humane d ealing , a
commitment to moral cho i c e s and their cons equenc e s . " 25
S id ney R i chman , in his book on Malamud , has gone s o
:far as to declare that " the Jewi sh elements in the
l
stories are neither e s sent ial nor even particularly
s igni:fi cant . " 26
This I would d i s agre e with . Just as
much as we need to c ons i d er Malamud ' s characters as
human b e ings , we should not " :forget " the ir trad itional
background as Jews . I t i s this c oh:fli c t between th�
two elements o:f hurranism and tradition tuwards which
Malamud points as a ma j or probl em whi ch we shoul d all
try to overc ome , if we w i sh to be c o ntent in l i fe .
Jerome Bahr re:fers to thfs as " the all-too-human
aspirati o ns of h i s characters c ome in c onflict with
the tradi t i onal :folk ethi c . " 2 7
However , to see Malamud purely as a J ewish writer
d ep i cting Jewish l i fe is to limit him , s ince J ewi sh
characters and themes form only a s ingl e aspect o : f hi s
work . The :figure o f the J ew unifies his work, al l ows
39.
him sub j ec t material he i s famil iar with , and provi d e s
h i m with a s ense o f tradi t i on . T radit i on and the past
are imp ortant to Malamud , much l ike Dr . Morri s in
"I n R etirement " ; both need a s ense o f tradition i n
their l ives t o give them meaning and dire ction . T he
D octor provides his own tradition by giving nims elf
a s ens e o f routi ne with his daily wal k : "He took this
walk even when i t was very cold , or nasty rai-ny , or
had snowed s everal inches and he had t o proceed very
s l owly . " 28
Malamud. takes h i s trad i t i on from the
Jewish rac e , and their history of suffering and
survival . Hershinow sums this up rather well :
Malamud i s a s ecular Jew whos e Jewi s hnes s
i s an ethnic ident ity and moral perspective
far more than it is a religious persuasion .
What i nfuses his writing are the aspirati ons ,
s truggle s , and ind igni t i es o f an ethni c and
cultural subgroup - - the Y id d i sh-speaking
Jewi sh immigrants from Eas tern Eu�ope . 29
Though I woul d d isagree with S idney R i c hman when
he d e c lare s that Malamud ' s Jewish el ements are not
e s s ential , it is t rue that the Jewish aspect o f
Malamud ' s work i s a t times s o ethereal , s ome c ri t i c s
have deni e d i t s authent i c i ty ; that i s to say , the
p i c ture he pres ents o f a Jew is a fals e one . P odhoretz
40 .
for exampl e , would argue " that Malamud ' s c onc eption
o f J ewi shness and his i d ea of what Jews are re al ly
like came out o f h i s own head and cannot be supported ,
exc ept in a vague general way , by pre c ed ent in
Y id d i s h or Hebrew l iterature . " J O R i c hard Kostelanetz
d i s mi s s e s Podhoret z ' s evaluations as being " fa c i l ely
d erive d . " 3 l
However , despite such a d evaluat i on , I
feel that P odhoret z may have a point , particularly
vali d in a d i s cu s s i on o f T he Magic B arrel , whi c h i s
where I shall return to it .
Another argument i s that Malamud ' s atterrpts to
universal i s e his Jewish figures detract from his
wri ting , b ecaus e , in the long run his characters are
not s ol i d enough to sustain credWility . C harl es
Angoff s ee s Malamud ' s e fforts t o create a Jewi sh
Everyman as :
probably Malamud ' s greatest fault . His people
are Jewi sh intellectually , almos t a c c i d entally ,
more by birth and environment than by total
obs e s s i on and in�v ement . H i s people are more
human beings than they are J ewish human beings ,
and paradoxi cally enough , this in the last
analys i s keeps them from being enduring human
b eings . S hakespeare ' s characters are universal
human beings because they are first and las t
Engl i s h human b eings . T o l s toy ' s characters
41 .
are universal human beings b ecause in their
marrow they are Russ ian human beings . The
universal flowers from the particular . The
universal has no exis t enc e . in i t s el f . 32
Just how " real " are Malamud ' s J ews ? One reas on
why they l.os e s ome c redib i l i ty a·s "Jews , " i s surely
that Malamud i s not really a "Jewish writer , " in the
s ens e d emanded by s ome criti c s . As D i c k Adler d e scrib e s :
My opini on i s that there are Americ�n writers
who happen to be J ewi s h . To me a J ewish
writer is not a man who is Jewish and writes
about J ewish p eople onc e in a while but a
man who i s immers ed in Jewi shnes s . 3 3
Malamud ' s aim was never to c reate a Jewi sh stereotype,
but to d i s c �ver , through his knowl edge of the J ews and
his s tatus as an Ameri can c iti zen , a c ompromis � whi ch
takes the best qualities from both group s . T h i s
c ompromi s e det ermines the most e ff � c tive mode o f
exi stence in a s o c i ety which i s mad e up o f 'botn J ews
and Ameri cans . D espite his e xt ensive use of Jewis h
c haracters and s ettings , Malamud i s very much an
A merican writer , who works within an A merican l i terary
tradition. T hi s tradition , has a moral i s t i c and
allegori cal thrust , which i s broadly humani s t i c and
42 .
er::p ha s i s es the liberation o f the ind ividual hun.an spirit
and the need for love , faith and respect in suc c es s ful
human relationships . Malamud attempts to reconcile
Jewi s hnes s and A mericane s s , which is qui te natural
s inc e he i s both Jewish and Ameri can . T he Jewish aspects
o f hi s work will nec e ssarily , therefore , b e d iluted
by the American aspects . Just as many o f Malamud ' s
characters feel that they are attempting a syncretism
b etween their Jewi sh origins and their respons ib ili t i e s
as memb ers o f the human race , in Ameri can soci ety in
parti cular , so too i s Malamud . Marilyn Waniek s tates
that "T he immigrant genera.t ion f inds i t s elf torn
b etwe en the desire to become ' Ameri can ' and the d e s ire
to retai n the values of the homeland . " .34
Natural ly ,
such a cho i c e creates a great tens i on within the
p erson conc erned . Malamud is both Jewi sh and Ameri can ,
and feels he has respons ib ilities towards b oth
cultures . A s Wani ek further states , "T he implied
authors o f Ameri can ethnic novels make not one , 1 but
two systems of moral orderings clear , for they s hare
the marginal dual ity o f their ethnic c reators . " 3 5
S o we s ee how t h e frustrati ons o f living l i e les s
in the collis i on o f s elf and the world , and more in
c olli s i ons within the s e l f . As in the old legends the
ques ter-hero had to go out and do battle wi th his
enemy to reach s alvati on , nowadays , with Malamud , we
4,3 .
find this conflict has been internali s ed and the hero
and enemy now exi s t wi thin the same individual . A s
Waniek has sai d . " T h e duality of cul tures thus
produce s a duality o f pers onality . " 3 6
This duality
exi sts within Malamud . and the s eparate halves o f his
p ers onality are battl ing it out to create ·a new
compo�ite and effectiv e identity .
Fred erick Hoffman talks o f :
the fundemental American characteri s t i c o f
s elf-analysi s . the res t l e s s drive t oward
d efinition in terms o f current mil i eu .
A lmost every hero in s erious American
literature is
.
.
•
" s i z i ng hims elf up " in
· terms of his land scape . trying to i d enti fy
with i t . 3 7
This i s exactly what Malamud i s d oing . s earching for
an i dentity . d erive d from the lands c ap e of his
experienc e with its dual culture s . He aims for a
balanc e where the Jew and the American will c oexi s t
suc c e s s fully as one sat i s fi e d individual . " I ' m an
American , I ' m a Jew , and I write . for all men . A
novel i s t has to or he ' s built hims e l f a cage . " J S
' Malamud i s trying d esperately to avo i d that cage ; he
d o e s not want to be e i ther J ewish or Ameri can , but
wishes to strike a universal chord in hi s wri ting . How
44.
successful he is in this is something I will return
to in some detail in my examinations of The Magic
B arrel and Rembrandt's Hat
.
•
Jackson Benson once saidz
Malamud ' s best work shows us the human' soul
in conflict with itself on a stage str1pped
bare of cosmetics, media myths, and the junk
of affluence. He cuts away, cuts away., down
to the bone, through flesh and bone to the
essence of human need, agony, and joy. 3 9
Whether or not he surfaces with any tangible answers,
is only half the issue ; the fact that he had the
courage to question and search is also important. Thfs
questioning shows us, firstly, his. disatisfaction with
his world as it was, and, secondly, his drive to do
something about finding an answer. I will be trying
to show The Magic B arrel as an example of his early
I
searchi�, and Rembrandt ' s Hat as a reflection of the
answers he eventually settles for. As Granville Hicks
said, " The question Malamud asks more often than any
other is : what are the limits of human responsibility
?"
This is not an easy question to ask.
There is always the danger that once you start
questioning, you will not be able to stop and
eventually your whole world becomes unstable. Abramowitz
45 .
40
s ees this danger : " Onc e you start asking questi ons one
leads to the next and in the end i t ' s endle s s . A nd what
i f i t turns out I ' m always asking mys el f the same
que s t i on in di fferent words
?"
41
S o if you are not
careful, questi oning your l i fe and surround i ngs can
b e ultimately s elf- defeat ing . Malamud has develop ed
two gui delines by which to preserve his sanity and
control . He di splays both very c l early i n R embrandt ' s
Hat . T he first i s his ac c eptance that not all
questi ons can be answered :
Q . "Answer me thi s : -I f it's a s entenc e I ' m
s erving , how long
?"
42
A.
The s ec ond i s hi s acc eptanc e that " happine s s " is not
nec e ssari ly an answer in itself: " Why d o we all think
we should be happy , that i t ' s one o f the nece ssary
c onditi ons o f l i fe
?"
43
I shall now look c l o sely at first T he Magic
B arrel , and then R embrandt ' s Hat , to d i sc over exactly
what questions Malamud asks and what answers he
finally arrive s at .
Not es
1 S fl,muel We i s s , "Pas s ion and Purgat ion in B ernard
Malamud , " Univers ity o f Winds or R eview , 2 , No . 1 ( Fall
1 96 6 )
•
93 .
2 Hershinow , p . 4 .
3 R ob ert Alter , "Jewi shne s s as M etaphor , " in
B ernard Malamud and the C rit i c s , e ds . Les lie A F i e ld
and Joyce W . Field ( New York : New Y ork Univ . P res s ,
1 97 0 ) , P• 3 5 .
4 We i s s , "Pas s ion and Pu�gat i on , " p . 93 .
5 L . Edelman , "Without Preac hment : Another Mae-ic
Barre i of Malamud S t ories , '' Nat ional Jewish Monthly ,
87 ( June , 1 973 ) , 55 .
6 Malamud , "Pleasures , " p . 3 .
7 Malamud , "Pleasures , " p . 3 .
8
Malamud , ".Pleasures , " p . 3 .
9 Fre derick Hoffman , "Marginal S oc ieties and the
C ont emporary American Novel , " in The M odern Nove l in
America , 3rd e d . ( C hi cago : Henry R egne ry , 1963 ) , p . 233 .
1 ° Field and Field , " I nt e rview , " p . 1 1 .
1 1 I hab Hassan , "B ernard Malamud : 1 9?6 . Fict ions
Within Our Fictions , " in The Fiction of B ernard Malamud ,
47 .
e ds . R ichard A stro and J acks o n J . B ens on ( C o rnvallis :
Oregon State Univ . Press , 1 976 ) , p . 57 ·
1 2 David B oro ff , "Ameri can Judaisrr looks at the
Living Arts Finest Flowering , " American Judai s m , 13
( Wi nter 1 963 / 1 964 ) , 1 8 .
13
Hershinow , pp . 8- 9 .
14 S i dney R ichman , B ernard Malamud , Twayne ' s U . S .
Authors S eries , No . 1 0 9 ( New Y ork : Twayne , 1 96 7 ) , p . 24 .
15
M alamu d , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 3 9 .
16
R i c hman , p . 133 .
17
Leslie A . Field and Joyce W . Field , " I ntroduction
M alamu d , Mercy , and M e ns chlec hkei t , " i n B ernard
Malamu d : A C ollect i on of C rit i cal Es says , e ds . Leslie
A . Field and Joy c e W. Fi e l d ( Engl ewo o d C l i ffs , N . J . :
Prent i c e -Hall , 1 975 ) , p . 4 .
1 8 C urt
Leviant , "B ernard Malamud : �y C haracters
are God-Haunt ed , " Hadass ah , 56 ( June , 1 974 ) , 1 9 .
1 9 C anham , p . 5 9 .
20 Leviant , p . 1 9 .
2 1 Ralph Tyler , "A Talk with the Novelist , " The
New Y ork T imes B ook Revi ew , 1 8 F eb . 1 97 9 , p . 34 .
2 2 R ob ert A lter , " Ordinary A ngui s h , " New ' Y ork
T imes B � ok R eview , 1 6 O c t . 1 983 , p . 3 5 .
23 R uth B lackman , Rev . o f The M agic B arre l , by
B ernard Malamud . C hristian S c i ence M onit or , 1 5 N.ay
1 95 8 ,
P•
11 .
48 .
·
· ·- --- · - ·
24 Geral d Weales , "The
S haring of M i s ery , " New
Leader , 4 1 ( S ept . , 1 95 8 ) , 25 .
25 S amuel Wei s s , "Notes on B ernard Malamud , "
Chicago Jewi sh Forum , 2 1 ( Wi nter 1 96 2 - 6) ) , 1 5 7 .
26
R ic hman , p . 1 00 .
27
Jerome B ahr , "A �ollection o f Thirteen Fine
S tories , " Sun [B altimore] , 1 8 May 1 95 8 , p . 2 1 .
28
M alamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat , p . 8 8 .
29
Hershinow , p . 7 ·
JO
Norman P o dhoret z , "The New Nihil ism in the
American Novel , " in D o ings and Undoings : T he F i ft i e s
and A fter in America ( New Y o rk : Farrar , Straus , and
G iroux , 1 964 ) , p . 1 77 .
Jl
R i c hard Kostelanet z , The End of Intelligent
Writ ing : Literary Politics in America ( New Y ork :
S he ed and Ward , 1 974 ) , p . J O .
3 2 C harles Ango ff , "Jewish-Ameri can Imaginative
Wri_t ings in the Last T wenty- five Y ears , " J ewish B ook
A nnual , 25 ( 1 967 ) , 1)4 .
JJ
D ic k A dler , "The Magic ian o f 86 Street , " B ook
Worl d , 29 Oct . 1 967 , p . 8 .
J4
Marilyn Waniek , "The S ch i z o i d Impli e d Authors
of T wo Jewish American Novels , " M e lus , 7 , No . 1 ( 1 980 ) ,
23 .
3 5 Waniek , p .
24 .
3 6 Waniek , p . 2 2 .
37 Ho ffman , p . 226 .
3 8 Stern , "The Art o f F i ct i on , " p . 5 6 .
3 9 Jackson J . B ens on, ''An I ntroducticyr: B ernard
M alamud �nd, the Haunting o f A merica , " in Ttre Fic t i on
o f B ernard Malamud , eds . R i chard A stro and Jackson J .
B enso n ( C ornvallis : Oregon S tate Univ . P ress , 1 97 6 ) ,
p . 39.
40
Granville Hicks , " The Uproot ed , " Saturday
R eview , 1 7 May 1 95 8 , p . 1 6 .
41
M alamu d , R embrandt ' s Hat ,
42
43
148 .
Malam"'� ' R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 1 3 9 .
M alamud, R embrandt ' s Hat ,
'
50 .
L
p.
p.
1 13 .
T he Magi c "B arrel
I
wil l now look closely at T he Magi c Barrel, to
s ee how successful Malamud is in thes e tal es, at the
very tasks he hims elf has laid out for the �auld-be­
wri ter . T hough a critical succes s , I feel this
c ollect ion i s , by W.alamud ' s own standard s , b oth an
artistic and a pers onal failure . I shall try to
j ustify this a s s ert ion by an examinati on of the work
b oth as a whole and of spe c i fic tal e s .
When Malamud was grante d the Nati onal B ook Award
for The Mag ic B arre l , the award c ommittee describ ed
it as "a work rad iant with p ers onal v i s i on .
C ompas s i onate and profound i n its wry hurr.our, it
capture s the poetry of human relati onships at the point
1
This i s perfe c tly
where imaginati o n and real i ty meet . "
true , as far as it goes -- but i f taken a step further,
w e · :may d i s c over the s e "as s et s " are in fact the very
qual i t i e s which negate the b o ok ' s val id ity . A s I
d i s cus s e d earl i er , Malamud fe els that the true artist
should take on a s o c ial respons ib il ity regardl e s s of
the c o st to hims el f . He s hould attempt to dep i c t a true
and honest picture o f his s o c i ety , whilst d i s c overing
a s ens e o f purp o s e in the fac e o f such real ity , which
he can then teach the rest o f mankind as a formula to
attain a b etter mode of l iving . T hat is the artist ' s
51 .
function as Malamud perc e ives i t , yet he does no t
achieve this in The Magic B arrel ; in his quest to find
answers , he �ever gets b eyond the init ial problems .
The c e ntr�l probl�m i s the artist hims e l f .
The Magic Barrel i s " radiant with personal v i s i on , "
whi ch i s unfortunate i f we c o ns i d er that Mala�ud ' s
pers onal vision at that time was suffering from
s evere l imitat ions . Limitati ons imp o s ed by both the
ide�lisre of the age ( 1 9 50 ' s ) , and by Malamud ' s own
res tric t ive fear of l i fe . Malamud i s as the committee
declared , " compa s s i onate " ; he does want to ._h elp his
fellow man and acc ept a vague responsib i lity for the i r
future , but his intent ions are dominated by h i s
incapac i t i e s as a s o c ial art i s t . The c omedy , o r
" humour" o f h i s work , is a device Malamud us e s t o
further distance himself from the " real world . " H e i s
t o o abs orb ed i n hims elf to truly i d enti fy with the
s oc iety around him . B efore he can help that s o c i ety ,
he must f�rst help hims el f . He must define his own
p ersonal respons ib ilities and place in s o � iety , in
o rder t o give his art a d irection . T he Magic B arrel i s
fundementally a part o f this s el f-ai d , � s Malamud
tri es v icariously , through the explo its of his
characters to find , answers t o his own probl ems . In
this Malamud is breaking ano ther one of his art i stic
rules , by writ ing for himse l f rather than for his publ i c .
52 .
Malamud has trouble accepting the world he s e e s
around h i m a s real , since it falls s o badly short o f
his ideal s . H e therefore , c o ntinuously and
unreal i s t i cally tries to amel i orate the conditi ons he
uncovers aro�nd �im , just as I described irl chapter
o ne . He tri es to give meaning to s omething �e feels
may b e meaningl e s s , but i s too fearful to acc ept . 'Thi s
contradiction tears hire apart artisticalLy , according
to his own d efinition o f an artist , and thereby , for
the time fal s i fi es his creativity . Malamud must first
be able to rec ognis e the full real ity of the worl d he
lives in , before he can teach others how to l ive . T o
d o this i t may• help to be l e s s c onc erned with the
" po etry " of human relati onships than with the i r
actual i ty . H i s work· portrays a mix o f real ity and
imaginat ion partially b ecau s e ��lamud cannot 'fac e
reality without. s ophi sticat i on . A s Alfred Kaz i n po ints
out , in T he Magic B arrel " the amb i guities o f l i fe and
death are s o c l o s e that one has the s ens e o f being
caught in a dream . " 2
Malamud i s guilty of• creating
this " magic " dreamworld , i n the plac e o f a r�at world
he cannot accept . Phil ip R oth talks of Maiamud �s worl d
as be ing b oth '' timele s s " and " placel e s s " 3
-
a s i t lacks
all s o l i d i ty whats o ever .
Mark G oldman talks o f "The s earch for the real
[as]
a function of the quest for identity in Ma lamud ' s
53 .
fiction . " 4
T hough he remains in his dreart.world
throughout· T he Magic Barrel , Malamud is constantly
l ooking for an acc eptable real 1ty . As P eter Hays
d es crib es J..t , "Where the medi eval knight ·went in
s earch of glory , c onquest , and approval of a
beloved , Malamud ' s protagoni st s s earch for an
authenti c s elf and l ife- s tyl e , an i dentity worthy of
c ommitment . " 5 He d o e s not find one b ecause his
standards remain too high , but the s earch is a
s incere o ne . Malamud ' s characters , like their creator ,
are s earching for a cred ibl e i dentity . S idney R i chman
s ee s this as " the.- struggl e t o e s tablish a unity with
s ome unacknow!edged center of one ' s pers onality , a
quest for lost roots , which directs Malamud ' s Jewi sh
hero e s . " 6
Malamud ' s 's truggle takes him out of the
1 9 50 ' s back to a New Y ork of the 1 93 0 ' s where his
parents rai s ed him . This c oul d be interpreted in a
number o f ways . I s Malamud merely regres s ing t o the
safe , innoc ent days of his childhood in an att empt to
e s cape the real world ? Or is he maybe attempting to
reinvoke the past as an alternative to the pre s ent ,
e ither t o di stance us from the sub j ects he looks into ,
or to provide an ugly contrast from which we might
feel b etter ab out the pres ent times ? O r does he feel ,
as I earl i er s tat e d , that the 1930 ' s may have held
s ome important l e s s ons whi ch can teach us to surv ive
54 .
in the 1 950 ' s ? T here i s an el ement o f truth in all
of thes e ; during his s earch for an �cceptabl e reali ty
Malamud l eaves all avenues open .
T he Magic B arrel i s very much an embo diment of
the int ell ectual amb i enc e o f the 1 950 ' s , b oth l i terarily
and politically liberal . This l ibera l i sm is in part
antagonistic to Malamud ' s i nternal aims , for it asks
for generali t i es where Malamud really wants to d eal
with spec i fics . A l iberal t ends to conc entrate on
i ndividualism rather than the s o cialism Malamud really
advocates . However , thi s was the era o f McCarthy , and
v i ews whi ch portrayed any s o c ialist aspects such as
upholding the rights of " the p eople " or denigrating
authori tari:ani sm , even to the s l ightest extent , may
have b e en dangerously cl o s e to C ommuni sm in such
paranoid t i mes . T he fi ft i e s was as Will iam Freedman
d e scrib e s i t , " a decade o f d i s p ipl ine . " 7
D i s c ipline ,
re s traint and s e l f- c ontrol were the order o f the times ;
to keep control after the horrific revelati ons o f
man ' s capacity for brutali ty and bestial i�y i n the
S ec ond World War . Malamud was not then s·ecure enough
in hi s rol e as artist to fly in the face of s oc i ety .
The budding arti st , he d i d not want to b e destroyed
b efore he had even b egun ; therefore , he compromi s es
t o the t i'm es . What he does do i s gain a d egre e o f
freedom from the 1 95 0 ' s by retreating to the era o f
55 ·
the Great D epres s i on in many o f hi s works . A s
T he odo�e S olotaroff describe s i t , Malam�d �as a :
tendency t o plac e the c ontemporary s earch
for the p o s s ib i l i t i e s of human c onnection
.
)
and growth against a background o f d eprivat i on
and despair that s e ems to b e a c omp o s i t e of
immigrant neighbourhoods , the darker s ide o f
Russ ian fi ction , and winter days i n the
1 930 ' s . 8
The " past , " throughqut T he Magi c Barrel , holds a
great importanc e for Malamud . I n placing his works in
the pas t with the traditions o f such a past , i s
Malamud maybe �uesti oning the c oherence o f c ontemporary
l i fe wi th�ut thos e traditi ons , as R i cha�d Rupp
suggests ? 9 He feels that one must build on the past
when s earching for a new i d enti ty , for the pas t i s
s omething which i s undeniab l e in the unstable world
of the 1 9 50 ' s . T he " past " s hould not be ignored and
cannot b e d i smis s e d , a s it stands i nviolably b eyond
the pres ent . A new l ife can only b e p o s s ible i f you go
into it accepting , rather than hid ing from the past .
A s Herbert Mann tells us , "A 1\�alamud c haracter might
s e ek a new l i fe , but the ne� l i fe that i s s o�ght
inevitably i s connected t o the old l i fe never quite
l eft behind becaus e it cannot be she d . " 1 0
5 6.
A s I sabella
proudly declares in "The Lady o f the Lake , "
is meaningful to •me . I treas ure what
I
"'' r.-:y
past
suffered for . " 1 1
JV'alamud mi'ght JTI.ake the same dec larati on . He depicts
thi s whol e idea very clearly in "The Lady .a.f th� rLake , "
where Fre eman trie s to re j ect his olu self. �e fore ·he
has found a new , and so is left with nothing .
build a bridge rather than j un:p , but he jurr·p s
He
shoul d
.ana
.- ,..
falls , for the gap between �he new and the old ·i s to�
wi d e to be bound ed in a s ingl e leap . �alamud will not
jump as he sees �he stupid ity in th is , but he i s having
trouble finding the material s with which to build the
bridge .
C harl es Hoyt talks o f Freeman , "B e cause he tri es
to sell his Jawi sh birthright for a gla�orous drea� ,
b oth hi s past and his future are taken frorr. hi rr .
''
12
Freeman starts ·o ff .by declaring that. he i s "-tilled o f
the pas t - - tired o f the l imitations it had imposed
upon him . · · 1 .3
The pas t can be l imit ing , but by
re j ecting it , Freeman re j ects hims el f , :s inc.e
·he
is
o riginally a pr.oduct of the past , as i s every pers on .
Sam Bluefarb s e e s an almost aching s ens� o � the pas t
in Nalamud ' s work , and Freeman embodies this in th e
way Malamud has him make a " plunge into the pas.t in
ord er t o c on:e to know the loss o f
i nnocenc e . " 1 4
[ his]
pres ent
Peter S hrubb s e e s thi s all -pervading
fas c ination which Mala�ud has wi th the past : "T he5? .
-· . . . ·-·- --- .
wri ting
is
----
ful J o f c onc lus i ons , and each J i ttl e part
of it s e errs to b e plac ing its litt l e, part of l i fe
gently "Qut .firrrl y int o · the past , l 5
•·
Malamud makes a s trong cas e for the p�st , , po s s ibly
too strong a cas e . Everything connected �ith the past
is por�rayed as genuine to the extr�me and � g�ven a
pos itive value , which i s strongly cont rast e d t o tne
superfi c iality o f the pres ent . I sabe lla , d e spite her
decept i on , i s always a creature o f the past and i s
ennobl e d b y this . However , there i s als o an intangibil ity
about her as she fades away into her past at the clos e .
Her c oncern with the past i s too great ; she must find
a compromi s e as mu?t Malamud . She might have b etter
values than Freeman , but she cari only vi cari ous ly
exist in the present . Therefo re , she provi des us with
no perm�nent answers , just as Malamud wil l find no
permanent answers �n the past , however greatly h e
eXt o l s i t s virtues . When i t c omes down t o it - - the
past is .past -- and he must l ive in the pres ent . Hpwever ,
Freeman ' s downfall i s j us t i fi e d , for he i s not
choos ing a real i s t i c pres ent , and he is compl et ely
dismi s s ing the pas t . As Eigner tells us , "She pres ent s
two i dent it ies t o him , reflecting his own two l ives :
and in the end , when he choos es the wrong I sab ella ,
she judges him . " 1 6
He cho o s es the fake , pres ent
I sabella rather than the real , past one , and in this
sa .
is condemned .
Freeman , throughout the tal e , 'i s sh own as having
faulty vis ion and cannot " t ell the fa'ke from the real . " 1 7
He judges by the trappings rather than by cont ent :
" names o f b eauty : I s ola 'B ella , Q.ei P es catori , and del
D o ngo . Travel is truly broadening , he thotight ; who
ever got emotional o'v er Welfare I sland . " 1 8
I sab ella
virtually tells him of her d e c ept i on , " ' We often
pret end , ' she remarked . ' Th i s i s a poor c ountry .
• "
19
Fre eman i s too b l ind to s e e b eyond surfaces . · sandy C ohen
s ee s I sab ella as striving " t o destroy for
Freeman ' s
own goo d the myth o f wealth and irrespons ibl e fre e dom
he has created f or' hims el f . " 2 °
Freeman s imply
refus es to have h i s dream dispel l e d , this is why he
·
mus t suffer . His' cho i c e is not b etween the present and
the pas t , but between dream and real ity . He l o s es
b ecaus e he chooses the dream . ·However , Malamud• s
reasoning though bas i cally s ound , does not hold up ,
for the nature o f the reality he o ffers as the " right
cho i c e " i s too trans i ent t o substantiate a wo'rthwhile
goal . The past i s not a viab l e lasting alternative to
the pres ent .
Henry P opkin po int e d out in his rev i ew o f The
Magic B arrel , " I n Malamud , o nly the ol der p eop;L e know
· Who they are , where they carne from , and what , ethi call �
s peaking , they are doing . " 2 1
59.
Malamud emphas i s e s the
importanc e o f the past and the exp eri enc e it o ffers
by such an emphas is on the o l d . The " new generat i on , "
a pro duct o f the pres ent age , are s hown to b e
s piritual�y incomplete . I n Malamud ' s worl d t h e young
people are callous , ignorant , and full o f "wrong
values . " Y oung Max in "The F irst S even Y ears " turns
out to b e " nothing more than a mat eriali s t . . . He
has no s oul . He ' s only int eres t e d in things . " 22
Y oung G eorge S toyonovi c h in "A Summer ' s R eading "
tries to cheat h i s way into respectab i lity and T ommy
C as tell i ' s youth had b e�n spent in crime . Whereas the
o l d people like Olga , Mr . C attanzara , or the Panessas ,
though o ften ignore d , are full o f redemptive s ens e .
But such charact ers are o ft en too o l dworl dly t o b e
effective in repres ent ing the mo dern world ; 23
s omething Malamud c hoos es to ignore .
The old ways , though valuab l e in their t ime , o ften
l o s e their e ffectivenes s in the mo dern age . However ,
Malamud d o es not want to a c c ept this ; he value s the
past so highly he will not let it go . This r leads him
to create the imaginary world which Norman E o dhoretz
a c cus es him of hiding in :
in the abs ence o f a culture that c oul d supply
him with a s ecure bas is for the things he
nee ds to b e l i eve , he has create d a Fol k ,
partly out o f what actually exis ts and partly
60 .
. • t d eman d s . 24
ou t o f what h 1s
. sp1r1
I f his o l d peopl e woul d b e outmo ded in the real world ,
he will cr�ate an imaginary worl d where they can
maintain their val i dity . I hab Has san dec lares , " I s he
not finally an ' hi s torical ' novelist , engaging a
human real ity and a univers e o f disc ours e that · are
not wholly of our t ime ? " 2 5
This i s exactly what
Malamud does ; he recreates a past to replac e a
dis enchanting pres ent , but al lows his own wis hful
thinking to alter that past to suit an i deal . He
spiritually locks hims elf into an i deali s e d past and
b linkers himself to the real world , just as Mitka
phys ically locks hims elf in his room , "with a twist
o f the key had locked hims elf a prisoner in his room . " 2 6
A s P eter S hrubb stat es , " Malamud ' s c reate d world has
a narrownes s that i s not merely the product o f the
forces that cons trict the l ives of his c haracters ; it
i s the pro duct of a limitati on in Malamud ' s vis i on . " 2 7
P o dhoretz refers to this l imitat ion as " a c ertain
b lindness to the full real ities of the world around
him . " 2 8
This pervasive c o nc ern with the past can b e
ultimat ely crippling i f it i s carri e d to such extreme s ,
and Malamud must s hake it o ff b e fore he can
realisti cally exis t in the present . However , in The
61 .
Magic Barrel , Malamud is as R ober� Al�er des crib e s ,
" the captive o f his _own imaginat iv.e pas.t . " 29
Mark
G o l dman talks o f "The only escap e frpm the pas t . .
i s through a new acc eptance o f it . " J O
This applies
b oth to Malamud ' s characters and t o the author ; he
mus t c ome to t erms with his past and find the qourage
to l eave it b ehind and c ome to l ive in the pr�s ent ,
however unattract ive i t may b e . Malamud comes c l o s est
t o dis c overing this in "T he Last Mohican , " a tal e
where t h e �rtist F i delman looks for direction i n his
l i fe , yet c ontinuously re j ects his only guide ,
Susskind .
I n " The Last Mohican , " Fi delman rr.ust con:e to
t erms with his past before he can b e effective in the
pres ent , but Maumud do es not ins ist that he s houl d
totally immers e hims elf in his pas t . I t i s int eresting
t o not e that Malamud later returns to this c haracter
Fi delman , and that by 1 9 6 9 and after s i x tales
c entred on the art i s t , Fidelman does in fac t find a
s at i s factory mode of exi s tenc e in the pres ent . However ,
as he s tands in "The Las t Mohican , " Fidel�n i s s till
as c onfus e d as Malamud is over whi ch direction t o take .
Fidelman ' s problem i s that he i s trying to write a
book about the pas t , when he . really has no i dea what
that past means , having already cut hims elf o ff fron:
his own heritage .
62 .
Malamud b e l i eves an art ist can only 'Creat e out
o� his own experienc e ; ther�ore , Fi dexman ' s first
s t ep mus t be to experi enc e a true s ens e ' o f �ast .
F.I delman b egins with s imilar probl'ems t.over i dent ity
as Freeman , a:hd the same egotisti cal bl indness 'which
we shall 1:ater s ee in C arl S chnei der . As Barb ara
Le�oowit z Says , "Fi delman int ell ectual i zes history ,
neutral i z-ing its demands to safe speculations . " 3 l
However , as C hrist'of Wegelin points out , "the present
wi l l not let him indulge his ess entially s entimental
v i s ion o f the past . " .3 2
Y ou can only build on the
past i� your vis ion of the past is val i d ; Fidelman ' s
i s not . Fi delman· has the same lack o f insight as
Fre eman . We cons tantly find him reading " ih p o or
l ight " .3 .3
and· even cons c iou s ly restric t ing his v i s i o n :
" My G o d , I got t o s top us ing my eye s s o much . " .34
He
has s entimentali s e d views o f what art should b e like :
"A crit i c , he t!ought , s houl d l ive on b eans . " .3 5
Fi d elman i s l iving i n
a
dreamworld whi ch is define d
b y his own ego and physi cally repres ent e d by h i s firs t
chapter , an encapulati on o f all his fal s e values .
When he l o s es this chapter Fi delman disint egrat es , �or
he l o s e s all focus on l i fe . He has nothing l e ft t o
hol d ont o s ince h e has defined hims e l f exc lus ively in
this firs t chapter , which has now b e en stolen from him .
F id el man has s et his art above l i fe and that i s bad ,
63 .
so he must suffer . "Always F i delman needed s omething
s o l i d b ehind him b efore he c ould advance , s ome
worthwhile acc omplishment upon whi ch to bul l d
another . " 3 6
H e has lost his chapter s o h e mus t f ind
s omething els e t o build o n , something more worthwhile ;
Malamud feels thi s shoul d b e a real s e ns e o f the pas t ,
whi ch i s what Susskind treats him to .
S i dney Richman describ es Suss kind as " the
catalyst which t rans forms the young Jew ' s quest for a
future i dentity ihto an uncons c i ous but purgatorial
descent into s e l f . " 37
Susskind takes on the role o f
F i delman ' s sup er- ego , a symbol o f Fi delman ' s true
heritage and past , which he now needs to redis cover .
Jackson J . B ens on s e es the c onfrontation o f Fi delman
and Susskind as b e ing in evitable s ince "Susskind i s
really a part O f F i delman , a part that he woul d like
to ignore , but cannot . " 3 8
I n his quest for Susskind ,
Fidelman keeps d i s covering his real pas t as his s earc h
takes him into the ghetto , the c emetry with its
reminders of the Hitler deathcamps and eventua l ly even
t o the synagogue : " Fi delman , wil ly nilly , followed ,
and the ghost , as it vanished , l e d him up s teps go ing
through th � ghetto and int o a marb l e synagogue . " 3 9
However , even in the end , he only " fo rg ive s " Susskind ;
he still does not understand him o r the favour S us s ki nd
d i d him when he burnt his manusc ript . F i delman has
64 .
d i s c overe d a s ens e of his pas t , but he has s t i l l to
work on redefining hims e l f in t erms of that �ast . He
has l earn� a littl e , but not enough . H e . knows what he
shoul d do , but we have no assuranc e that he will ever
accompl ish it .
I earlier rai s e d the question o f whether or not
Malamud i s l etting his art take over hi s l i fe . D oes
his art refl ec t l i fe or does it dominate it
1
Malamud c ondemns Fi delrnan and Mitka for letting the ir
art dominate their l ives , but he is as guilty as they
are . P eter S hrubb states , "Malamud s eeks a depth and
complexity that the c omic mo de can achieve only at the
expens e of abstraction or l imitation of s c ope . " 4 0
The comic often s e ems narrower than the tragic
b e caus e it s eems t o lack s omething , whi c h is usually
the author , who stays apart uninvolve d . This i s
exactly what Malamud s o o ft en do e s in these tale s ; he
uses hi s c omedy as a relea s e from l i fe , allowing him
to distance hims elf fro� it . He onc e a dzr.itted , "T here
is comedy in my v i s i on of l ife . To l iv e sanely one
must di s c over or invent it . " 4 1 When s omethrng in
l i fe appears unb earab l e , Malamud translates it with
humour , unt il it b e comes more acc eptab l e . Mark G ol dman
speaks o f this i n his essay o n Malamud ' s c omi c v i s ion :
''At the c rucial moment . . . his characters retr eat
from tragi c self-recognit ion into Malamud ' s J ewish
irony - - a defens ive humour which deflates the
portentous morrent of his art . " 4 2
Malamud woul d l ike
to fac e up to reality , but as soon as the goi ng gets
t o o tough , he us es his art to back away from such a
respons ib i lity .
T o what degree are Malamud ' s tal e s "Jewish , " and
how int egral i s the . Jewishne s s to their meaning ? A
rev i ew o f The Magic Barrel in the B o oklist des cribes
it as "A collection o f short stories with a s trong
fol k flavour . Each tale reveals s ome fac et or
charact eristic o f the Jewis h traditi on . " 43
I t c ites
such examples as the reverence for knowle dge shown in
"A Summer ' s R eading , " or the custom o f rr.atchrraking as
dep i ct e d in "The Magic B arrel . " Thes e earl ier tal e s
do have a stronger Jewis h flavour than the later ones .
At this early s tage , Malamud s t icks c l o s e to the Jews
and their strong s ense o f trad i tion as a shelter from
the uncertain values of the 1 950 ' s . By R embrandt ' s Hat
we find that the J ewish aspects are v irtually
i mp erc ept ib l e , but in The Magic B arrel they do have
a great er s ignificance in determining how the
characters react t o l i fe .
Arthur Foff describes the c haract ers in T he Magic
Barrel as b eing " p o or pas t p overty ; b eaten past
defeat
. the misery and bleaknes s of their
surroundings and their j ourney are not only real in
66.
themselves , but are als o the ob j ective c orrelatives
o f their s piritual dilenuna . " 44
His characters have
nothing t o brighten their lives , not even the �rmth
o f human po�panionship . A s William Hogan stat e s ,
"Malatnud documents the drama o f lonel ines s . " 45
This
is s ometn�ng he do es t o great effect , but is he do ing
it in such a way that we might l earn how t o avo i d such
l o neline s s in our o wn lives ? He gives us no ans wers ,
but he do e s �how in detail , how such loneline s s can
o ccur . He depic t s b oth the internal forces such as ego ,
pride and superfic i�lity , and the ext ernal force s such
as materialism '· ,i.nst i tutionalism and a c orr.pass i onle s s
mechanis t i c soc�ety , which c ollectively force rr.en
apart and will not allow them to c ommunicate . B en
S i egel re fers to The M �gic Barrel as a " c ollective
drama of alonene � s and frustration . . . yearning for
brotherho o d , his buffeted figures
[ ironically ]
fear
actual .communiqn . " 46 I n "The First S even Years" we
find c o nstant examples o f man ' s inab il ity to communicate
with his fellow man : "Though Fel d l i stened _eagerly , he
c ouldn ' t hear a word
. For a minute they were
both s ilent , b e caus e S ob e l had s topp e d banging , and
it s e emed they understood _ne ither was to say anything
until the noi s e b egan again . " 4 7
The l ittle
communicat ion whic h goes on i s v ery tenuous and
disguis ed from others . T he c entral i ssue o f the tale
67 .
is the di ffi culty S obel has , in connect ing with his
b o s s ' s daughter .
The short story , "Take P i ty , " bes t demonstrates
the int ernal forc es which make p eople lonely , in it
we find R o s en in compl et e despair , over his inab il ity
to help a poor widow . Laurel C anham des crib e s this
tal e as having " little or no bright colour imagery ,
j ust gray and black , l eaving the reader with a heavy
depres s e d feeling . " 4 8
"The theme o f th� story
A s Laurenc e P e rrine . says ,
. . i s conc erned with the
tangle d hurr.an emoti ons of p ity and pri de . " 4 9 R o s en
.
takes pity on Eva , and Eva asks him to take pity and
s t op pitying her . Thus the title is a p ivotal detail
around which the tal e revolves . R o s en is a lonely man
with a need to love , only his values are all wrong ,
and ins t ead o f helping Eva , he only infuriates her .
He s e es money as the answer , but this is not what Eva
wants or even needs . Eva has money and a bus ine s s s o
by Jewish law s h e cannot take his charity . 5 0
However ,
a s Perr ine po i nts out , "Eva ' s re fusal t o acc ept charity
i s at onc e an evidence o f s trength and o f weaknes s - o f admirab l e s el f- reliance and o f s el f- c entre d failure
to respond to R o s en ' s human need . " 5 l
Their lack o f
c ommunication i s appalling : " When I talked s h e d i dn ' t
l isten , s o I s topp e d to talk . " 5 2
R o s en i s to o caught
up in his egotistical des ires to help Eva financ ially ,
68 .
----
- --· · �
---
when all she wants i s s omeone to talk to . On the other
r
11
�
...
hand , Eva is too caught up in her pride to s e e R os en ' s
g enuine nee d to b e o f s ome use . There fore , they b oth
suffer , all through their inab ility to s tretch b eyond
thems elves and s e e things from each other ' s p erspective .
I t is exactly as S andy C ohen stat e s :
B o th R o s en and Eva l iv e d with in their own
mythical repres entat ions o f thems elves ,
playing roles such as ' the magnanimous man , '
and ' the unbeho l den widow , ' and never
communicated outs i de their respective myths
on ' hurran level . Each never unders tood the
other ' s motive , or his own . By attempt ing to
live s o l e ly within the myth R o s en and Eva
c oul d not admit to , hence examine , their own ,
much l es s each other ' s , real and human
emoti onal needs and mot ivati ons . 53
T o take a c l o s er look at the external forbe s
whi c h play a part i n man ' s l onel iness , we 'should firs t
take a look at Malamud ' s attitude towards the "American
D ream" as it existe d in the 1950 ' s ; t he false Dream o f
success and all i t s to o d for , as Jacks on J . B ens on
s tate s :
The building blocks for our prison wal ls c ome
out of a c orrupt and p ervers e res ervo ir o f
-
-
values , and the mortar that �ies tho s e valu e s
together i s �he negative part pf that mythi c
system we lbosely refer to as the rAmeri can
Dream . " 54
B ens on goes on to describe how Malamud ' s " images are
an invers e reflection of almost every ma j or aspect o f
our med ia- suppo rt e d , contempo rary value syste� l eading
t o ' succ ess .
' "
55
Malamud has no interest in the
wealthy , s e lf-satis fi e d material ists ; they are made
to appear Phili s t ine and ins ensitive . Mat erialism is
s hown t o b e ultimately l imiting . I t i s the non­
material ist such as S obel who is e s s entially fre e to
do as he l ikes . There is nothing Feld can o ffer hi�
whi ch will keep him away from M iriam , so through his
lack of monetary amb it i o n , he gains the girl he l oves .
T he dec ent people s e em to b e the affl i ct e d , lonely and
unfulfilled lower clas s . However hard we try , we can
gain nothin? pos itive unl e s s we are prepared to give
up s omething meaningful , whi ch a materialist could never
do .
Malamud portrays a defi nite l i nk b etween go o dne s s
and suffering , s omething I s hall later return to . A s
J oyce Flint sa� s , " affluenc e and power are an
indicat i o n of man ' s moral ignoranc e . " 56
That i s to
s ay , anyone who thinks he can gain happiness through
70 .
money i s dreadfully mis informed . S i dney R ichman i s
c orrect when h e declares that Malamud ' s protagonists
" succ e e d as men only by virtue o f their failure in
s o c i ety . " 57
What Malamud atten:pts to do , as David
B o ro ff t ells us , i s to inv e s t " the fai lure with
digni �y as well as pathos . " 58
He does this to ensure
t hat we s ee the pos itive values behind such failure ,
and acc ept his j u dgement o f succ e s s as bad . I n summing
up thi s att itude o f Malamud ' s B en S i egel s tate s , " I f
in Malamud no gain i s without l o s s , neither i s l o s s
ever devo i d of gain . " 5 9
Malamud depicts " succ es s " not j us t a s unattractive
and limiting , but eventually a s actually damaging . To
be a succ ess one has t o work ; "work " is therefore meant
to be attractive as a means o f attaining greater
wealth and happine s s . With Malamud work brings only
illne s s and pain . This is b ecaus e , if you cons i der work
as b e i ng the road to succ es s , you are b e coming a part
o f a mechanistic s o c i ety whi c h will , in its c easeless
que s t for greater wealth , us e up and destroy the workers
it fe eds o n , for a mechanis t i c s o c i ety has no real
int erest in indivi dual p eopl e . At one point we s ee Mitka
in danger o f being drawn int o such a s o c i ety as he
l o o ks out and " a imle s s ly fol lowe d traffi c -- not peop l e
- - i n t h e s treet .·" 6 0
Luckily for him , Olga rekindl e s
h i s interest in p e ople and s aves him from such a mis take .
?1 .
Robert Alter describ e s Malamud ' s working
characters as b e ing " nail e d to the cumbersome load o f
[theirJ
wearying work . " 6 1
Many characters i n The
M agic Barrel bec ome ill from the pressures o f
I
business and the strains o f trying to maintain a
suc c e s s ful l i festyle . Grub e r , for example , " felt
b urdened by financial worri e s whi c h shot his b l o o d
pressure- up t o astonishing heights . " 6 2
Mani s chevitz
i n "Angel Levine " got " excruc iating backaches. and
found hims elf unabl e to work even as a presser . " 63
R o s en whilst working at helping Eva , suddenly declare s ,
" I felt s ick in my stomach , and was coming also a
headache , " 64
and a little later , "All day l ong and
all night I felt bad . My back paine d me where I was
mis s i ng a kidney . " 6 5 . T he work do es not have to be
a j ob to destroy your health , but any systematic and
s e l fi s h action . Work is also seen as dehumanis ing . We
find R o s en referred to as an " ex-coffee salesman . " 66
He no l onger has the indivi dualism as denoted by a
name , but i s class i fi e d by the j ob he does , and i n thi s
case having lost his j ob , h e no longer has a ny real
e xi st enc e . Finally wealth , the product o f work ,· is
s hown to b e a weight which drags you down ·further , as
it pres ents you with exhausting respons ibiliti e s :
I gnace brought the ring o f pass keys , and
G rub er , breathing heavily , b egan the
72.
lumbering climb up the long avenue of
stairs . Although he rested on each landing ,
the fatigue of c limbing , and his profuse
,
flowing perspiration , heightened his
6
irritation . 7.
Malamud i s clearly against the " success myth , "
and shows it as encouraging the external forces
oppos ing c�mmunicat i on which I earlier referred to .
A closer look at "T he Mourners" will demonstrate how
these forces can alienate one man from another . "The
Mourners , " lik� "Take P ity , " is a story which shows
very lit�le hope in man's ab ility to overcome . his
essential loneliness . It tells of how an old man
discover� through advers ity a realisation of his own
past wickednes s and how intensely alone in the world
this has left him .S idney Richman describes it as one
•
o f the " most diemal stories
overburdened with
.
68
a s ense Q f futility . "
As S heldon Hershinow tells
•
us , "The b!eak s etting
•
•
•
•
•
•
s erves as an appropri�te
backdrop for Kessler's l i fe of self- imposed loneliness
and isolation. The conditions of his apartment
( Kess ler's ) parallel the rotting , disorder�d , aimless
wreckage o f his life . He is a grotesque character
69
leading a grotesque life . "
Kessler has proved himself to be a defective c og
7J .
in the mechanis t i c s oc i ety he lives in , s inc e he is
unemployab l e . Having lost his us e fulne s s , his " role "
in the community has b een taken away :from him , and he
is no longer a r�c ognisab l e part o:f s o c i ety . "Kess l er ,
:formerly an egg candler , lived alo ne on s o c ial
s ecurity . " 7 0
His redundancy leaves him totally
.
.
alone , out s � de and at the mercy o :f that very s o c i ety
.
to whi ch he onc e b elonged . This s o c i ety judges only
in monetary terms and has no respect :for age . Grub er
is repres entative o:f that s o c iety and his v ery name ,
as Laurel C anham t ells us , i n Yi ddish s lang means
s omeone who has little respect :for his elders . 7 l
Grub er has little respect :for Kessler ' s age , and :for
purely :financ ial reasons dec i des to throw the old man
out on the street : " I t had o c curred to him that I gnac e
could then s lap a c heap c oat o :f paint on the walls and
the :flat would then be l et to s omeone :for :five dollars
more than the o l d man was paying . " 7 2
Gruber dare not risk contact , and s o calls i n
out s i de a i d to remove Kes sl er . T hi s ai d t�kes t h e :form
o:f two unnamed , :fac eless as s is tants who " m�thodi,pally
remove d his meagre :furniture , " and " ho lding the o l d
man tightly by the arms and skinny l egs , carried him
kicking and moaning , down the stairs . " 73
They show
the relentlessne s s o:f machinery in action ; K e s s l er
cannot res i s t . They have reduc e d him t o the inanimat e
74 .
level of his own furniture as they ruthlessly carry
him outs i de . Grub er eventual ly feels s ome remors e
over Kessl er , but as Sandy C ohen p o i nts out , " the
right act or charity comes about by the wrong reason ,
namely , ego ism . " 7 4
Grub er never really thinks o f
Kes s l er , but only o f hims elf and how the s ituation
will affect him . There is no real s ens e of c ommunicat i on
at any po int during the story . Even when the other
t enants help K es s l er , he �ays no att ention to them ,
and shows no s ign o f gratitu de . However , we dis cover ,
in the clos e o f this tale , that K e s s ler i s no longer
completely alone , for Grub er ( though for purely s el fi s h
reasons ) J Oins him i n h i s c eremony o f mourning .
I n The Magic Barrel IV:alamud captures the "po etry "
rather than the "reality " of lonely s ituat ions . He
real i s es why people become l onely , but i s reluctant
to condemn them to b e alone for the rest o f thei r
lives . S till the romantic i d eali s t , h e allows h i s
loners an opportunity t o reconnect : S ob e l wins M iriam ,
K e s s l er i s j o ined by Grub er , M itka meets Olg� who
s ends him back to Mrs . Lut z , the Manis chevit� · regain
their health to allow them to onc e more b ecome us eful
s o c ial memb ers . I t is only the more undes erving
characters who are l eft by t hems elves , such as Freeman ,
F i delman or Wi lly S chl egel .
At this point Malamud will not wholly fac e up to
75 .
the full implicati on� of lonel ines s in a � 9§ ern age ,
as i� is · to o terrible to sanely encompas s
..
It
is not
until R embrandt ' s Hat that �alamu d can pres ent a
totally alienate d p erson who really does not d e's erve
it . Therefore, Malamud ' s e ffort in The Magic Barrel
t o teach peopl e that l onel ines s is pandemi c to the
modern experienc e is romant i cally poet i c i s e d and
l o s es much. of its impact . F irstly , b e caus e he tri es
to temp er ·the reality in o rder t o maintain a s ens e of
optimism and secondly , b e caus e he distances the tales
s o far from the mainst�am o f modern l i fe that they l o s e
their pertinen� . That i s not t o say , however , that
Malamud m�kes no vali d comment in The Magic �arrel .
What is happening i s that , still unsure of exactly what
his vi ews are , Malamud i s using The Magic Barre l to
tentatively res earch many opinions upon which he will
later take a firmer stanc e . For the t ime b eing , however ,
he playfi) 1.t safe and fully uti l i zes the distanc ing he
has constructed in Ttte Magi c B arrel .
During the acc eptanc e speech which Malamud gave
when he received the National B ook Award for· The Magic
B arrel , he spoke out against the devaluati on o f man
in the mo dern age . He declared that the worst aspect
o f this was man ' s apparent acc eptanc e of this
devaluati o n . He then stat e d an int ent to tr:y to
rekindle s ome p o s itive values for mankind out o f the
76 .
hardene d remnants o f cfvil i s ation .
75
The Marie
Barrel i s therefore a s earch for permanent values to
l ive by . Ma�amud lo oks towards such universal values
as suffering and love to s e e i f they can provide him
with any answers .
John S kow t ells us that "B ernard Malamud writes
t o understand and what he writes about and understands
i s suffering , which is to say the human condit i on . " 7 6
� he ldon Hershinow goes even further to say that
Malamud ' s fiction " suggests that l i fe . . . i s a
s earch to make unavoidable suffering meaningful . " 7 7
What happens , though , i s that Malamud ' s ideal ism
fails him , and 'he i s unabl e t o give suffering a
convinc ing s igni ficance . A s R ob ert Alter suggests ,
" I n s ome o f the most remarkabl e tale s , the relat i on
b etwe en fantasy and reality i s revers e d . The t ones and
gestures and s ett ings of the charact ers are realistic
but the. overall conc eption is fantast i c . ;, 7 8 The
c l earest example o f this woul d b e "Angel · Levine , " in
which , by a declarat ion o f faith in the s eemingly
impos sible , Manis chevi t z and his wife are incredulously
restore d to health .
Malamud i s s o far from real ity , he create s a worl d
in oppos ition to the real one , with
a
complete reversal
of values . I f the end result appears a l ittle c onfus ed ,
that is only a reflection o f the t enuous ins ecurity
77 .
of the world Malamud has created . "Angel Levine " i s
not a very positiye statement . Mani schevitz , despite
the l e s sons he i s shown , remains .pre judi c e d, to the
end . At the clo s e he recogni s e s Levine only �or his
religiqn and not for his c o l our . Levine i s �hown
throughout as a negative Negro st�reotype . Throug�out
the tale we find no positive "black" i dentity , 02;1ly
pos itive "Jewish" i dentiti es . Malamud is c oncerne d
with suffering , but here only as i t affects his
J ewish charact ers , so his attitude i s l imiting from
the start . Whereas by Alan Fri edman ' s reckoninE ,
" Job ' s losses and anguish are predicat e d as
meaningful , " 7 9 Manischevi t z ' s suffering on the other
hand s e ems pointles s : "Upon him suffering was largely
waste d . I t went nowhere , into nothing : into more
suffering .
"
80
Suffering never really means anything becaus e the
world it is set in has no real meaning . It is a " dark
world . I t was vast and its l ights lit nothing .
Everywhere were sha dows , o ften moving . " 8 1
I t is a
world full of unclaime d p o s s ibilities , where even
Malamud holds back due to a fear of the uncertainty
o f darkness . D et ermined to find s ome value in
suffering , Malamud shows us suffering as essentially
redempt ive ( though s eemingly meaningless at the time ) .
There fore , Manis chevit z ' s suffering gives him a new
78 .
lease in l i fe when it i s eventually abated :· though
Malamud never really explains why rt was nec e s saFy
for �anis chevitz to suffer in the first place .
Malamud •·s promoti on o f suffering as a wel c orr.Er
c omponent in our l ives is never fully sub� tantiat e d .
His characters wi ll suffer , but the rewards he all d'Ws
them never s eem to match up to the l o s s e s they have
undergone . He s e ems to promote suffering purely for
suffering ' s sake , without explanation or justifi cation .
He shows cl early that suffering i s unavo i dable , but
fails to give it the meaning he desire d .
Suffering maintains an unattractiveness
throughout The Magi c Barrel : " I f suffering had marked
him , .he no longer s ought to conc eal the s ign ; the
shining was hi s own - - him - - now . So he frightened
B es s i e . " 8 2
It i s a natural react i on for people to
run from suffering in others , j ust as B e s s i e tri e s to
avoi d Kob otsky in "T he Loan" ; people are s cared that
the suffering may b e " catching , " l ike a diseas e .
However b enefi c ial it may b e acc ording to Malamud ,
suffering i s not s omething we can enc ourage into our
lives . There fore , Malamud has to look for an alternative
means towards redemption ; he d i s c overs the far more
attractive propos it i on of redempti on through l ove . A s
J oyce Flint observes , " For Malamud , love becomes the
answer for leading a meaningful l i fe in any s oc i ety . " 83
79.
A s Jonathan B aumbach t ells u� , " Love is the
redempt ive grace in Malamud ' s fi ction, tnr high e s t
\
.
goo d � D e f'eat o f l ove i s the trage dy, " 8 4
He als o
s ays , " The amount o f' love a man i s abJ. e ap d willing
t o commit to l ife i s , in Malamud ' s univers e , the
measure of his grac e . " 85
Love b e comes the qatalyst
by which we can begin relating to the rest of the
world . I t' s tarts by promoting an engagement with
another pers o n , and then , through that person ,
mankind in general as our powers . o f' c ommunicat i on
b ecome re j uvenat ed . However , as Flint po ints out ,
" love is an emotion which many o f his characters woul d
prefer to avo i d , b e caus e they recogni s e that it
involves qho ic e , commitment , and respons ibility . " 8 6
We must learn to bravely ent er l i f'e and take on its
respons ibilities , before we can appreciate the saving
qualit i es o f l ove . "The IV:agic B arrel " best illustrates
this conc ept , as we track Leo making hi s cho i c �s ,
.c ommitting hims elf , taking on respons ibi lity and
eventually discovering " love . "
Leo ' s probl em i s that he does not have a real
l ife , but spends all of hi s t ime avo i ding l i fe and its
respons ib i lities . A s S heldon Hershinow states , "The
events o f the story force Leo to real i s e that thi s
years o f i s o late d s tudy have s erve d largely as an
e s cape from l i f'e . " 8 7
Leo i s totally dis involv e d from
80 .
the world around him . His only conc ern i s for surfac es
s inc e he is unable to function on a deeper l evel . The
only reason he called the marriage broker was b e caus e
he " had b e en adv i s e d by an acquaintance that he might
find it eas i er to win hims e l f a c o ngregati on i f he were
marri ed . " 88
To use a marriage broker woul d c o s t hin:
l e s s effort and involvement than to g o out and find
a girl for hims e l f . When Sal zman arrives , Leo b etrays
his concern with surface s as he i nquires , "D o you
keep photographs of your cli ent s on fil e ? " 89
Leo ' s meeting with Lily is as S i dney Richman
des crib es it , " a testing by question and answer that
suddenly exposes Leo , " 9 0
to hims elf as much as to
anyone e l s e . "�ike Fi delman on G iotto , Finkle knows
the word b ut not the spirit ; and he make s it c l ear in
every gesture that in a s ecret part of his heart he
knows it . " 9 l
As R ichard R eynolds tells us , "He has
learned that he will not reach G o d through books , that
he nee ds to involve hims e l f with mankind . " . 9 2
Mark
G o l dman talks o f Leo ' s gradual awakening to reality :
" The truth b egins to penetrate the acaderr.i c pri de o f
the young rabb i , a s he real i s e s that h i s lovele s s fear
o f l i fe , and not a p ious s ens e o f tradition, has l e d
him t o t h e matchmaker . " 9.3
H i s moment o f truth does
s eem to c ome after his meeting with Lily , for thi s is
the moment when he suddenly dis covers his own ne e d for
81 .
involvement : " he d i d not love G o d so well as he
rr.ight ,, b e cause he had not loved man . " 94
J;lowever ,
Leo has ·trouble effectively involvi � hims elf , s i nce
he l ives by the wrong value s , which do l imit his
progre s s . His advanc ement i s therefore rather
hes itant and unsure , but at l east he makes the effort .
A s R ichman s.o accurately s tates , " One finishes " The
Magic B arrel " . . . not with the exaltatio1;1 o f
witne s s ing miracles , but with the mor-e durab l e
sat i s facti on o f witnessing p o s s ib iliti es . " 95
Bates Hoffer caustically tears Leo to p i e c e s in
his ess�y on "The Magic Barrel" :
This bastion of Judaism has spent alrr.ost
s even years in rabb ini cal preparat ion and
still has the understanding of " love " of a
s ex- starved s ophomore . There is no evi dence
in the story of any real pract i c e of his
faith or any real knowle dge o f it . 9 6
Hoffer s ees Leo as the " worst po s s ib l e rabbi " 97
as
he puts his own physical des ires b e for� his Go d ; that
i s really to say , Leo is too ego c entric . He i s
c ertainly not a " mo del " rabbi a s h e casually brea.ks
the S abbath by going out on a dat e with Lily . I t is
not unt i l this date that he real i s es , after , seven years
o f studying to b e a rabbi , that he does not l ove God :
82 .
" ' I think , ' he said in a straine d manner., ' that
I
came
to G o d not becaus e I love d Him , but becaus e � di d
not . ' " 98
As S i dney Richman des crib es him , "I,eo
unit e s ·myth and ant i -myth in his own pers o n . Pas s ionately
i nter�sted in Jewish law s ince childho o d , Le� i s
nonethel e s s G o dl e s s . " 99
T o look at the tale from a
religious point o f view , it i s easy to c ondemn L e o as
s trongly as Ho ffer does : " Leo s eeks not the Promi s e d
Land o ffered by G o d , but the promis e d land o f his own
des ires , union with a prostitute . " 1 00
I feel , however , that Hoffer i s being a l ittle
int emperate in his judgement s . Firstly , Leo is not a
c ons c i ous hypocrite ; as soon as he real ises that he
does not l ove G o d as a rabb i shoul d , he c eases his
studies and qpns i de�s leaving the Yeshivah . S ec ondly ,
S t ella i s not nec e s s arily a prostitut e ; infac t , her
app earanc e denotes experi ence rather than sin . She
wears a white dress with red sho es , not the red dress
o f a prostitut e . The red shoe s show that she has b e en
t ouched by l i fe , but the whi t e dress suggests that she
has not b een spoilt . As Theodore M i ll er suggests , "T hat
s he evokes ' an impres s ion . . . of evil ' may b e
interpret e d not in a s exual s e ns e , but in Hawthorne ' s
s ense that all men b ear human guilt . " 1 0 1
I n this
sens e , M iller ' s comment that " Finkle
c omes to
ac c ept S tella for the reason that he acc epts universal
8) .
guilt , " 1 0 2
s eems a lot fairer t o the youngsters than
Ho ffer ' s vitriol ic dismissal o f the P.air as lust ful ,
uncaring lovers . leo ' s meeting with S tella , i s al s o
a meeting with the experienc e S tella symbol i s e s and
becomes a meeting with l i fe i t s el f ; a l i fe he has only
b een s emi -aware of up unt i l now . Sandy C ohen s ee s
"The Magi c Barrel " a s depicting how L e o " learns t o
balanc e h i s l i fe b y adding to its - s ensual aspects and
subtract ing from its asc etic aspects , " which lea ds
to a " s e l f-trans cendence through a diminution o f the
ego . " 1 03
B e s i des , as I have already stated , we
cannot expect a miraculous conversion in Leo as Hoffer
s e ems to demahd ; the change must be gradual .
We end the tal e on a note o f ambiguity with
Sal zrr.an ' s Kadd i s h , whi ch could b o de well or ill for
the l overs ; Malamud refus es to c ommit hims el f . Theodore
Miller optimisti cally interprets this Kaddish as
" commemorating the death o f the o l d Leo who was
incapab-le o f love , " for he feels that " i f Leo can
l ove S t ella , he has unlocke d his heart to nankind and
G o d " 1 04
and i s therefore redeeme d . B ut the Kad dish
could stand for much more . As Hershinow tells us :
I n J ewish tradition a man may chant Kaddish
for a living relat ive as a means o f
symbol ically dis owning that pers on . I n a
general s ens e , Kaddish may s imply suggest
84 .
great sorrow . D o es P inye mourn s imply
b e caus e h i s daughter is dead to him
?
Or
does he mourn for hims elf b e caus e o f h i s
c omplicity i n bringing Leo and S tella
together
?
Or , perhaps , for Leo ' s l o s s o f
innoc enc e ? Or S tella ' s s inful ways ? A ll
( and more ) are p o s s ible . 1 0 5
One might almo st s e� P inye as saying a mournful
Kaddish for the human condit i on i t s e l f . D eath i s not
menti one d in the Kaddish though it i s generally us e d
as a prayer for the dead , in fact it cons i sts o f
praises to G o d . 1 0 6
S o mayb e Malamud wishes to take
S al zman ' s �addish simply at word value , as a hymn o f
prais e t o G o d i n c elebration o f the l i fe he has just
invoke d , rather t han view the Kaddish in its
connotative sens e ? T hrough his love for S tella it is
pos s ib l e that L e o attains redemption , but the road i s
d i ffi cult arid failure i s always within sight·.
The i deal is t ic l ove whi c h potentially re deems Leo
is a rather romanti c c onc eption on IV:alamud ' s part . He
has Leo falling prey to that o l d clich e , " love at first
s i ght " : "Her fac e deeply move d him .
. he knew he
must urgently go find her . " 1 0 7 The impul sivene s s with
whi ch Leo grasps at l i fe through S tella is a l ittle
d i s conc erting , and we may wonder just how long his
enthusiasrr. will last ; mayb e for another s even years
?
S t ella i s_ .to an extent a symbol o f Leo ' s hunger for
experienc� , but o nc e he has sa�iated his hunger , as
with religion , there is a strong l ikelihoo d that he
w�ll then casually dismi s s b oth the experi ence and
S tella . Leo ' s achievements are s ho rt- l ive d .
Malamud ' s s earch for value through the powers o f
suffering and love are , therefore , b oth shown to b e
feas ib l e , but neither guaranteed nor definitely
lasting . B oth are made attract iv e , largely by the
powers of Mala�ud ' s imaginat i o n , yet in real ity are
·neither s o �as ily a chieve d nor s o appealing . Malamud
is aware of �h� probl ems which can b e caus e d by a
misuse o f imaginati on . R eal ity can eas ily bec ome
distort e d unle s s your imagination is strongly grounded
in fact . I magination can even b e hazardous , unl e s s it
i s to s ome ext ent controlle d .
I n "A _summer ' s R eading" Malamud shows how
imaginati o n is useless if it achieves nothing . The tal e
tells how George gains respect in his l ocal community
by encouraging them to b el i eve he i s reading around
o ne hundre d books over the summer to improve hims elf .
A s C harle s May tells us , the t itle i s ironic s inc e ,
throughout the tale , the main i s sue i s that George does
108
not do the reading .
S ometimes it takes phys i cal
e ffort and not dreams to really achi eve s omething
86 .
worthwhile . C harles May describes ·•'A S ummer ' s Reading "
a s b eing about " things that d o not happ e n , yet can
happe n ; of made-up stories that can come true . . . it
i s a minor parable o f the imaginat ion . " 1 Q_9
George
Stoyonovi ch " want e d people to like and respect him .
He thought about the s e things o ften . " 1 1 0
A s R i chman
puts it , he " s eeks unavailingly to es cap e the prison
of s elf . " 1 1 1
George ' s problem i s that he l ives in a dreamworl d
and will not make any real effort to make that worl d
b ecome fac t . A s C ohe� tells us , "That only one ' s
e fforts , not his dreams , will give him the c hanc e for
a new l i fe is a recurrent theme in Malamud . " 1 1 2
George dreams o f reading all tho s e books , and for a
while his dream takes on a tangib il ity as Mr . Cattanzara
gives it vali dity . However , the b ooks have not b e en
read , and though G eorge is not disclos e d as a cheat ,
he cannot ultimately b enefit from the dece it . When we
l ive vicariously , as when we are l iving a l i e , we are
not really l iving at all . G eorge eventually real is e s
this ( though Malamud do es not show us how/why G e orge
is enlightened ) , and we l eave him hastily· trying' to
rr.ake the dream a fact : firstly , he wants to repay Mr .
Cattanzara for his trust and s econdly , he wants to try
and revalidate his l i fe . The Magic B arrel i s a vicarious
e xp erienc e for Malamud ; just like George , he i s using
87 .
his imagination to avo i d involvement . The stori es
give the impress ion that Malamud i s c.9 nc erned over
his f,e llowman , and he i s , but not conc epned epough to
fully c ommit hims elf yet . I feel that R embrandt ' s Hat
i s Malamud ' s e ffort to repay his pub l i c for their
trust in his int ent i ons , and it is also an att empt, to
reval i dat e his own l i fe , now that he knows where to
make his stand .
Malamud i s constantly s howing us the short c omings
o f human b eings , and as a human being hims el f , these
shortcomings are hi s own . M ilton R�goff tells us that
Malamud ' s " creatures are o ft en grubby , pathet i c or
even mean , but they reveal longings , pas s i ons ,
weaknes s es , capac ities for sacri fi c e or faith that
trans figures therr. . " l l 3
This is a capac ity which we
all have , and Malamud wishes to show us thi s . He t ells
R onald Sheppard that " the main them � o.f his wort is
the development o f the hi dden strengths o f ordinary
and awkward p eople . The chi e f ccnc ern i s ,na� ng ·a
.
�
character ' s pers o�lity b l o s s om at a critical morr.ent
o f his l i fe . " 1 1 4
The Magic Barrel i s develop ing
Malamud ' s hidden strengths , and the moment when his
p ersonality blo s soms out is fifteen years later in
R embrandt ' s Hat . M eanwhile he cont i nues t o look at the
problems fac e d by the modern man who wishes to l ive
in a meaningful way in a worl d whi ch i s clearly
88 .
antagonistic to his des ire s .
S he l don Grebstein tells us that the W.alamudian
J ew " has impuls e s for goo d but keeps making the wront:
cho i c e s for the wrong reasons . " 1 1 .5 This i s rr.ayb e
true o f such characters as Freeman , Fi delrr.an or even
M itka , but there are other charact ers such as Willy
and the Pane ssas o r Lieb and Kobots ky , who do not
quite s lot into this category . They do wrong , but not
for the wrong reas ons , but e ither , ironically , for
the right reasons o r b ecause they have no cho ic e .
Through them ( and also through T ommy Castell i ) we
can di s c over how kindne s s , like love , can make man
both vulnerable and afrai d . William J ones talks o f
l ove as a " weaknes s that makes its practitioners
vulnerab l e -b efore
a
worl d o f hatred and s ense l e ss ness . " 1 1 6
Kindne s s is a type o f love , for to b e kind to s omeone
you must " love " them to a degree . Therefore , kindness
also b e c omes a weakness .
"T he B ill " and "The Loan , " " share alike the
t errib l e consequence s o f morality and poverty in
collision . . . the f'rustrati on o f man., s nee d to give , ' ' 1 1 7
but inab i lity to do so . I n "The B i ll , " the Panes sas
ext end credit in their s mall store to Willy who l ives
over the road , and he accumulates a bill he i s unable
to clear . S idney R ic hman describ es how Willy is
destroy e d by the " kindne s s " o f the Panessas . We s e e
89 .
in " The B ill " :
how in a world rule d by the ine�uctab l e
demands o f economi c s and acci dents , even
good turns rank .
•
.
depic t s the manner
in which the s oul desc ends into an
embittering nightmare when the nee d to
extend goodnes s i s deni e d . 1 1 8
Human nature is e s s entially amb ivalent , and guilt ,
instead o f making us repentant , can just as eas ily make
us unnec e ssarily cruel . Guilt has the latter e ffect
on Willy , " the pain of his guilt trans forms his
sympathy for the aged couple to hatre d . " 1 1 9
S el f
interest has won out over corr.pas s io n . Y e t Willy has
destroye d a part o f hims el f by allowing his gree d to
take over hi's consc ienc e : " his tongue hung in his
mouth l ike dead · fruit on a tree , and his heart was a
b lack-painted window . " 1 2 0
By turning his back on the ,
o l d coupl e Willy had refuse d to take respons ibility
or t o get involve d . He is therefore , as this imagery
depict s , an unpro ductive member o f s o c i ety . A s
Hershinow acknowle dges , " T o fail t o give ' credit ' t o
another human b e ing
even when you know the credit
is unde s erved -- is to deny the humanity in yours el f . " 1 2 1
T he P ane s sas ext end credit and remain human , Wil ly
refus es and his humanity is destroye d .
90 .
M eanwhile , in "The Loan , " we � e e as Laurel
C anham suggests , how Malamud "uses the emphas is o f
white ( meaning goo d ) and b lack ( meaning charre d and
destroy ed ) to emphas i z e the d�s integra� ion o f what
appears t o be suc c e s s . " 1 2 2
Lieb ' s o l d friend
Kobotsky has turne d up to ask for a loan to buy a
headstone for his wife ' s e rave . L i eb and B e s s i e wish
to aid Kobotsky , but their apparent suc c e s s
dis integrates into useless tears as they find they
must refus e . The ir s uc c e s s becomes nothing if it will
not all ow them to a i d a friend , but what money they
have is needed tor the l iving and cannot be wast e d on
the dead . Nece s s ity is a force from which none of us
can e scape .
Whereas Lieb and � es s i e sympathi s e but do not
help b ecause they cannot afford to , C arl S chne i der ,
on the other hand , c ould afford to help but does not
do s o b ecause he fails to sympathi s e . "B ehold the Key , "
s hows C arl S chnei der b lundering through R ome looking
for suitable ac como dation . He is unable to find anything
sati s factory b e caus e he does not understand b�s i c hurr.an
nature . C arl doe s not s ympathi s e with the I talians
..,
b ecause he cannot c ommunicate with them : "He c ouldn ' t
communicate with them i n their own language . " 1 23 He
knew I talian , but could not understand the I tal ians ,
whi ch i s not surpris ing as he i s too caught up in
91.
hims elf , as are mos t o f the characters in this tale ,
which is why nothing is achieved . A s C ohen points out ,
"Each individual i s out to sat i s fy. his· own ' ero s ; '
no one i s ever motivate d by a real des ire to. hel�
Others . " 1 24
c ar1 1 o s e s
th e apart ment , b ecaus e o f h �s
'
callous refusal to understand the ne e ds and emot ions
o f the I tal i ans . C ohen s tate s , " egoc entrism i s the
forc e that blinds , " 1 2 5
and C arl s e ems to b e
t ern:inally blinde d . R ichman feels that " What is being
tested i s not only C arl S chne i der ' s pati ence but his
hur. anity . " 1 2 6
He cannot understand the I tal ians
b e caus e he has an entirely false conc epti on o f their
worl d . He �as create d an i deal and is having trouble
ass imilating it into reality , the same problem M itka
had . C arl ' s experience literally marks hirr. : " the key
hit C arl on the forehead , l eaving a IT�rk he c oul d not
rub out . " 1 27
But doe s he l earn from his experi enc e ?
No , but he. s erve s as an example , a warning to the res t
o f us , and h e b ears a mark as C ain di d , to t e s t i fy to
his lack o f humanity .
Hershinow t ells us that Malamud s e e s " humans as
s entient b eings who nee d c ompass ion and communion in
the fac e of an o ften oppres s ive existenc e . " 1 2 8
He
goes on to say later that :
l i fe i s relative . A store can become a prison
t
f
,.
�
for one man and a means of deliveranc e for
·�
92 .
another . Things , in and o f thems elves , are
neither go od nor bad ; they are what we make
o f them . I n the world o f Malamud ' sfict i on
compass io n , l ove , and . understanding - � the
humane values -- rather than phy s ical
circumstanc e s give meaning to one ' s l i fe . 1 29
A s Kenneth Kerr.pt on describ e s it , in "The Prison" T omrry
C astelli " spins on his own axis whi l e the story rr;oves
around him . . . he is more acted upon than ac ting ,
drawing his exi stence from his dependenc e on others
3°
and when l i fe doesn ' t suit him calling it a bore . " 1
H e has impriso ned
himself i n the l ittle candy store
for he found he c ould no longer c ope with the outs ide
worl d : "He lay rr.otionless , without thought or sympathy
for hims elf or anybo dy , " 1 3 1
This s el f- is olation 'is
destruct ive to the spirit as i t eventually leads to
s tagnation :
T o mmy b egins c o mpletely wrappe d up in himsel f ,
but suddenly h e c o nnects with the out s ide wo�ld . He
finds hims elf sympathising with a young shop - l i fter ,
and this sympathy enc ourages him t o extend him� e l f
t owards h e r i n a n e ffort t o communicate . Arthur Foff
t ells us that Malamud i s trying to t each people that :
We , all o f us , l ive in a world o f l o s s ,
ghetto s , and darkne s s . We . are all o f us
9) .
strangers , s capegoats , -refugees . Y et i f we
can reali s e this , can real i s e that we owe
still our debt to humanity to others , that
encroaching darknes s may b e s taye d a l ittle .
13 2
This is what Tommy attempts t o do ; t ry and repay his
debt t o s oc i ety by prevent ing a chi l d from making the
same kind o f mis take he onc e made . However , his
kindne s s is re j ected and the little girl apparently
desp i s e s him for his e fforts : " at the do o� s he
manage d t o turn her white fac e and thrus t out at hirr
her red tongue . " ! J J
D espite this re j ection , T ommy ' s
.
kindnes s was no weaknes s but a s trenfth , whi ch at
least enables hirr , even if only rr:offientarily , to relat e
to another human b eing and s o errerge frorr his pri s o n .
A s Hershinow s tates , " N o matter how pathetic or fool i s h ,
the indivi dual can , Malamud i ns i s ts , assert his
'1
humanity , " 34 and he s hould make every e ffort to do
s o despite the o dds . T ommy is e s s e nt ially a bett er
human being than C arl , b ecause he has the abi lity t o
s ympathis e , whi c h is why h e c omes out o f the c o nfl�ct
uns cathed . It is R os a , who like Ca rl has no sympathy ,
who b ears the scars from this fight : "She did not cry
but looked around daz edly at everyb o dy , and tr�e d to
smi le , and everybo dy there c ould s ee her teeth were
flecked with b l o o d . " ! J 5
94 .
O ne �f the mos t imp ortant things which Malamud
ins ists �pan in The Magic B arrel i s 1 man ' s potent ial .
A s FliJ1t declares , " I f Malamud crit i c i z�s the .s o c iety ,
he als o s uggests that man ' s deepest des ire is to b e
goo d , and that this qes ire can b e ful f1l l e d in any
s oc iety . " 1 .3 6
Malamud frequently shows "goo d "
c haract ers l ike S ob e l , O lga , Levine , T ommy , ,Is ab ella ,
M r . Cattanzara or S alzman , all s triving to c ommunicat e
with their fellow man and t o
try
and help him . Not all
succ e e d , but their potent ial for humanity is dep i cte d
in their very attempt . Such potent ial may lead you t o
c ons i der The Magic B arrel as " an opt imistic affirmati on
o f every man ' s capac ity for growth and regenerat i on , "
rather than a "pess imistic vis ion o f the ' litt le man '
in c ont empqrary s o c iety " 1 .3 7
as Joyce Flint s ees it .
Jacks on J . B ens on feel� that Malamud i s telling us ,
"P eople can chapge . This may b e the most important
thing that Malamud has to say . " 1 .3 8
Therefore , however
badly we start out , there is always hope that we may
later redeem ours elves .
The c ollect i on is . full o f what Malamud ,calls "a
kind o f experimental opt imi s m . " 1 .3 9
•
"Experimental " i s
the operative word here , for Malamud i s merely
e xperiment ing with optimism rather than promoting it :
j ust as he experiments with notions o f lonelines s ,
' suffering , love , succes s , s y mpathy and kindne s s . The s e
9.5 .
s tories are not about "real " people ; they are
spec i fi cally about aspects o f Malamud ' s tho�ghts on
p e ople . They are the experiments he makes in tpe
formulat i on of a the ory , a theory he eventually
crystalli zes and expounds in R embrandt ' s Hat .
As R onald B ryden quite rightly po ints out , "No
matter what kind o f tragedy or ins ight one is being
tol d , one remains not involve d . " 14 0
l eonard M ichae�s
has suggested that "Malamud repres ents rather than
s ol i c its feeling . " 141
This is all true ; in T he Magi c
B arrel we never really get involve d or caught up with
any of his c haract ers . This is not s o surpris ing ; we
cannot get involved becaus e we know they are not real .
Like Malamud , we stand on the s i deline s , obs ervers o f
the game o f l i fe , lo oking o n in hope o f finding
answers whi ch will give us more direction in our live s .
But as S he l don Grebs tein says , " I f there are gains for
M alamud ' s 9haracters , they can usually b e measured
only in moral inches . " 142
S am B lu e farb points out ,
" Ins ights do happe n , but thes e affect relati onships
b etween indivi dual and indivi dual rather than tho s e
b etween t h e indivi dual and h i s s o c iety . " 143
T hat i s
t o say , Malamud has not yet dis c overe d the answers he
s eeks . A s William S harfman s uggests , "Malamud ' s
charact ers are people who are outs i de trying t o get
in or ins ide try ing to get out . " 144
96 .
This is where
I
Malamud gets cau�ht up , and he falls ine ffectively
I
1.
b etwe en the two sto ols , unabl e t o c ope with e ither
I
r
the ins ide or the outs i de . His theories rnay s ave'
I
I
!
t
I
f
t
t
I
indivi duals , but that is not enough : Malamud is
l o oking for a s olut i on whi c h will help a larger
aud i enc e and have a far greater s igni ficance to man
i n general . As he declare d in 1 959 , in his address o n
winni ng the Nat i onal B ook Award for The Magi c ,Ber:el :
[the
I
!
It � e ems t o me that
f
theory o f man , or his prevailing moo d , is
�-
writer' s ] most
important tas k , no matter what the current
to recapture his image as human b e i ng as
each of us in his s e cret heart knows it to
be . . . the writ er in his art
rr.ust
remind man that he has , in his human s triving ,
invent e d nothing less than free dom ; and i f he
will devoutly rememb er this , he will c
understand the best way to pres erve it , and
h i s own highest value .
I ' ve had s omething such as this in mind ,
as I wrot e , however imperfe ctly , mJ sad and
c omi c tales . 145
William S harfman goes on to s ay in his disc�s s ion
of Malamud ' s c haracters :
Their al ienati o n , unlike Bartl eby ' s , is
91 ·
caus e d by failures to make ·peac e with
painful personal his tori�s ; henc e they are
e stranged from thems elves . As a result of
this s el f-es trangement t hey deprive
thems elves not only o f s el f- reali'zat-i on ,
but als o o f any meaningful s oc ial rol� . 1 4 6
Malamud is in the s ame b oat ; he t o o is s t ill try ing
t o make peac e with a painful pers onal his tory and ,
unt il he does , he will not b e able to help the rest
o f s o ciety . As R ic hard Rupp t ells us , "Malamud ' s
central s ituation is the Jew ' s historical problem :
escap ing the ghetto . " 1 47
Only the ghett o i s far
larger than in the old days and i s not exclus i ve ly
Jewish ; indee d , the ghetto now enc ompass es the whole
o f mankind . Malamud wishes to es cape this ghetto and
I
I
I
I
the s tagnati on which l iving in his pas t as sures , to
enab l e him -to embrac e the larger vis i on o f humanity
i
he talke d of in his Award address , but he is t � o
I
I
I
I
I
I
i
unsure t o leave it all behind , although it is
ultimately limiting . "A child throwing a ball s traight
up s aw a b it o f pal e s ky . " 14 8
There i s .no progres s
in the " ghetto " o f l i fe and Malamud is s training
I·
i.
1:
[
�l·
t owards the free dom o f that " pale s ky , " but natural
laws ( b e th �y thos e o f gravity or o f human nature )
c onstantly bring him bac k down t o the ground . As R obert
'
98 .
Al ter t e l l s us , "The magic barrel in short , has
threatene d to bec ome a magic c ircle from whi ch the
writer cannot es cape . " 14 9
The Magic Barrel is a
des cripti on of the prison Malamud has disc·over e d
.
.
hims erf t o be in and wis h es t o escape from .
�
S andy C ohen s ees the themes o f "T he G irl o f My·
D reams " as b e i ng " expe ctat ion versus reality , and
e xpectat ion versus abi lity . " 1 5°
T he s e are rather
the themes of all of Malamud ' s writing , espe cially
early on in his career as in T he Magic B arrel . H e
s ets up the i deal expectation agains t real ity and s ee s
it fail t ime and t ime again , for the expectation can
never quite match up to the abi l ity o f man , which is
s everly l imite d . He s eeks escape through books .
C haracters like Finkle try to es cape through reading
books : " he had regaine d sufficient calrr. to s ink his
nos e into a book and there found peac e from his
thought s . " 1 5 1
Malamud tries to find his "peace '' in
writing b ooks . I t is there that he tries to
r
universalis e his pain in order t o escape it . 1 Jon�than
'
Baumbach s ees Malamud ' s c entral problem here as being
that , ''A romant i c , M alamud writes of heroes , a
real ist , he writes o f the ir de feats . " 1 5 2
Like C arl ,
he finds hims e l f " di s appo i nt e d in finding himse l f s o
dissat i s fi e d in this c ity o f h i s dreams . " 153
put to the test his romant ic i de als cannot come
99 .
When
through without b e c o�ing t erminally s carre d .
T o c onclude , crit ically the b o ok deserves its
succ ess as it is a c ompl ete work . I t manages to portray
a c omplex view o f l i fe b oth pre c is ely and conc is ely ,
which deserves prais e . However , in this c ons i derat ion
of art as Malamud s ees it , the book c learly has a
number o f fatal weakne s s e s . Malamud is aware o f his
art istic s o c ial respons ib i l ity , but for the moment
cannot ful fil it , as he mus t first make hims el f fit
for that respons ib i l ity . He does not give l ife any
meaning in The Magic Barrel , but rather systemat i cally
equivocates what meanings we previous ly held ,
periphally testing them to s e e i f they will be able
t o hol d up to his more destruct i ve ( yet ultimate ly
more product ive ) attack in R e mbrandt ' s Hat . The Magic
B arrel has dealt with the problems Malamud is facing
in his quest t o humanis e his fel l ow man , but it i s
R embrandt ' s Hat which will deal with the answers he
attains . Therefore , taking Malamud ' s definit i on of a
suc c e s s ful work o f art , The M agic Barrel 'i s an art is t i c
and pers onal failure .
100 .
Not e s
1 Granville Hicks , "Hi s Hopes on the Human Heart , "
Saturda;y R eview , 1 2 O ct . 1 96 ) ,
2 Kaz i n , p . 206 .
J
Goldman , P• 1 52 .
4 G o l dman ,
16 .
P•
P•
JJ .
7
5 Peter Hays , "Malamud ' s Y i ddish-ac cent e d M e dieval
S tories , " in 'l'he Fiction of B ernard Malamud , eds . R i c hard
A stro and Jackson J . B ens on ( C ornvallis : Oregon S tate
Univ . Pres s , 1 97 6 ) , p . 90 .
6 R ic hman , p . 22 .
7 William Fre e dman , " From B ernard M alamud , with
D i sc ipline and with Love , " in The F i ft i e s : Fict i o n ,
P o etr;y , D rama , e d . Warren French (D eLand , Fla . : Everett/
Edwards , 1 97 0 ) , p . 1JJ .
8 The odore S olotaroff , " S howing us ' What it M e ans
Human , ' " B ook Week , 1 , No . 5 ( Oct . , 1 96 ) ) , 5 ,
9 R i chard Rupp , "B ernard Malamud : A Party o f O ne , "
in C elebration in Postwar American Ficti on 1945-67
( C oral Gables , F la . : Uni vers ity o f M iami , 1 9 7 0 ) , p . 1 65 .
1 0 Herb ert Mann , "The Malamudian Worl d : M ethod
and M eaning , " S tudie s in American Jewi s h Literature ,
101 .
4 , No . 1 ( 1 9 7 8 ) , 5 .
1 1 N.alamud , The Magic B arre l , p . 1 1 9 .
1 2 C harles Hoyt , "The New R o mant icism , " in B ernard
Malamud and the Crit ics , e ds . Lesl i e A F i e l d and Joyc e
W . F i � l d ( New York : New Y ork Uni v . Pres s , 1 9 7 0 ) , p . 1 80 .
13
14
M alamud , T he Magi c Barre l , p . 95 .
.
S am B luefarb , "The Syncretism o f B ernard Malamud , "
in B ernard Malamud : A C ollect i on o f Critical Essays ,
e ds . Les l i e A . F i e l d and J oyce W . Field ( Englewo o d C l i ffs ,
N . J . : Prent i c e -Hall , 1 9 7 5 ) , p . 7 5 .
15
P eter S hrubb , "About Love and Pity - - The Stories
o f B ernard Malamud , " Quadrant , 9 , No . 6 ( 1 965 ) , 6 7 .
16
Edwin Eigner , "The Loathly Ladies , " i n B ernard
Nalamud and the C ritics . e ds . Les l i e A . Field and Joy c e
W . F i e l d ( New Y ork : New Y ork Univ . Pres s , 1 97 0 ) , p . 8 9 .
17
18
19
20
M alamud , The Magic B arre l , p . 1 1 0 .
.
Malamud , T he Magic B arrel , p . 9 6 .
Malamud , T h e Magic B arrel , p . 1 1 0 .
S andy C ohen , B ernard Malamud and the Trial by
Love , M e lville S tudies in American Literature , No . 1 ,
e d . R ob ert Brainsard P earsall (Amsterdam : Ro dopi N .V . ,
1 974 ) , p . 3 0 .
2 1 Henry
Popki n , ''Jewis h S t orie s , " Kenyon R eview ,
2 0 ( 1 958 ) , 6 3 8 .
2 2 Malamud , The Magic B arre l , p . 1 .
6
23 Giles Gunn , "B ernard Malamud and the High C ost
102 .
of Living , " in A dversity and Grace ; S tudies in R e c ent
American Lit.erature , e d . Nathan A . S c ott , Jr . ( C hi cago :
U ni vers ity o f C hi cago , 1 9 6 8 ) , pp . 6 1 - b 2 .
24 P o dhoret z , p . 1 ? 8 .
25
26
2?
Hassan , "B ernard Malamud , " p . 4 ? .
Malamud , T he Magic Barre l , p . 3 0 .
S hrubb , p . ?0 .
2 8 P o dhoret z , p . 1 ? 8 .
29
R obert Alter , "Out o f the T rap , " M i ds tream ,
9 , No . 4 ( 1 963 ) , 8 8 .
30 G o l dman , pp . 1 65-66 .
3 1 B arbara Lefcowit z , "The Hybris o f Neuro s i s :
Malamud ' s P ictures o f Fi delman , " Literature and
P sychology , 20 ( 1 97.0 ) , 1 1 6 .
3 2 C hristo f Wegelin , "American S c hlemiel Abroa d :
Malamud ' s Italian Stori e s and t h e End o f American
I nnocence , " Twent ieth C entury Literature , 1 9 ( 1 9?3 ) ,
81 .
33 Malamud , The Magic
34 Malamud ; T he Magic
3 5 Malamud , The
Magic
3 6 Malamu d , The Magic
B arre l , p . 142 .
Barre l , p . 143 .
B arre l , p . 143 .
B arre l ,
P•
152 .
3? R i c hman , pp . 1 15- 1 6 .
3 8 B enson , p . 23 .
39 Malamud , The Magic B arrel , p . 1 60 .
40 S hrubb , p . ?0 .
1 03 .
4 1 Field and Fiel d , " I nterview , "
4 2 Goldman ,
p.
p.
16 .
151 .
43 R ev . o f The Magic Barrel , by 'B ernard Malamud .
B ookl i st , 54 ( 1 9 5 8 ) , 5 86 .
44 Arthur Foff , ''Strangers amid Ruins , " Northwest
R eview , 2 ( Fall/Winter 1 9 5 8 ) , 64 - 6 5 .
4 5 William Hogan , "B ernard Malarr:ud ' s ' Gallows
[ S an Franc i s c oJ ,
Humor , ' " C hronic'l e
25 O ct . 1 9 6 3 ,
p.
4 6 B en S iegel , " Through a G lass Darkly : B ernard
Malamud ' s Painful Views o f the S el f , " in The F i c t i on
o f B ernard Malamud , e ds . Richard A st ro and Jacks on J .
B enson ( C ornvallis : Oregon S tate Univ . Pre ss , 1 9 7 6 ) ,
p.
1 25 .
4 7 Malamud , The Magic B arrel ,
4 8 C anham , p
71 .
1 0- 1 1 .
pp .
.
4 9 Laurence Perrine , "Malamud • s ' Take Pity , ' "
Studies in S hort Fiction , 2 ( 1 964 ) , 85 .
5 0 C anham ,
5t
52
P errine ,
p.
86 .
Malamud , The Magic Barrel ,
53 C ohen ,
54 B enson ,
5 6 Flint ,
p.
)6.
p.
37 .
p.
57 R ichman ,
p.
8) .
JJ .
p.
5 5 B enso n ,
58
72 .
p.
18.
p.
23 .
B oroff , "American Judaism , "
104.
p.
18.
23 .
59 S i egel , "Glass D arkly , " p o 1 6 o
J
60
Malamud , The �agic Barre l , P o ) 1 o
61
Alter , " Ordinary A nguish , " P o J 5 o
62
Malamud , The Magic B arrel , P o 2 2 o
6J
M alamud , The Magic B arrel , P o 4 J o
64
65
66
67
68
69
Malamud , T he Magic Barrel , P o 84 o
Malamud , The Magic B arrel , P o 85 o
M alamud , The Magic Barrel , P o 7 9 o
Malamud , T he Magic Barrel , P o 2 J
0
R ic hman , P o 1 04 o
Hershinow , P o 1 2 1 .
7 0 Malamu d , The Magic B arre l ,
P o 21 .
7 1 c anliam ,
P o 77 o
7 2 Malamud , The Magic B arrel , p o 2 2 o
7 J M alamud , The Magic Barrel ,
P o 25 o
7 4 C ohen ,
P o 1 2J o
75 Hicks , "His Hopes , "
P o )J o
7 6 J o hn Sk o'w , " Ending the Pane , " T ime , 2 May 1 3 ,
8
97
p
0
99 .
7 7 Hershinow , pp o 1 6 J J7 o
7 8 A lter , " Ordinary Anguish , "
P o J6 o
7 9 A lan Fri edman , "The Hero as S c hnook , " in B ernard
M alamud and the C riti c s , e ds o Les l i e A Field and Joyc e
W o F i e l d ( New Y ork : New Y ork Uni v o P re ss , 1 9 7 0 ) , P o 2 9 7 o
•/,
��
f;,
I
8 o M alamud , The Magic B arre l ,
P o .4 8 o
8 1 Malamud , T he Magic B arre l ,
P o 48 o
105 o
-
82
83
84
Kalamud , The � aGi C B arrel ,
Flint ,
p.
162 .
7·
p.
JoT).athan B aumbach , " The Economy o f Love : The
N o vels o f B ernard Malamud , " K enyon R eview , 2 5 ( 1 9 6 3 ) ,
43 9 ·
85
86
87
88
89
4 57 ·
B aumbach ,
P•
Flint ,
92 .
P•
Hershinow ,
1 28-29 .
PP·
Malamud , The Magic B arrel ,
P•
1 70 .
Malamud , The Magic B arre l ,
P•
172 .
I
9 0 R i c[lman ,
9 1 R ichrna� ,
P•
1 20 .
p.
119.
9 2 R ichard R eynolds , " ' The Mag i c B arre l ' : P i nye
S al zman ' s Kadish , " S tudie s in S hort Fict ion , 1 0 ( 1 97 3 ) ,
101 .
9 3 G o l dman ,
p.
1 56 .
94 Malamud , T he Magic B arrel ,
95 R ichman ,
p.
p.
1 80 .
1 23 .
96 B at e s Ho ffer , " T.he M agic in M alamud • s B az:re l , "
.
'
L i nguistics in Literature , 2 , No . 3 ( 1 9" ? ) , _8 .
.
97 Ho ffer ,
p.
10 .
9 8 Malamud , T he M agic B arrel ,
99 R ichman ,
1 0 0 Ho ffer ,
p.
11 9 .
p.
17 .
p.
1 80 .
1 0 1 T he odore M iller , " T he M inister and the Whore :
A n Examinat ion o f B ernard Malamud s ' The Magic Barrel , ' "
•
1 06.
Studies in the Humanit ies , 3 , No . 1 (· 1 9 7 2 ) , 44 .
1 0 2 M iller , p .
43 .
1 03 C ohen , p .
89 .
1 04 M iller , p .
44 .
1 0 5 Hershinow ,
p.
106
13 1 .
C ohen , p . 9 2 .
1 07 Malamud , The Magic Barrel , pp .
1 8 3 - 84 .
1 0 8 C harle s M ay , "B ernard Malamud ' s 'A S ummer ' s
R eading , ' " Note s on C ont emporary 1i t erature , 2 , No . 4
( 1 972 ) , 1 1- 1 2 .
1 09
May , "A S ummer ' s Reading , " p . 1 2 .
1 1 0 Malamud , The Magic Barrel ,
1 1 1 R ichman , p .
111 .
pp .
1 21-22 .
1 1 2 C ohen , p . 55 .
1 13 M i l
ton Rugo ff , "lv.akint: Everyday Life Glow , ..
New Y ork Tribune B o ok Re�iew , 2 5 May 1 9 58 , p . 3 .
1 1 4 S heppar d , p .
5·
1 1 5 She ldon Grebste in , "B ernard Malamud and the
Jewi sh M ovement , " in B ernard lV!alamud : A C ollection o f
Criti cal Essays , e d s . Les l i e A . F ie l d and Joyce W . F i eld
( Englewo o d C li ffs , N . J . : Prent ic e -Hall , 1 9 7 5 ) , p . 2 2 .
1 1 6 William Jone s , " Current Novel ists and ' Entering
into the Worl d , ' " S outhwes t R eview , 4 9 ( 1 9 6�) , 95 ·
1 1 7 R ic hman ,
1 1 8 R �c
" hman ,
1 1 9 R i c hman ,
P•
1 09 .
P·
1 07 .
P•
1 08 .
1 07 .
1 20
Nalamud , T he Magic Barrel ,
121
p.
136 .
Hershinow ,· p . 1 2 0 .
1 22
C anham , p . 6 6 .
1 23
Malamud , The Magi c Barre l , p . 5 8 .
1 24
C ohen , p . 1 0 5 .
1 25
C ohen , p . 1 04 .
1 26
Richman , p . 1 1 3 .
1 2 7 Malamud , T he
Magi c B arrel , p . 7 8 .
1 28
Hershinow , p . 1 20 .
1 29
Hershinow , p . 1 4 6 .
1 3 ° Ke.nneth Kempt o n , "For P lot R ead I dea , " in
S hort Stories for Study ( Cambridge : Harvard Univ . Pres s ,
1 9 53 ) ,
P·
13 1
319.
Malamud , T he Magic Barre l , p . 94 .
1 3 2 F o ff , p . 6 .
7
1 33
1 34
135
136
IV!alamud , T he W.agic B arrel , p . 94 .
Hershinow , p . 1 34 .
M alamud , T he Magic Barre l ,
Flint , p .
P•
94 .
v.
1 3 7 F l int , p . 1 .
7
13 8
B enson , p . 40 .
13 9
14 0
" I nterview , " p . 5 .
R onal d B ry den , "I C incinnatus , " Spectat o r ,
2 04 ( June , 1 9 6 0 ) , 8 1 0 .
14 1
Leonard M i chae l s , Rev . of R embrandt ' s Hat , by
B ernard Malamud . New Y ork R eview o f B o oks , 2 0 S ept .
108 .
1 973 , p . 3 8 .
142 Grebstein , p . 25 .
143 B luefarb , "Syncreti sm , " p . 74 .
144 lrlilliam S harfman , " I ns i de and Out s i de M alamud , "
R ende zvous , 7 , No . 1 ( Spring 1 97 2 ) , 25 .
14 5 B ernard Malamud , "A ddres s by the Fiction
Winner , National B oo k Awards , New Y ork C ity , rt.arch 1959 , "
i n Writing in America , e ds . John F i s cher and R obert B .
S ilvers ( New B runswic k , N . J . : Rutgers Univ . Pres s , 1 9 6 0 ) ,
p . 1 73 .
146 S harfman , p . 26 .
147
Rupp , p . 1 65 .
148 Malamud , T h.e Magi c B arrel , p . 1 29 .
149 A lter , "Out o f the T rap , " p . 88 .
l 50
,C ohe� , p . 72 .
1 5 1 Malamud , The Magic B arrel , p . 175 .
1 52 B aumbac h , p . 43 9 .
1 53 Malamud , T he Magic Barrel , p . 55 .
1 09 .
Rembrandt ' s Hat
F a fteen years after The Magic B arre l was
pub l i she d , <Malamud pro duc e d a c o ll ect ion o f" shor:t
s tories called Rembrandt ' s Hat . M alamud �as now ..
with t wo National B ook Awards and a Pulit z er Pri z e.,
firmly e,s tablished as one of America.' s more suc c e s s ful
writers : this c ould ac count for the more daring and
unc o nvent ional aspects o f R emb randt ' s Hat . Feeling
s ecure and acc ept e d in his ro le as art ist , Malamud
felt he c ould risk a potent ially unp opular p i e c e of
work . I have talked o f Malamud ' s evident disat i s fact ion
with the world in The OCagic B arrel and how he was
s earching for an answer . I fee l t hat R embrandt ' s Hat
i s h i s answer . �e i s c oncluding the experiment s h e
b egan in T he � agic B arrel �nd at last t�king a stanc e ,
I
I
having forme d his beliefs and disc.overed his own
I
I
l
I
I
I
f
I
[
I
\.
i dent ity . He �s reached the point where he ceases to
be just an obs erver and get s involved with, hts
sub j ect ; the fate of man with all his "tr:p�bl_'e s. p.nd
resourc e s . He has expanded his vis ion to �n�ompa s s all
of mankind rather than just the Jewish irr�igrants of
a bygone t ime . However , criti c s d·id not re.c eiv�
R err.brandt ' s Hat half as well as they haq appr�ciated
T he Magic Barrel , and revi ews were c ertainly rr ixed .
The stanc e S idney Ri chrran takes , .·i s typi cal of
1 10 .
the crit ics ' reaction to the work : " I n trying to
reach for ' more of the world , ' he seems to have lost
that special province which , while small , turned The
Magic Barrel into one of the most exciting
i it�rary
achievements of the last decade . " 1 But as R ichman
goes on to say , "Malamud
•
•
. is seeking divers ity
not for novelty but in order to enlarge his themes . " 2
He now wishes to write for all men and the attituaes
of T he Magic Barrel were too confining for that .
Meanwhile I rving Saposnik feels that R errbrandt ' s Hat
I
has c ome too close to reality to remain effect ive :
" Rather t han b ecome ' detatched from the realities· of
s ociety , • Malamud �as allowed that s oc iety to pervade
his ficti on so that they challenge the ability o f that
fict�on , b oth as process and product , to suggest and
provide a s ignificant respons e . " 3
However , if we
c ons ider �alamud . s definition of the artist I S· ,role,
then to be honest he cannot do anything els�... As. .
S idney R i'c hman �oints out , " [Malamud ' s] at:t�mpt.s to
carry his affirmative dialogue into a more direct
confrontation with the world , are ins epa�ple f�orn hi s
own honesty . " 4 I f R embrandt ' s Hat becorn�s an.
ins igni ficant statement , then that in its��f i s a
c omment on the ins ignificance of man i� his mpdern
s ociety .
Anatole Broyard s ees Malamud ' s efforts to es cape
111 .
the l imitations of The Magic Barrel as being s � f­
defeat inga
Working in a c onventional mode , Malamua was
rarely convent ional ; he almost always
transc ended it . B ut unfortunately , in t
electing t o write ' avant- garde ' stories , · he
has fallen into another kind of
conventionality : the hab it of glib ell'ips1s·,
of awkward , hamish surreal ism , unsati s fYing
sleight o f hand
•
.
.
5
I n other words , R embrandt ' s Hat is even more l imited
than Th& Magi� Barrel , and its l imitat ions are o f a
far wors e degree . However , I feel such views are
l imited , for they fail to take into account what the
author is trying to do with his work . Malamud is
attempting to accept his respons ibil ity as an author
and present us with what he feels is an honest· 'and
realistic picture o f our society . He i s trying to give
l i fe s ome me�ning and struqture , in the f�c � of �n
inhuman�ly destruct ive world . He informs �s of
the'
'"t
s elf-destructive faults inherent in our own modern
society in an effort to persuade us to all mend our
ways , b efore it is �oo late . I n R embr�ndt ' s Hat
Malamud is at last fulfilling the arti st ' s rol e as he
sees it . R embrandt ' s Hat has its flaws , the antagonistic
112.
response o f the critics shows this ; however , though
p ot entially a criti cal failure , Rembrandt ' s Hat is
b oth an artistic and a personal success for Mala�ud .
Rembrandt ' s Hat is a more ambiguous work than The
Magic B arrel , which accounts for the problems the
critics have had in categorising it as they so eas ily
did with The Magic B arrel . The equivocal nature o f
the work leaves it open for numerable interpretati ons ;
but that same amb iguity is le s s confining and all ows
Malamud far more freedom than he had in The Magic Barrel .
T o try and define the authorial pos ition in
R embrandt ' s Hat we s hould first take a look at the clues
he gives us in the two epigraphs :
And an .ola white horse galloped away in
the meadow
- T . S . Eliot
What we want i s short cheerful stori es
6
- James T . Fields ( to Henry �ames )
Leonard Michaels suggests that these epigraphs t ogether
" express a kind of pain in
Malamud ' s
artistic heart . " 7
Michaels feels that the epigraphs are there to evoke
the spirit of Malamud the artist . The Eliot quot e is
Malamud int imat ing that he is an arti st of the same
ilk as T . s . Eliot and the Fiel � s quote with its
obvious i rony , i s invoking Malamud ' s i roni c humour .
1 13 .
8
I n Rembrandt ' s Hat especially, Malamud does seem to
have the same apocalyptic disdain for tne modern world
which Eliot displayed. Also, the very first line of
"The Silver Crown" dispels any :i:dea that he may be
writing " cheerful stories " : "Gans, the father, lay
dying in a hospital bed. " 9 This is hardly a cheery
opening line. As J . B. Breslin says, these will not
be cheerful stories, but tales of darkness, with the
redeeming feature that they are at least honest and
ringing with the truth of a " lived experience,"
which knows that " aloneness cannot be wished away. " 1 0
We are offered no remedies by Malamud, but in th� way
he illuminates t'he problezr, it may just make it a :little
more bearable. Also, Malamud talked to Daniel Stern
of playing a game as a chrld called "C hase the White
Horse . " 1 1
Through this, we can take' �he connotations
of the first epigraph further than Michaels does and
see it as
a
declaration that the past has now been left
behind. Malamud has now discovered his place i n the
present, and the childhood games of his past can now
be forgotten. The horse is now " old," and the colour
" white" which could carry a suggestion of a unicorn,
a creature of fantasy. Malamud is maybe not just losing
his childhood past, but all the old, unrealistic values
I
he once held and considered within The Magic Barrel.
As I quoted earlier in
my
discussion of Levitansky/
1 14 .
Malamu d: " I have wri tten alread,y my fa�fY ta � �s
Now i s �he t ime for truth without. disgu is es . "
•
12
.
.
I t i s not nec essary for us to agree with all o f
�
Malamud ' s premi s es , the ess ential thing is that he
b el i eves in what h e i s saying . We must accept that
��
-
he i s no longer striving t o find effective answers
to s olve everything that is wrong with soc i ety
•
.
Rembrandt ' s Hat has a far greater ease and assurance
'
than The Magic B arf ei as i t forgoes the laters
energetic strivi� for meaningfulness . Malamud has
"{
accepted b oth hi s own and mankind ' s limitati ons and
nq longer s�ri ves �· 'beyond them . T h:e answer he o ffers
u s is th�t �e mus t all reevaluat� �ur l ifest�les and
accept that ouD modern s oc i ety demands a new kind o f
.
.
.
value system , which we should try to assimi�ate in
order to humanely survive . The achievement of
happines s i s no longer the effective answer it o nc e
was . I n th� modern world we have create d out o f our
own gre ed and shorts ightedness , it is pompous o£ us
to e�ect any happiness in l i �e a
"Why do w� al+ think
we should b� happy , that i t ' s one o f the !neqe�sary
c ondi tions o f l i fe ? " l J
Malamud does not deny happiness , but re�li s es that
man has a very l ong way to go before he cal'}. trl.!lY
attain it and he s hould there fore be co�tent without
ever reaching his goals . We must " bear those i lls we
115.
have" rather than waste our time i:n strivi'ng for the
unobtainable. As Irving SaposniK states :
In most .of the �t�ries in Rembrandt's Hat,
th� open-endedness of fiction has been
turned away from the promise suggested l n
the earlier stories. That promise had been
built largely on the human relationship
that the narrative projected, the hope of
hurran continuity that often concluded a
stocy. 14
Malamud no longer believes that such relationships can
surv·ive. He does riot see this as pessimism, but as
realism. Malamud sees the same "broken-backed
civilization" which Eliot and Pound described many
years earlier, and, if anything, it has become worse.
Malamud accepts this and Rembrandt's Hat is his response .
As Sam Bluefarb points out, Malamud has narrowed 'his
(
ambitions to a more practical level and now concentrates
,.
on the "redemption of the individual than on the
redemption of the social order." 1 .5 C iv'ilization has
ruined itself, and any attempt to rebuild it must
start at the very base with the smallest part, the
individual -- who will eventually, collectively, make
up a new society. Malamud has moved on from writing
I
about the past in The Magic Barrel to writing for the
116 .
future in Rembrandt ' s Hat . Rembrandt ' s Hat ' s strength
lies in i ts veridicality , and it i s an honest
response to the call of an age whether or not we agree
with 'Malamud ' s finding . This honesty provides the
c-o llection with that s ens e of " spirit" ·WhiCh The ·Magic
B arrel s o mehow lacked .
..
I n her discuss i on o f R embrandt ' s Hat , R enee
Winegarten sees in the book , " an i ntensi fi ed awarenes s
o f the wi der s o c ial and political s cene which :has,
grown more mar.ke 4 . "
16
S he talks o f how "beneath muc h
o f Malamud ' s �ar�ier fiction ther,.e lay his per_s onal
experience of the depression during the inter-war
years and the intractable fact o f Naz i genoc ide . But
now he tends to speak of s o c ial and racial injustice
in a broader s�nse . "
that while in The
17
M�gi c
This i s all part o f the fact
B arrel Malamud wa s ess entially
writing for himsel f , he has now taken on his s o c ial
...
respons ib ilities and i s writing for everyone ; Northrop
�
Fry e talks of the artistic di fferences between the
�
wri ter as an i so lated individual and as a soc ial
wri ter
spokesman in Anatomoc o f Criticisma "When the
communicate s as an individual , his forms tend to be
'
.
dis continuous ; when he communicates as a pro fessi onal
man with a social function , he tends to s eek mor.e
extended patterns . "
18
Therefore , we find that in
...
R embrandt ' s Hat Malamud has greatly expanded his field
117.
o f vis i on .
A review o f R embrandt ' s Hat i n the. T imes . Literary
Suppl ement states that a
C ompared with his earli er coll ecti ons o f
�torie s .
•
•
•
this o ne s eems rather bare
at first s ight , evoking less o f the tank
smell of rooming houses and the he�rt Q f a
people living c l o s e together . But i f the
surrounging atmosphere has thinned , the
human encounters have become sharper and
more extraordinary·. 1
9
A s S idney R ich�n would have it , Malamud has become
less -the " neo- fQl* realist" and more
moral iti e s . "
20
a
"writer o f
No l onger i s he reviving
a
colourful
picture o f his ethnic past r but he �s �ow trying to
teach all men " the sheer terror o f exia�ence in the
twentieth-century"
2�
and how they may surmount i t .
A s I have said , he promises no answera , 9ut he do es
not just l ook at the problems as he di� in The Magic
Barrel , �e �ow l ooks at the caus es o f �he probl�ms
and emphas i s es the urgent need for solving ��m .
I rving Saposni k s tates , "The s t o�ies in
Rembrandt' s Hat call for l ittl e celebrati � n . "
22
B ut
Malamud feels as Levitansky does , that a realistic
v i ew o f modern s o c i ety leaves li ttle room fo� cheer
118.
or c elebrationa " I wish i t was possible for Levitansky
to b e s o gay in l i fe and art . "
�;
·Saposnikdgoes on
to describe the way Malamud� s characters now show an:
oppos ition b etween the need for ass i stance
'
and the s eemingly- insurmountable barri ers
to i ts fulfillment . I n p lace o f promi s e ,
they o ffer re j ecti o n , as the promised end
of fict i on becomes an apo calypti c v i s i on in
which men b ec ome o ne another ' s victims .
24
I s Malamud , therefore , showing the end o f the vis ion
o f the "Promis ed Land " ih modern America ? We may
interpret his vis ion , in this view , aa becoming
a�o calyptic becaus e he offers l i ttle h ope . However ,
j us t because his v ision can b e s�en as apocalypti c ,
i t does not necessarily mean that Malamud ·wi shes us
to give u p all hope i n th e ·futur� o f mankindt what he
wishes i& to di spel fals e hop e . He s ees man as hiding
from the tru�h as he o nc e did , and when- you are living
so unreallstically , then any hope you pre·tend to is
invalidated . He wishes us to fac e reality and aco�pt
i t , along with the truth that we may not be able· to
do much about all the faults of the worl� . such as
man ' s i nhumani ty to man or the possibility of a nuclear
war , but we must not waste t ime worrying' abo'ut them .
We mus t s imply do what we can agains t them and , in time ,
119 .
some progress may be achieved.
Previously more of a solipcist, Malamud ho'W
enters the philosophical realms of existentialism as
he encourages the individual to take on a degree oi
'·
commitment as a member of the hurran race and mould
his own future into something productive and
meaningful. As Joyce Flint points out, "Malamud ' s
.
characters prove themselves as gooa men not by
�
abstract commitments to the brotherhood of man ' but
by their direct relationships with particular people." 2 5
For existentialists neither a universal system of
moral order nor the influence of society and social
custom can provide meaning for an individual ' s life;
each person must. find meaning for himself. Malamud's
characters must find their own meanings
�s
Malamud did,
because the meanings which society is 9urrently
offering them are corrupt and self- destructive . Ev�
an acceptanc� of the meaninglessness of modern l-ife
rather perversely gives one a certain sensa of
meaning an� a code by which to live. Malamud has
forgone the unrealistic idealism of The Magic Barrel,
and the stories of Rembrandt ' s Hat are more natural
I
and less contrived . They show a clearer picture of the
world which Malamud sees around him. He has dkscovered
the real world, and is now able to affirm his own
identity through this discovery. I n The Magic Barrel
1 20 .
he had still been looking for that ident �t1.
Rembr�ndt's Hat has � far g�:ater physicality than
The Magic Barrel. As Sanfo�d Pinsker tells us� the
storie� "have an actualized geography about them that
is usually ,missing in Malamud's short�r fiction." 2 6
The s�tting� are not as placeless as they are in The
Magic Barrel; we are offered far more familiar
surroundings with which we may easily identity. The
evanescent ghett�.s are replace4 by palpable dinner
parties and art schQols. As Si�ney Richman puts it,
Malamud replac�s "insulateq settings" with � more
" concrete social canvas.
"
27
He,rbert Mann tells us
how a
Malmud's metaphors reinforce the physical
reality of lif�. We are .made �o sensuously
•
apprehend the world in w9iSh his people
interact. By drawing us so close to the feel
i
and feelings within his world, . Malamud lets
us exPerience his char�ct�rs � st�g�les and,
to the extent that we can, even share these
struggles. 28
The intransience of The Magic B arre1 is lost;
here dreams are shown to be dreams and, unlike �Angel
Levine, " have no pretensions to reality. While Malamud
continues to insist on the need fot "assistance, " a
12 1 .
reading of his recent stories suggests that �he
abilfty to provide assistance has been threatened by
social reality. He has discovered that reality is
essentially antagonistic to his dreams, and so he
gives up his· dreams. He now faces up to· reality
squarely, which accounts for the decrease in humour
as he finds- fewer things he can really laugh about
and begins to actually get involved with his characters.
As C harles Hoyt sees it, Malamud gives up his
objectivity and finally �ets subjectively involved in
his works. 2 9 I�deed, ' as Mark Goldman points out, we
cease to find the situations in Rembrandt ' s Hat funny,
as they are so painfully near the truth z
Malamud ' s humour or satire concentrates on
the comic character ' s flight from himself
and reality, but we no longer merely laugh
at t�� foolish or obsess�ve figure, as in
the great comedy of the past. For both
writer and reader are no longer clearly on
' the side of society and its values. We may
still laugh at the comic victims, but we are
�
also one with him in his serio-comic search
for identity and reality in a world that
seems devoid of both. J O
Malamud does not deny us personal salvation, but he
1 22 .
makes sure t�t w� are fully aware of how distant
and diffic4,lt that salvation will be. Daniel Stern
sees "IV!alamud's compelling force as! one
M
.our major
talent� comes from his ability tn evoke the sense of
he�plessness, anonymity and dislocation ·that: besets
the. modern psyche " 3 1
.•
In Rembrandt' S·· Hat the criticism o f mankind is.
far sharper and more abrasive than .in The Magic Barrel,
which leads B. Raffel to declare that "Malamud does
not like people any more than he likes :the world. " 3 2
Whereas Ezra P9und talks o f a "}>otohed civilization, "
"'
� rthur Foff feels th�t "Malamud envisions no
civilization at all . " 33 Malamud is searching for
value in what he has come to see as a valueless
world. By dismiss�ng the world as valueless in favour
of some und�fined future, Malamud is not· �o much a
nihilist as a moral realist. Maramud does want to see
good in mankind as Herbert Leibowitz pdints out, "His
human solid�rity inQ1ines him to a Whitmanesque faith
in the radical goodness of creation and nan, but the
evidence of his s�nses, of his moral eXP.erie11ge.t a11d
of modern history seems to erode that faith." 34
I feel that Malamud's attitude towards people is
.
J
very similar to Jonathan Swift's , who once wrote in
I
a letter to Alexander Pope : "I have ever hated all
J
Nations professions and C ommunityes and all my love
;.
1 23 .
i s towards indivi dualls
•
•
•
but principally I
hate and detest that animal call ed man , althou�h I
hartily love J ohn , P eter , T homas and
�o
forth . " 35
B oth euthors , though despairing o f the world ,
main�al.n ·· an intense huma.ni ty in their intentions
towards the indivi dual man . Though outwardly they may
appear pessimistic o f any future improvement in man ,
there i s an inner optimism in the works o f both Swi ft
and Malamu d . Malamud is s imply dis illusioned by man ' s
evident .igno�n� e 9 f his own depraved c ondition and
perhaps a little doubtful that he will ever redeem
hims el f , though he i s cons tantly encouraging him to
do so . A� G erda C harles points out , "Malamud has both
a great regard ·and � great disregard for human feel ing
running s ide. by s ide . " 36
l'l.'an ' s potential has become
a far more dub ious proposition in R e m���ndt ' s Hat. than
it was �v�r shown tp be in The
�ag��
Barrel . Herbert
Mann talks --o f how in R embrandt ' s Hat "The seasons
.
b ecome a troubling cycl e b ecause the promise o f change
i s constant but s o i s its t empor.ary nature . " 3 7
As
the review o f R embrandt ' s Hat in the T imes Literary
S uppl ement says a
I t was always , anyway , .perso nal rather than
material poverty that was M� . Malamud ' s
theme - - poverty o f spirit , the tight
emotional economy that s et the pri c e o f
- - 1 24 .
friendship or trust or love . And here that
theme comes very close to the surfaq e.. 3 B
Man i s shown in the most uncomplimentary' l ight· whlch
M�amud can cr.eate ; the Alberts , Newmans , Arkins , Adl ers
and , Goldbergs o f this world are displayed in all their
s el fish dissoluteness . " Talking Horse , " the ultimate
story in this collection ,· is most keenly illustra�ive
of Malamud ' s attitudes to man and his potential . Almost
an allegory , the . tale dwelis on the problems of
Abramowitz , who 'b�lieves himself to be a man trapped
in the body. of a horse .
Rembrandt ' s ·Hat has
a
distinctive unity of feeling
and intent and "T.a lking Hors e " i s the summation o f what
Malamud i s trying to tell us . Robert Phillips sees the
c ollect ion as coming full circle with Abramowitz ' s need
to ta�e things on 1aith to redeem himself �choing the
s on ' s need in ,"The S ilver C rown , " the :First { taie in ·
the c ollection . r 3 9 Abramowit� · s cry i s . possibly that
1
which Malamud feels every man should �e utte�ing:
"Help me to rec over my original form . I t ' s no� ·wna�
I am but what .I wish to be . I wish to be what I really
am which is a man . " 40 The problem modern ·man has is
a lack of humanity ; or to put it another way , he is
no longer humane or even human ; he acts ·more l ike a
beast , so M�lamud portrays " modern man" 'in tbe :f'orm
1 25 .
o f a horse . Abramowit� is the be�pt who realises
What ne is and wishes to Ch�nge ��d. b�CQ�e a .man
once more . The fact that he only partial�y achieves
this by the c�ose of the tale is something I will
return to below , but it is all a part o f the
equivoca� iqn which dominates the whole tale .
There are many possible interpretations of
" Talking Horse , " which i s as amb iguous throughout as
Abramowitz ' s identity . John S kow declares that it is
a " funny fable in which the author mocks his own
truth that suffering defines the man . " 4 1
Alternatively ,
E . N . Lut'twak s ees. "Talking Horse" as a bit of a j oke
on N:alamud s part ov.er the critics
•
•
cl ich e that " his
works are .Jewish only in fo�m but universally human
in content . " 4 2
Luttwak. ·f eels t.hat whi;Le the two
characters· have Jewish names , " thex� �s nothing
J ewish about t� em . " 43
The tale is s imply a parable
o f freedom·, eomethiqg which is available �o all men .
Malamud uses· Jewish idiom and colour not a s folklore ,
..
'
"1
"'
"'
'•
but to express the general human predica�en� . 44
There
is an element o f truth in each o f these �nterpret�tions .
One o f the most interesting discqss ions op �his
tale i s by B eth and Paul Burch , in �hich �hey �opsider
the mythological aspects of the ta+e
•.
4?, The '" myth
critic " usually looks for elements in a work w�ic b
provoke in the reader some kind o f' instin�t�al hurran
12 6 .
response ; such responses will 'Occur time: and. 'time
again , as they are inbuilt into wna� �qng might �al�
our " collective uncons cious . " According to. th-e
B urches , -what Malamud is doing to try ,and prov6ke a
response from his readership , is entangling the Greek
and Judaic m.ythologies with modern day values and
creating a world where all values are turned ups ide
down . I n this world they laugh at the questions
rather than the answers . 46 We are only given half
a man at the cl:ose , •as we only get hal f an answer .
These myths are Qnly .ha.lf ful filled.; they have lost
the ir efficac� in such a c onfused worl d . The Burches
suggest that .Malamud, through his fus ion of myths ,
i s indica�ing the futility o f �an ' s relat ionships , in
a world where there is such duplicity and dubiety ,
embodied in the amb iguity o f �he centaur we are left
W1
• th 4 7
')
•
The Burches conclusions c ome very close to what
I feel Malamud i s doing in "Talking Horse . " The w�thic
,
elements o f the tale hol d great importance in reaching
any understanding · of it . As they point out , "Because
' �
Apollo represents truth , l ight , and peac e , Abramowitz '
...
emb o diment as a horse is appropriate to his quest for
'.
8
answers and his love for truth and freedom . " 4
Malamud is , t o a point , both Abramowitz and Goldberg .
A s Abramowitz he engages , as Peter Prescott points out ,
1 2? .
desperate quest :for :freedom and his own.
4
identity . " 9 H i s constant questioning .and attempts
" in
a
to communicate hold great �danger.: •rtwo s trangers
meet , somebody asks the other a question and the
next thing they ' re locked in battle . " 5 0
He is
warned against asking questions a number o:f times
by G.oldberg . R enee Winegarten po ints out
Abramowitz ' s problem: "He goes on asking questions
to which there are no answers . " 5 l
As Goldberg , Malamud i s showing the other
extreme ; what happens i:f you da not question at all .
T he Burches talk ,D:f how "Goldberg ' s trident i s
' mildewed , ' suggesting decay and stagnation . " 5 2
Goldb erg i s indeed stagnating ; he is totally isolated
:from other men,· "He has no visible :fri ends . " 53
He
is also a dea:f-mute , clearly symbolic o:f his inab ility
to communicate with anyone . However , he has an element
o :f stoic acceptance which allows him to · sxate that :
T �e true :freedom , like I have always told
J
you , though you never want to believe me ,
is to understand that
[you
are a talking
horse] and live with it so you don ' t waste
your energy resi sting the rules J i:r so you
waste your l i fe . 54
What I :feel Malamud may b e directing us towards is· a
1 28 .
s ettlement o f the dispute b etween the attitudes of
Abramowitz and G oldberg , and this is mos i clearly
i llustrated as we close the tale with a kind o f
compromise between the horse and the man l n the figure
o f the centaur .
Renee Winegarten sees much optimism in th is
ending and declares that it " seems almost as if the
writer has succeeded in coming to terms with the
c ondi tions of hi s gift . " 55
T hat is to say , there is
a point where we must all stop asking questions and
l
l earn to accept the things we can never change .
Winegarten s ees the centaur as repres entative of any
man who strives for knowledge , " l ike all aspiring
b eings ultimately a mixed creature . " 5 6
The Burches ,
however , declare that "Abramowitz ' s transmutation to
a centaur does not .bode well . " 57
T hi s is due to the
very nature o f a centaur : "Mythological c entaurs are
'
the grandchildren of Apollo but have apparently failed
to inherit any of his vi rtues . " 5B
There 1s no
definitive interpretation o f the ending of this tale ,
and there i s not meant to be . Malamud allows Abramowitz
to find " the freedom and identity he s ought through
metamorphosis into another kind of myth
.. ...
5 9· ·
Abramowitz has not escaped the constrictions o f l i fe ,
he has merely altered his relationship toWards i t
maybe for the wors e or maybe for the better . T h e
1 29 .
crucial thing is that he has changed , broken free
from the stranglehold of rnactivity ,. and in tnis there
is nope .
.I n Rembrandt ' s Hat we can see th�t Malamua has
corn� to an acceptance o f his pas t , whi ch ailows ·him
to change �nd progress into the present , and begin to
cons ider the future . Having resolved his b eginnings ,
he no� encourages others to follow by showing them
what will happen i f they do not . Harry in "My Son the
Mu�derer , " cannot resolve anything in his l i fe and so
is left staring out to sea unabl e even to move . Dr .
Morris in " I n R etirement , " tri es to shake o ff the
fact of his age ( his beginnings ) , as he finds himself
attracted to a �uch �ounger woman . He is made to look
very foolish by his actions ; he must- accept the fact·
that he is now an· old man , s omething whicn �annot be
so eas ily dismissed or put to one side . �We also s ee
in "Talking, Hors e , " how aimless Abramowi tz'1 s l'i'fe is
s ince he i s unable to resolve his beginnings . As·
Herbert �ann points out , "Unresolved attitndeS
toward their b eginnings results in a s ense of
restless wandering where the failur� an�:Pain o f tHe
past are repeated . " 6 0
This i s what happe�
to
Albert
i n " T he S ilver. C rown . " He has not res6lved his past
and i s even antagonistic towards it , this �everly
l imits his effectiveness in the preserit r which is why
1,30 .
he cannot poss ibly save his father .
)
"The S ilver Crown , " shows how Albert tri es to
save his dying
fat�er
by going t o a religi ous healer .
However , his i ntellect denies what the Rabbi i s
attempting and he has no real c o mmitment . He merely
goes through the motions whi ch are wo� ess wi thout
the element . o f his belief . He has no belief for he
is unable to acc ept anything o n faith ; he s ees s uc h
thinking a s being a relic o f the pas t he has
dismi s s ed in his efforts to be a modern man ruled by
reason alone . He finds anything to do with the pas t
repuls ive an9 re j ects it . T o him , the past has a
1
" stale o dour , " 6
and to him tradition stinks j us t
a s the Rabbi " smelled of o l d age . " 6 2
I n o rder for any of us to progress in the pres ent ,
we must first let go o f the pas t , but we cannot dismi s s
it entirely ; we must build on it . Cli fford R i dley s ees
in Malamud , "A sad , uneasy ad j us tment to the way
things are . " 6 3
�
h
He was fearful t o b el i eve in t e
world he saw around him ; however , not t o b elieve will
not make it go away . Problems must be faced up t o
b efore they can b e c onquered . Rembrandt ' s Hat is a
pro duct o f the 1 9 7 0 ' s and acknowledges 'many o f the
problems o f the 1 9 70 ' s . As J oyce Flint des cribes! it ,
" technological changes which promoted and acCompanied
the affluence
[o f
our modern so c i ety
1) 1 .
] als o
populari zed
a value system which i s anathema to human values . "
64
I t is against this , which Malamud i s constantly
:fighting . I n "The S ilver C rown" we are shown how
destructive thes e :fals e material istic values are and
•
how ess entially limiting they can be .
R enee Winegarten talks o f how " ' The .S ilver C rown , '
with its wonder rabb i , tells us less perhaps about
any speci fically J ewi sh predic�ment �han about the.
universal oppos i t�on o f spiritual ity and material ism . " 6 5
Rabbi L ifschitz r �presents the spiri tual , whereas
A lbert represents the material . I t is eventually Albert
who will fail , rather than the Rabbi . Albert is the
ess ential scienti fi cally-mfnded , rat ional , modern man ;
a man who will eventually suffer , for being too much
the product of hi s technological age . �s S heldon Hershinow
tells us , " ' �he S ilver � rown ' captures modern man ' s
amb ivalence towards miracles i n tne
:ra.'c·e
o f increa si ng
'
s ecul�ism and the att endant suspici ousness towards
spiri tual claims . " 66
R enee Winegarten descrlb es in
s ome depth how the rationale of modern man , l i ke Albert ,
can destroy the s oul :
the equivocal rabb i speaks the l��age ot
spiritual understanding which is totally
incomprehens ibl e to the s c i enti:ficallY.­
trained s o n . Basically "The S ilver C rown"
/
.
revers es the denouement o f an earl 1 er s t ory ,
1)2 .
"A�el Levine , " where fai.th and trus t in the
dubious me�senger o f the spirit restore a
s ick wife to her lovi � q�sband . There is a
darkening of tone in the more recent tale
1
which suggests that the laek of underf:! tanding
for the l i f� o f the soul as well as
i�uffic ient love for a fellow creature can
destroy the pos s ibility of miracle , that i s ,
of spiritual .enlargement , a change o f heart ,
reconc�. 1 �a,.
. 67
. t 1.on
.
'
As Robert K iely mentions , for a while the crown
b ecomes palpable , but it fades when Albert s tops
wishing . 68 Alb ert is as incapable of sustaining
belief as he i s of sustaining the l i fe o f his own
father . Laurel C anham openly accus es hfm of murdera
"Albert knows that without love or faith the crown
will never· work and he chooses to kill rather than
love his father . " 69 This i s perhaps a li�tl�
'
.
r
exces s ive , Alb ert ' s probl�m comes more f�om � he
false values he has chosen to live by . T hinking
himself to be self- sufficient , he shuns involvement ,
''Albert wouldn ' t touch it . " 7 0 He will not even look
at the Rabbi ' s letters . He dismisses the Rabbi as
soon as he feels he has rationalised what is happening :
"Alb ert , rising , cried , ' Hypnosis : T he bastard magician
1.3.3 .
�ypnoti zed ·me ! He never did produc e .a s i lver crpwn ,
i t ' s out out o f my ,i magination - - I ' v� b een sucker_ed . ' "
B en S i�gel describes how " fo..r the man who ...n e eds
t o confront !}is d�epest self o r b eing , ·his mirror
i mage may p�ove more - s ignifi cant than anything· he can
2
observe througn the clearest glass . " 7
However ,
Alb ert wi ll not look deep enough into the mir�r and
see himself clearly , poss ibly Dut o f fear at ·what he
might discover . He prefers to re�in an intri ns i cally
s hallow person than ri�k th� s imply spiritual action,
o f believi� in something . He is- tqo s care9 to
believe and feels a need to just�fY rati onally all he
does : " I Ipight be _!Yilling to take a chance if I could
justi fY it to m_ysel f . " 7 3
I t i s because of this
attitude that he is unable to save hi� father ; he is
too c onc erned wi th h imself to be apl e to· help anyone
els e . A s S heldon, Hershinow s tates :
Love and_ compas s i o n , i n other words , can
help overcome the uncertai nty of l i fe .
Without them spiri tual growth i s impos s ible .
...
1
Albert fails his test o f faith becaus e he
does not l ove . I n the end it i s he who
)
reveals himself as the charlatan whos e s elf-
4
deception poss ibly has prevent ed a miracle . 7
Alb ert suffers from a lack o f convi ct�Qn ; even
13 4 .
7l
wpen ordering the crowp , he hesi tates , though the
action could save his father s "Tbe teacher hes itated
a split eecond . "
75
T hen , mompnts lat er , he regrets
�
..
already havi'ng made the dec i s � on an,d leaves ,
" as sailed by
doubts . "
' .
76
H i s only real · concern in
l s a cold-hearted material istic one :
the matter
..
..
"But
what a dope I was t o order th� $ 9 86 j ob instead o�
the
$
4 0 1 . On that dec ision alone I lost $ 585 . " 77
He pays for his disbelief and co�dness , for he must
now b ear the guil� of his father ' s demise for the res t
of his l i fe . T hi s i s depicted phys i �ally as we l eave
him " wearing a mass ive , spi ke-lS;den headache . "
78
As
H ershinow �oint� out , "The reader learns at the outs et
what A lbert himpelf cannot acknowledge -- that his
desperate atternp� to do s omething for his, father sterns
from his ��lt at having previously neglecte� hi� . " 79
'
We are told at the s tart that "T p b e able
to do nothing
.A
•
for him made him fran�ic . He had done nothing_ fox: him
•
all pi$ l i fe . "
80
Well now he has ,lost his last cpance
to redeem that guilt for ever ; totally through his own
ineffectual system o f values whi ch would not allow him
to act in any other way .
W . J . Handy points out how Malamud ' s charac ters
are largely "victimised by the fo.� ces.� Qf th � �r cultural
environment . "
81
A lbert i s basi cally
s elfish \ and
'
spiritless because that i s the way h i s cultural
135.
environment has trained him to b e . T o es cape , he
�
should have found the s trength , as Malamud di d , to
�
'
ljl�'
chall enge that cultural environment and accept the
.,. �
" s ilver crown , " which is an emblem o f respons ibi l i ty
)
and ac ceptance , b oth of the past and o f the potential
o f the future .
I n R embrandt ' s Hat Malamud is attempting to sum
up man ' s inner world and �ec t it to the force s o f
reality and acc idental truth . One truth h e will now
('•
c ons i der i s that there i s l i ttle differenc e between
the young and the old . B oth are now s een as s earching
for answers , rather than just the young . L . Edelman
describ es " I n R etirement " as c ontaining in its opening
s entences , " more truth abo ut the dread o f aging than
an entire l ibrary o f documented tomes on geriatri c s
and gerontology . "
82
Previously we o nly saw young
•
•
p eople looking for l ove , but here we find that an old
person can
be
equally in nee d of affec t i on . We s ee a
dread o f old age with its o ften implicit lonel iness ,
.
as the ol der p erson b ecomes usel es s i n a s oci ety which
i s ever moving on . This is never s hown in The Magic
Barrel , where the ol d are s een , i ns tead as the most
content of all the characters .
During ·" I n R etirement " we s ee a failed attempt
at bridging . the generati on gap to find compani onship .
This i s brought about largely by a failure o f
136 .
communi cat ion between young and old , which makes the
old s eem that much o lder �nd more i s olate d . Dr . Morris
_.
�
is l iving in an antiquated past : "He l i ked strange ,
haunted vessels and he li ked to watch mythological
birds and animal � . "
83
He has a J?robl em in -
communicating with other people and cannot even talk
to the porter :
"S ometimes the doctor wis hed :t;le c ould
t
say more to him than he did ; but not this morning . "
8. 4
D r . Morris is , therefore , a very lonely man . He tri es
to break free of this lonel iness by attempting to
c ommunicate to a y oung woman . However , she shares the
call ous ness of Albert ' s generati on and totally re j ects
him:
"Evelyn Gordon quietly ripped the letter into
small b it s , and turning , flung the pieces in the
..
doctor ' s direct i on . "
85
M orri s ends , unable t o
communi cate any bett er than h e c ould a t the start : "The
doctor tried to say something kind to him but c oul d
not . "
86
T_he ess ential problem o f modern s oc i ety , in
Malamud ' s eyes , bec omes the total lack o f communication
b etween people o f all ages , regardless of soc ial standing .
Herbert Mann refers to this as a problem ·ot ¢6rirlection :
" C onnect ion , the c onnection o f peopl e to each other ,
to their environment , to their past , i s a ma j or c oncern
o f Malamud ' s . "
87
I n Rembrandt ' s Hat , Malamud s hows a soci ety where
everyone is al ienated from their fellow man . Even the
1 37 .
traditional unit of the family i s n9� shown as
incapa.bl� of holding peopl e together , especially
b etween the generati ons who no lo nger �now how to
relate to each other . As R ob ert Phill�ps says ,
R embrandt ' s Hat is not a c ollection of various short
pieces , " but a t ightly-woven tapestry c omposed o f
l etters and h�ts , depict ing loss o f �aith and l�ck o f
c ommunication i n ou r time
•
.
.
•
The two themes ,
spiritual i solat ioh and failure o f c ommunication ,
pervade all eight stories . "
88 · I rVing Saposnik
suggests that "Perhaps the c lose relati on of story to
story i s an attempt to underscore the lack of human
c ontact : stories relate where humans cannot . "
89
He
go es on to tell us just how l i ttle communication is
actually achieved in any of these tales :
�
Whil e the stories cont inue to insiax· on the
necess ity for mutual aas istance , their
characters prove increa� ingly i ncapabl e of
giving of themselves , incr.easingly .unab le
to explore the depth o f their spiri tual
poverty .
90
A l l these tale s dwell in some �epth on the not ion
of c ommuni cati�n . and how difficul t it has become in
the modern world . I t i s as I rving, Saposnik states ,
" R elate they must yet relate they cannot . " 9 l
13 8 .
The
review of R embrandt ' s Hat in the T imes ,Literary
S uppl ement describ es how Malamud • s characters all seem
to be " painfully and comically out of place at relating ,
reduc ed to sending notes and s teaming open letters
when they do try , flimbl ingly , to make contact . " 9 2
The image o f the letter/not e i s a recurring one
in Rembrandt ' s Hat . I t crops up in nearly every tal e :
the card R ifkele gives t o Albert , the manuscript of
Levitansky , Teddy ' s letter , Dr . Morri s ' letter to Evelyn
and Evelyn ' s letters , Karla ' s notes , and the letter
from Ed ith which Leo opens . I rving S aposnik speaks of
how:
There i s l ittle l i fe o r love as people grope
�owards s ome form o f c ontact only to find
that eithe� they are unable to speak , as in
"Talking Horse , " o r others are unwilling to
listen . So instead they write letters or
'
'
notes to one another and learn that even
thes e are littl e more than s craps of paper . 9 3
The greatest di fficulty in trying to communicate is
when the person who you wish to c ommunicate with is
ignoring you . Abramowitz finds this out in "Talking
H orse " ;
" N obody wants to l isten to his troubl es ,
b ecause that ' s the- way it is in the world . " 94
Nobody
wants to ri sk the trouble and danger of involvement :
13 9 .
" ' Help : Help , somebody help me :
b ut nobf?dY moved . "
95
•
A't2ramowi tz pleaded ,
D r . Morri s ' l �tter is t9rn into
useless tiny s qraps o:f paper by Evelyn , as she· ,;s too
caught up in
� er
own li:fe to reach out tQ another b�ink
who needs per companionship .
Her�ert Mann describ es howa
Letters represent the urgent effort on the
part of one character to open the eyes of
another , to establish a meaningful
connec tion . They seem a natural motif :for
a communi cative wri ter l i ke Malamud , whose
book� might be seen , ;n the best sens e , as
artful let�ers �o the wor�d , contai ning
insights , suggesti ons , as to how one might
live l i fe better .
96
We get thi s sam� sense o :f the authoD ' s �ork �s b eing
"'
a " letter" to :the world with Levitansky ' s manu�cript .
Meanwhile , Herbert Mann go es on to say how Dr . Morris ,
o f " I n Retirement;• and Leo , in "My S on the Murderer , "
'
.
are driven to .secretly open letters , " in their po ignant
attempts to gain understanding o � the people they want
to reach . And what Newman ' s ees ' in T eddy ' s letter
suggests his lac k of interest in reaching anyone . "
97
The image o f the letter naturally holds a great
importance in the tale entitled , "The Letter . " Here ,
140 .
f
as I rving Sapo snik s tates , " the letter represents a
chance to touch the outside world and rits abi i i ty to
nelp them touch means more than its contents , but
they cannot touch when another refus es toJ help them . " 9 8
.
T o acc ep� a letter i s to accept c ommunion with that
other pers on , the content o f the i etter i � irrel evant .
Y et , si nce Newman refuses t o acknowledge Teddy ' s need ,
his letter �ecomes worthless . As R obert Phillips tells
us , the mental i nstituti on in "The Letter " i s :
Symbolic of our own �s�rangement from the
worl d ab out us
•
•
•
T he i nsti tut,,i.onal ised
man ' s letter is , in fact , four sheets o f
empty paper , a potent symbol for the absenc e
of communication between father and s o n ,
ours elves and the world .
99
We know from the beginning o f �he· tale that Newman
and his· father have no c ommunicatio n & '' The o ld II'.a.n said
nothing
•
•
•
00
H i s father sa i d nothing . " 1
T h e �wo
o f them occasional ly talk , but don ' t rea�ly li sten to
each o ther . Newman , however , will not ac�ept thi�
s i tuati on . He s ees the lac k o f c ommunication b etween
Ralph ana Teddy but canno t see that he has the same
problem . Ralph tells him , "Why don ' t you come back
here and hang around with the rest o f us
?"
101
He
knows that Newman i s as useless to s o c i ety as he i s ,
141 .
s ince he i s unable to communi cate . Newman canno t
l i s ten and walks away . T eddy and Ralph challenge his
involvment a "Why don ' t you mail i� l ike it i s ? I
b et you ' re al"raid t o . "
1 02
He refuses to get
involved .
..
Marigola J ohnson talks o f how "Malamud chall enges
the consolations of faith and family . " l OJ
•This ·is
b ecause he sees �an , in this modern world , as being
totally a lone . H e has no real faith to distrac t his
attenti on from hims elf , and hi s family i s as dis tant
to him as strangers . I n �The S ilver C rown" we saw how
tenuous f&i th· has become , and in "My S on the Murderer"
we see clearly how fragmented �he family unit has
become . T he bond between father and son , which in past
times had seemed permanent , now becomes as elus ive as
the hat which Leo chas es along that empty shorefine . 1 04
Leonard Mi chiels tells us how "This -rela�ionship
extends , finally , to i ts place in tne natu�al i�umanity
o f things . " l 05
The world o f Harry and Leo nas become
" wet , c o l d , and des erted
6
b eaches were empty . " 1 0
.
•
•
•
The ·grey sunless
Wi thout proper c ommuni catio n ,
these people b ecome spiritually dead . Leo "has tri ed
desperately to communicate . wi th Harry , �ut his s o h has
already rej ected h�m and refuses to ack�owledg& any
contact .
The relationship o f father and so n i s one whic h
142 .
conc erns Malamud greatly , we s ee
�t
9�cur b,oth
physi cally and metaphysi cally petweep ,ma� o f his
characters . Malamud �eems to suggest that to be a
s uc�es&ful father �nd s on team i n t�i s m�dern world,
is a ��at accomp l ishment . There are .many barri ers
whi ch c� destroy the relationship . The ma jo� barrier
i s that o f communication . There is also the barrier
of age . B eing of di ffe�ent eras , the father and s on
will hold different ideal s , and each will not acc ept
the o thers ' as vali d , which o ften leads t o mute
dissens io n . The father and son relati onship , when
maintained , can give both parties a sens e of direction
and achi evement . ln Rembrandt ' s Hat , though , we see ,
time an& t ime again , the relations hip o f father and
s on being. broken d own . A lbert re j ects his father and
his father dies � Tedd� and Ralph s taQd side by s ; de ,
unable to communicate � A father figure sue� �� Dr . Morris
i s re j e cted by the youth with whoir} )).e attempt� .to
c omm�ni cate . There i s � great ant�gonism betw�en the
father figu�e Goldb erg and h i s reb elli�us " s on , "
Abramowitz .
T he bond a " son" has with h is " father" �i ll give
him a place in s9ci ety just as A'b�mowitz has a p::i,ace
in the c ircus with his metaphorical f�th�r � Goldberg .
When Ab�amowit z tri es to escape his role by running
away from the c ircus , he i s totally unsuited for any
14J .
other role in soc iety , s o he i s s,oon caught and s ent
ba.ck.. During his, :fr.eedom he achieve9 nothi n_g ,. and
when he escapes again. at the close , it i s in the guis.e
o f a centaur . He is unlikely to �chi,eve anythip.g. as
a centaur as I e�rl.i er IQentioned , s i nce this creature
i s a qes�ructive and rapac ious character ; har.�lY. a
creature society would happi ly accept .
Ther�:fore , to re j ect the :father , as Alb ert d9es ,
i s t o alienate hims�l:f from s oc i ety , as he i s also
re j ecting his s o c ial s"J;at4.s . Such a re j ection can aJ.. s o
be seen a s a s ign o :f immaturity . Harry in "My S on the
Murderer , " is another character who chooses to re j ect
his :father . By re j eoting the past in which the :father
.
i s a maj or influence and by repudiating the values of
the father , the son is metaphori cal�y dea�roying him .
Leo can no longer save Harry frqm
t��·
horrors which .
he has discovered , abound in the wor1�.• S o Harry
�
J
rej ects his father , rather than standing b es i de him :
.
.
'
.
" I don • .t WS:nt to hear about when I ytas a child . "
1 07
He no l o_l}ger wi she� . to b e as s o ciat.ed with hi� :father ,
yet he still dqes ·not . know what to do , �r what h�t �an
now associate hims el f with . He ends , po i�tlessly
standing in the ocean , as ali�nated �s A lbert �is :from
the rest of s o c i ety . He i s not able yo take .on �he
burden o :f adulthood , pres ented i n the guise o :f his
draft letter . He i s unable even to acc ep� the burden
144 .
of b eing a son , in these troubled times . He
nas ,
ther�fore , no direct i on and no s ens e· o f purpos e .
T his shows us how l imiting freedom cart be . I t
emphas i s es Malamud ' s belief in the need for· 'man • s
s o c ial 'respons ib ility·. We need s ome kind of'
respons ib ility t o give our l ives direc tion. ks J oyce
•1
Fl int says , "T he author ' s characters are l imited
people whose l ives �re e s sentially meaningle s s while'
they pursue their freedom to do ·as they choos e
without 'cons idering another human b eing . "
1 08
Freedom
i s bas i cally s e l f- negating , b ecause it di sallows the
respons ibilities· which makes you into an e ffective
person . As R obert Alter tells us , "T o be fully a man
is to acb ept the mos t p�inful limi tations . "
S iegel s ees that " Malamud
[ vi ews ]
1 09
B en
t�ue freedom then
not as the re j ec tion but the· ac c ept�nce of obligati ons
and ties . "
�10
T hrough respons ib i l i ty , we may find
the means to communicate to others , as Devitansky
do e s .
A s L: Edelman states , � he four . tales o f Levitansky
•
•
•
c ommunicate the plight and anguish o f S oviet Jews
more powerfully than mos t other books put together . " 1 1 1
B ut we mus t also c onsi der that this communicat ion lias
only b een achi eved in the world o f aft and not ·in the
'
real world , yet . I t i s up to Harvitz to carry thfs • ­
c ommunication into the real worl d .
Harvitz does n6t accept respons ib i l itY wil l ingly ,
1 45 .
as Elaine Feinstein po ints out , " he had no choice :
an �ct o f some dignity has be�n th�st upo� him . " 1 1 2
D espite Harvitz ' s unwilli�ness ,. wh�t i s important
here i s that "Ess ential communication has. beel)
achieved , whe�her H�rvitz succeeds in pis mis si�n qr
not . " 1 1 3 T he �qmmunication i s not neces�ari l� that
o f Levitansky ' s st�ries gaining. p�Q�ication, but the
commitment which Harvitz has initiated for Levi�a�sky .
At the start o f the tale , Harvitz i s a no�entity ,
unable to make even t�e simplest decision& "My feelings
were s,o di fficult to define to mys elf' .,. I .decided to
d ecide nothing �or sure , " 1 1 4 He sees th� ills in the
world but is unabl.e to do anything about them . He
continuously pleads "personal inability " 1 1 5 to avoid
getting involved . It takes a long time ,_ but �ventually
Levitansky ' s plight affects him , and he fjnally. takes
his chance �o do something to right �o�e �t �h�
wrongs and · agrees to take the manuscr�pt . This �ction
l i fts him out of the stagnation he was in an9 , �t
once , gains direction in his l i fe : "I then and ther�
d ecided tha� i f I got back to the �tate� , �he next. ·
time I saw her I would ask her to marry me . " 1 1 6 He
has b ecome a human,i tarian: '' I f Levi tansky has the
c ourage to send thes e stories out the least I can do
'
.
i s give him a hand . When one thinks o f it it ' s little
enough he does for human freedom, in th� course of his
1 46 .
l ife . " 1 1 7
This is what Malamud is getting at . I t
does not matter whether o r not Harvi tz succeeds and
the odds are against him . b ut the' odds are against
w
us· all . What i s importan� i s to try , i f we never try
nothing will ever be achieved . This is wha� Malamutl
i s trying to tell us , he wishes to shake us eut o f
our complacency and d o s omething about the dreadful
state o f the world before it is too late . He wishes
us to restore humanitariah i deals o f responsib ility
and eo'mmunion to an overly mechanis'ed and
materialistic society . He shows us just how bad the
world can be , to try and shock us into such a
· productive reaction.
Where Malamud previously advocated suffering and
love as pot�ntial avenues for redemption , he now
re j ects both and looks solely at the ability to
c ommunicate as the way to save mankind from hims elf .
A s I rving Saposnik states , "Malamud ' s emphasi s here
is not �n the trial and suffering , but 'on the act of
8
mutual assistanc e " 1 1
an "assistanc e " whi ch ·Can
only b e arrived at throug� communication . Suffering
has become meaningless for Malamud , for he can no
l onger find any justification for it . However , as
Malin and S tark po int out , "He knows
•
•
•
that
suffering is not an abstraction· but an inexorabl e
fact which mus t �be experi enced· communally and
inqiviqu.ally " l l 9
..
�
�uffering must b e accepted ae an unavo�qable part
o f our l ives , though it does not .. neceesarj.ly teach us
aeything . A12 ··HerQert Mann says , "Malamud does not
delight in· �U�ie�ing , he doesn ' t endors e i t , he does
not sugg��t th�t we seek pain or t�at we must l ive to
S\lffer . " 1 20 Suffering will not di :t:ferentiate between
good and bad . �alamud accepts that , bowever good we
are , we can still b e destroyed , for today 's soci ety
i s essentially anti-humanistic . As Pearl Bell says &
he brings his afflicted creatures not to the
siil of renewal and s el f-reali zation but only
to s enseless violence and death . For this
is a desperately honest and bitter vis ion
o f our day , with the loud clash of combat
on every s ocial and personal front . 1 2 1
Suftering has. bec ome so i ndiscriminatort , it los es
all s ens e of meaning . Such an attitude has led B .- Raffel
tq proclai..m t�t "There ·is no mercy , in N,alamud , nor
any love . " 1 22 This is not true ; Malamud is condemning
man to such a fate , not because he does no't lo.ve him ,
but because he i s being realisti c . L�ve· bas become
largely irrelevant , for , to attain i t ,. you must have
communication , and , as Malamud has .already sbpwn
even the basic communication between members o f a
148 .
�.
family has b ecome virtually impossible . We must not
"put · the cart before the hors e , " and , so we should try
to concentrate on developing communi cation before we
I
can entertain any notions o f love . I n this world , the
I
only love which seems possibl e i s the s el fish lust of
Max and K�rla in "Notes from a Lady at a D inner Party . "
The tale tells how Max goes to his old professor ' s
house for dinner and nearly ends up having a s exual
l iason with his professor ' s y oung wife . Leonard
Michaels s ees this tale as being "about depraved
egocentricity and the giddy sexual betr.ayal of -- I
think -- civili zation . " 1 23 I ndeed , their " love" i s
neither attractive nor redeeming , and its possibl e
consummation threatens the relationships of a husband
with his ·"i re·, and a s tudent with his surrogate 1'ather/
professor . Such "love" can only b e d-es'tru'ctiv� , which
is why Malamud stresses its unat�ractive �s�ishness .
"I t i s · desperati on whi ch makes lls· s el.fis.h·, ·as :the
old J ew in -one o f Levitansky ' s taxes r.salises a P � I
· c ould -steal any , whether from Jew ·or .Rufis .ian , I
would s t ea� them ' " 1 24 The problem i s that modern
l i fe i s essentially desperate . T his i.s
a
"wasbland"
age of insecuri ty where p eople are alienated frQm
each· other and have no s ense o f direction ·The
•.
di f'.ticul ty of simply pinning anything . <town i n the"s e
times i s illustrat ed in the tale , "Rembrandt·' s Hat , ..
by the innumerable descriptions of Rubin ' s hat .
I
During the story it is described as a a
careless white cloth hat
.
•
yarmulke
·
cantor ' s hat
•
.
•
•
•
•
visorless
. Nehru ' s C ongress Party
soft round cap
cap·
.
.
•
.
bloated
French j udge s in Rouaul t
•
working doctor ' s i n a Daumier print
crown
•
.
•
, .
.
�·
•
ass istant
R embrandt ' s hat .
c ook ' s cap . . . crown of failure and hoRe · 1 25
As Marc Ratner tells us , "B ecause o f preconceived
i deas of themselves and others , men cannot connect with
one another . " 1 2 6 I n "R embrandt ' s Hat" we find that
'
Arkin i s too caught up in hims elf and his own ideas to
•
real.ly spare a thought for Rub in s feelings . Rubin ' s
•
-
..
�·
I
hat i s symbol i c o f his need . As Robert Phillips states ,
"In it
[ Rubin]
b ecome . " 1 27
•
appeared the artist he hoped to
Arkin r� fuses to s ee this at first , and
when he does see it , refuses to comfort Rubin in any
I
way . He avoids i nvolvement and walks away as the
s culptor begins to weep .
D espite all the isolation . destruction and
instab i lity o f the world around us , Malamud still
encourages belief and humanism . O ften l he wil1 do this
negatively , by showing us what will ·happen i f we do
not have any beliefs or concern for each other ; but ,
1 50 .
occas ionally , as in the character of Harvitz , he wi ll
present the cas e po�itively for involvement . We
cannot hope to s olve the my steri es o f ·life ; we can
only try to grow 'beyond them . As Rabbi Lifschitz
declares , "When you are dealing with such a mystery
you got to make another one but it must b e' bigger . "
1 28
B en S iegel feels. quite strongly th�t it is poss�ble
that Malamud feels that man would have b een better off
if he had never been created , but now that he i s here ,
he may as well get the mos t out of it . T he best way
o f doing this is always to remember compassion , when
dealing with other people . 1 29 Jackson J . B enson
declares that Malamud is saying that despite '' the
discovery of knowing the worst , man can still aspire
to something b eyond phys ical survival . " 13 ° A s
Frederick Hoffman tells us , "The motivating forc e
aspire to something beyond physi cal survival
]
[ to
i s to
find a convincingly strong voice to defy death . " 1 3 1
For if your life is achieving nothing , then you might
as well be dead . Herbert Leibowitz suggests that ,
"Perhaps through accepting imperfection yet risking
ourselves we can change and l ive wholly . " 13 2 -I t wil l
not be easy , but a s Sam B luefarb says a
I f Malamud ' s work may be said to c ontain a
ma j or theme , it is perhaps that life i s
b etter than death
151 .
•
•
•
for no matt er how
deep the chasm o f tragedy ,. or· how int�nse
the pain, a " live dog is still better than
a dead .l ion. " O f course accompanying this
commitment to l i fe is also the frus�ration
which is as much a part of l i fe as its lack
in the " state" called death . l 33
To conclude , Malamud has found a real sense o f
purpose in Rembrandt ' s Hat which he did not have in
The Magic Barrel . He displays a firm social
responsibility and shows the advantages o f taking on
such a respons ib ility as opposed to the disadvantages
o f ignoring it . As Joyce Flint tells us , "Becoming a
good man requires a continuous battl e against one ' s own
selfishness and insens itivity . " 1 34 Malamud now goes
all the way for his art , writing for the sake of his
readers rather than for hims elf . His art now reflects
.
l ife rather than dominates it . A s S idney Richman states :
.
When denigration and nihilism. have become
the norm , Malamud has dedicated himself to
tending the resources of puman personality
which s eem to be disappearing not· just from
literature but from l i.fe itself . l J S
Malamud has , in the fifteen years between writing
The Magic Barrel and Rembrandt ' s Hat , moved towards a
1 52 .
firmer , more. comprehensive reali ty . As I sa Kapp states ,
"Accord ing to
[ Malamud ' s ]
reverse evangelism , i f we
expect the worst and survive , we have already
triumphed . " lJ 6
Herbert Mann has seen that " Malamud ' s
world is one o f continual struggle . Moral struggle is
constantly reflected in physical struggle
i s no way to evade the harshnes s o f l i fe . "
•
•
.
T here
l�?
Though many critics have declared R embrandt ' s Hat
to b e a pessimistic book , I feel , along with S idney
Richman , that it does actually hav e an optimistic
foundation: "Malamud has not only invested his vision
o f human misery with a new horror but , paradoxically
with a new optimism . " lJB
As Malamud hims elf has
said , "My nature is optimistic but not the evi dence
population misery , famine , politics o f desperation ,
the proliferation o f the atom bomb
.
•
•
" lJ 9
He can
do nothing to change the evidence , and to be honest
he has to �epict it , but this should not categorise
him as a pessimist . Malamud has to tear down the old
world , for it is so rotten we must dismiss it entirely
and start again . A s William Freedman s tates , "When
[
] we
everyth ing else is gone and poss lbly only then
discover ourselves and our intimate connection with ,
140 From
and responsibility to , everything else . "
this we can hope fully rebuild civil isation on a more
humanitarian basis ; this i s what Malamud is asking us
1 5J .
to do in R embrandt ' s Hat .
Notes
1 R ichman , pp . 140-41 .
2 R ichman , p . 143 .
3
Saposnik , p . 13 .
4 Richman , pp . 141 -42 .
5 Anatole Broyard , " I f the Hat Doesn ' t Fit
.
New York Times , 1 7 May 1 973 , p . 41 .
6 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat , p . 8 .
7 Michaels , p .
38 .
8 Mi chaels , p .
38 .
9 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 9 .
1 0 J . B . Breslin , R ev . of Rembrandt ' s Hat , by
B ernard Malamud . America , 1 29 ( 1 973 ) , 1 5 .
1 1 S t e rn , ·"Art of Fiction , " p . 44 .
12
Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 60 .
13 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 1 1 3 .
1 � Saposnik , p . 1 5 .
1 5 B luefarb , p . 73 .
16
Winegarten , p . 1 01 .
1 7 Winegarten , p . 1 01 .
1 8 " Poor in Spirit , " p . 1 158 .
l 9 Northrop Frye , Anatomy o f C riticism& Four
1 55 .
•
•
.
,
"
Essays
( Princeton ,
N . J . : Princeton Univ . Pres s , 1 957 ) ,
p . 55 .
20 R ichman , p . 1 24 .
21 Hershino w , p . 140 .
22 Saposni k , p
. 15.
23 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 50 .
24 Saposnik , p . 1 5 .
25 Fl int , p . 1 0 6 .
26 Sanford Pinsker , Rev . of Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
by
B ernard Malamud . S tudies in Short F iction , 1 1
1 14 .
( 1 974 ) ,
27 R ichman , p . 137 .
28 Mann , p .
3.
29
Hoyt , p . 1 72 .
30 Goldman , p . 1 54 .
3 1 S tern , "Art of Fiction , " p . 243 .
32 B . Raffel , "B ernard Malamud , " Literary R eview ,
1 3 ( Winter ' 1 9 6 9 - 1970 ) , 1 54 .
33 Foff , p . 32 .
34 Herbert Leibowitz , " Malamud and the Anthropoiii o rphic
Busines s , " New Republic , 21 Dec . 1 9 63 , p . 22 .
3 5 " Swift to Alexander Pope , " 29 S ept . 1 725 , The
C orrespondence o f Jonathan Swift , ed . Harold Williams
( London:
36
·
Oxford Univ . Pres s , 1 963 ) , I I I , p . 1 03 .
Gerda Charles , "The S mo o th and the Rough , "
Jewish Ob s erver and Middle East Review , 23
1 56 .
( Jan .
, 1 9 74 ) ,
25 .
3 7 Mann , p . 5 .
)8 "Poor in Spirit , " p . 1 15 8 .
3 9 Rob ert Phi llips , Rev . of Rembrandt ' s Hat , by
B ernard Malamud . C ommonweal , 99 ( 197 3 ) , 246 .
40
Malamud , R emb randt! s Hat , p . 1 53 .
,
41
S kow , p . 1 0 0 .
42 E . N . Luttwak , "A Good Wri ter in Good Form , "
National Review , 25 ( 197 3 ) , 1 1 9 1 - 9 2 .
4 3 Luttwak , p .
1 1 92 .
44 Luttwak , p .
1 1 92 .
4 5 B eth B urch , and Paul W . Burch , "Myth on Myth :
B ernard Malamud ' ,:� ' The Talking Horse ,
• "
S tudies in
S hort Fiction , 16 ( 1979 ) , 3 50 - 5) .
46 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 142 .
47 Burch , pp .
3 50 - 5 3 .
48 B urch , p . 52 .
3
49
P eter Prescott , "The Horse s Mouth , " Newsweek ,
•
4 June 197 3 , p . 1 0 0 .
50 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 1)6 .
5 l Winegarten , p. 1 0) .
5 2 Burch , p . 5 1 .
3
5 3 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ; p.
137 .
54 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat , pp . 146-47 .
55 Winegarten ,
p.
1 0) .
56 Winegarten , p. 1 0 .
3
·
1 57 .
57 Burch ,
5 B Burch ,
P•
3 53 .
P•
353 .
5 9 Prescott ,
6 0 Mann , p .
1 01 .
P·
6.
6 1 M�,lamud , R embrandt ' s Hat ,
6 2 Mal�mud. , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
P•
11 .
P·
13 .
63 C li fford Ridley , �short S tori es Extinct
B elieve i t , " Nat ional Observer , 2 June 1 973 ,
64 Flint , p . v .
65 Winegarten ,
66 Hershinow ,
p,
p.
p.
?
Don ' t
21 .
100 .
1 33 .
6 7 Winegarten , p . 1 0 1 .
6 8 Robert -!ti ely , "Rembrandt ' s Hat . " New York T imes
B ook R eview , 3 June 1 973 , p. 7 .
6 9 C anham , p . 5 .
7
7 0 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
p.
29 .
P•
14 .
P•
22 .
P•
23 .
P•
25 .
p.
30 .
p.
9.
7 1 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 24 .
7 2 S iegel , " Glass Darkly , " p . 1 1 8 .
73 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
7 4 Hershin�w , pp . 1 3 2- 33 .
1 5 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
7 6 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
77 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
7 8 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat ,
7 9 Hershinow , p . 1 3 2 .
80 Malamud ,
R embrandt ' s Hat ,
1 58 .
81
Handy , p . 66 .
82 Edelman ,
83
Malamud ,
84
85
86
P·
56 .
R embrandt ' s Hat ,
Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
P·
88 .
P•
90 .
]'1alamud , R embrandt s Hat , p . 99 .
•
Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 99 .
8 7 Mann , p .
6.
88
Phillips , P · 24 5 .
89 Saposnik ,
P • 14 .
9 0 Saposnik ,
14 .
P·
9 1 Saposnik ,
P • 14 .
92
" Poor in Spirit , " P · 1 1 5 8 .
93
Saposnik , p . 1 5 .
94
Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat , P • 1 40 ;
95
Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , P • 1 5 2 .
96 Mar1l1 ,
;p . 7 .
9 7 Mann ,
P· 7.
98 Sap'osnik ,
p . 15 .
99 Phillips ,
P • 24 5 .
100 Malamud ,
R embrandt ' s Hat , P · 82 .
1 01 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s
Hat , P · 87 .
1 0 2 Malamud ,
R embrandt s Hat , P • 87 .
H>3 Marigold Johnson , " S mall Mercies , " New
•
S tatesman , 86 ( 1 9 7 3 ) , 433 .
1 04 Phillips ,
P • 24 5 .
1 05
Michaels , P • 38 .
1 59 .
106 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p .
132 .
107
Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat , p . 1 29 .
108 Flint , p . 07 .
1
1 09 Alter , "Jew as Metaphor , " p . 30 .
1 1 0 S i egel , "Glass Darkly , " p .
131 .
1 1 1 Edelrran , p . 22 .
_
·
1 1 2 Elaine Feinstein , "Unashamed Hurr.ani sm , " London
Magazine , 13 , No . 6 ( Feb . /Mar . , 1 974 ) ' 138 .
1 1 3 Breslin ,
P• 1 5 .
1 14 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat ,
35 .
P•
1 1 5 Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat ,
P • 63 .
116
Malamud , Rembrandt ' s Hat , p . 70 .
117
Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , P · 70 .
118
Saposnik , p . 1 7 .
1 1 9 I rving
Malin, and I rvin S tark , " I ntro duction , "
in Breakthrough : A Treasury of C ontemporary Ameri can­
J ewish Literature ( New Y ork : McGraw-Hill , 1 964 ) , p . 20 .
1 20 Mann , p . 1 .
1
1 21 Pearl B ell , " Morality Tale Without Mercy , "
N ew Leader , 1 8 O ct . 1971 , p . 1 7 .
122 Raffel , p . 1 52 .
1 23 Michaels , p . 38 .
1 24
125
Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , pp . 75- 76 .
Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , pp . 1 00 - 1 1 .
1 26 Marc Ratner , "Style and Humanity in Malamud ' s
Fiction , " Massachusetts Revi ew , 5 ( S ummer 1 964 ) , 679 .
1 60 .
1 27 Phillips ,
p . 245 .
1 2 8 Malamud , R embrandt ' s Hat , p . 20 .
1 2 9 S i egel , "Glass Darkly , " p . 43
1 .
13 ° B enson, p . 1 8 .
13 1 Hoffman , p . 234 .
1 3 2 �eibowitz , p . 23 .
1 33 B luefarb , p . 75 .
1 34 Flint , p .
16 .
1 3 5 R ichman , p . 145 .
l36 I sa Kapp , "A Therapeuti c Plainness , " New Leader ,
52 ( May , 1 969 ) , 7 .
1 3 7 Mann , p . 2 .
13 8 Richman , p .
1 27 .
1 3 9 Stern , "Art of Fiction , " p . 63 .
140 Freedman
, p . 142 .
161 .
C onclus ion
I n a recent article in the New Y ork T imes B ook
R eview , Malamud tells us " One day I began to write
s�rious ly ;
writing had begun to impress me . Y ears
o f all sorts had gone by . " 1 He does pot spec ify
my
exactly when this change o ccurred , but from the
evidenc e of thi s thesi s , I would place the date at the
moment he began to write the tales which make up
R embrandt ' s Hat . I hab Hassan declares that " the
changes in Malamud ' s style
testify to his
continued quickness to American culture . " 2 This is
•
•
•
only in part true . The .American soc ial climate o f the
1 950 ' s was a great deal different from the social
climate which developed in the 1 9 7 0 ' s . However , though
influenced by the idealism and conservatism of the
1 9 50 ' s , The Magic B arrel was predominantly influenced
by the 1 9.3_0 ' s and avoided the " i ssues of the day . "
Malamud was being anything but " quick" to American
culture . R embrandt ' s Hat is more a product of the age
in whic h it was written; more becaus e o f a change in
the author than the result of a change in his society .
The Magic Barrel was written by an embryonic author ,
still developing his i dentity , respons ibility and
craft . R embrandt ' s Hat s ees the emergence of a mature
craftsman , with a firm identity and sense o f
1 62 .
respons ib ility .
Sanford Pinsker talks o f how "Marcus Klein s ees
the change as one from novels of ali enation to those
of what he calls ' accomodation . ' " J
T he Magic Barrel
shows characters o f great s ensibility who "protect"
themselves by systematically moving beyond the
b oundari es of a hostile soci ety . T hi s causes complete
alienation and is essentially a displacement o f
responsib ility , since i t is not facing up t o the
problem but running away from it . By Rembrandt ' s ·Hat ,
Malamud has learned to "preserve individuality
b eneath folds of gray flannel suiting . " 4 He has
learned to accept social respons ibility and discovered
that to change soci ety , one must first become a part
o f it , however dangerous that rray b e . As Samuel Weiss
states , "The quest for humane i dentity is central to
Malamud ' s vision . " 5 It is not enough to s irr�ly
s urvive , ope must make that survival count for
something with a broader social sense beyond the " sel f . "
S heldon Hershinow feels that " Fo llowing the lead of
Hawthorne , Malamud writes moral allegori es intended
to delight readers while teaching them lessons of
faith and hurr,ane b ehaviour . " 6 This is what he tries
to do in The Magic Barrel , but does not effectively
succeed in doing until R embrandt ' s Hat . Rembrandt ' s
Hat i s Malamud ' s attempt to make his s urvival c ount .
1 6) .
·--
=---
-
�-----=-=-= - ---
-:::---
_
-___-
�
-
As B en S iegal points out :
Malamud does not view modern society as
blameless for man ' s tragic plight , but
neither does he cons ider anyone the mere
passive vict_im o f social cruelty or neglect .
His people embody their own s elf-des tructive
demons . I f they are social misfits , it is
primarily of their own doing . They are
7
incompetent or unworldly , or both .
A mistake Malamud makes in T he Magic Barrel is to view
soci ety as the enemy o f mankind , whereas by R embrandt ' s
Hat he has come to realise that society is merely a
group o f men , and ft is " man'' who is mankind ' s enemy .
We cannot change the social mass in one lump , but must
work from the bottom up with one individual at a time .
Joe Wershba quotes Malamud as saying , "My premis e i s
that we will not destroy each other . My premise is �hat
we will l ive on. We will seek a better l i fe . We may
not become better , but at least we wili s eek b etterment . " 8
This was Malamud ' s view in 1 958 wherr he wrote The Magic
B arrel . However , in 1 975 Shel don Grebstedn can talk of
how " this basically optimistic c oncept o f human nature
i s checked by· an almost equally persistent view of man
as greedy', treacherous , lustful , and o:ften vic i ous .
C heerful idealist and hard-eyed real is� peer out
1 64 .
r ;:
.·:r
"
i
:
-�,
.·!
"
.
/
.
· --
through the same bifocals . " 9
-
----=--
--
-
.
-­
- - � - -----
Malamud has not given
up , but he has realised· that betterment will be
neither quick nor easy . He has moderated his non­
productive idealisrr. to suit his potentially redemptive
realism . Granville Hicks talks of how Malarr.ud is
constantly asking , " What are the l imits of human
respons ib i lity
?
"
1 0 This i s exactly what he is doing
in Rembrandt ' s Hat , and , as C harles Hoyt points out ,
" the answer is as tenuous as each man ' s s ense of
respons ibility to his fellows . " 1 1
Therefore , to conclude , the essential di fference
' i,. . .
b etween The Magi c Barrel and R embrandt ' s Hat i s the
author . The author o f The Magic Barrel , though a
critical success , was not fulfilling the roles he
I
'
himself demanded o f an artist and should be deemed a
.. .-
·!<
' . '>: .
. ,.
1
', ..'
fai lure . He is i dealistic , immature and misguided .
Though not as popular amongst the critics , the author
.
•
of Rembrandt ' s Hat i s a very different and far more
e ffective artist . He has d eveloped a true authorial
i dentity with di scretion , honesty , a greater regard
for and understanding of humanity , and a s ens e of
reality - - all o f which were lacking in The Magic
Barrel . With the evidence of R embrandt ' s Hat and what
it might lead to , I feel that Daniel Walden i s
p erfectly justi fied i n describing Malamud as " a ma j or
i
-� ;I
, :I'I �·j
I
l
writer whos e reputation s hould not b e finally measured
!1 --
until the last word is in . "
12
!
'[
·1 ·.
1 66 .
f� .
Notes
1 Malamud , "Pleasures , "
2'
Hass�:�n,
p.
p.
2.
46 .
3 Pinsker , " I ronic Heroes , "
4 Pinsker , " I r.onic Heroes , "
p.
46 .
p.
46 .
5 Weiss , "Notes on B ernard Malamud , " p . 1 57 .
6 Hershinow , p . 1 2 .
7 Ben Siegel , "Victims in Motiona T he Sad and
B itter C lowns , " in B ernard Malamud and the C ritics ,
eds . Leslie A . Field and Joyce W . Field ( New Y ork
New Y ork Univ . Press , 1 970 ) ,
8 Wershba , p . M - 2 .
pp .
1 2 3 - 24 .
9 Grebstein , p . 22 .
1 0 Hi � ks , " Uprooted , " p . 1 6 .
1 1 Hoy
" t p.
1 82 .
1 2 Daniel Walden , "Malamud ' s World a An I ntroduction , "
,
S tudies in American Jewish Litera�ure , 4 , No . 1 ( 1978 ) ,
2.
,
J '
i
l
I
'
B ibliography
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R ob ert b . S ilvers .
New Brunswick , N . J . :
Rutgers Univ . Press , 1 9 60 ,
p.
1 73 .
-------- -- .
The Magic Barrel .
- - - - - - -- - - .
"Pleasures of the Fast Payo ff . "
London : Penduin , 1 980 .
N ew York
T imes Book Review , 28 Aug . 1 983 , pp . 2-3 , 1 9 .
--- - - - - - - .
R embrandt ' s Hat .
- -- - - - - - - -
T he S tories of B ernard Malamud .
-
.
London: Pengui n , 1 980 .
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Farrar , Straus and G iroux , 1 983 .
- - - - - - - - -- .
"Theme , C ontent and the ' New Novel . ' "
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Adler , D ick .
"The Magician of 86 S treet . "
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168 .
i.
-
..
___
r
_ _
------=--=-�
-�
- -
- .
b
!
l
t
�
r
l
Alter , I ska Shiela .
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i I
Alter , R obert .
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and Joyce W . Field .
I n B ernard
New York : New York Univ .
Press , 1 9 7 0 , pp . 29 - 4 2 .
-- -------- .
" Ordinary Anguish . "
New Y ork Times Book
R eview , 16 Oct . 1 98.3 , pp . 1 , .35-.3 7 .
- - ----- --- .
" Out o f the Trap . "
Midstream , 9 , No . 4
( 1 96.3 ) . 88-90 .
- - - ------- .
T irr:e . "
" Up dike , Malamud , and the Fire in T his
C omrentary , 54 ( 1 9 7 2 ) , 68- 74 .
Angoff , C harles .
"Jewish-American I �aginative Writings
in the Last Twenty-Five Y ears . "
Jewish B ook Annual ,
2 5 ( 1 96 7 ) , 1 29-.39 .
Bahr , J erofll e .
Sun ,
"A C ollection of Thirj;een Fine S tories . "
[Baltimore] 1 8 May
Baumbach , Jonathan .
1 958 , p . 2 1 .
"The Economy of Love : The Novels
of B ernard Malamud . "
K enyon Review , 25 ( 1 96.3 ) ,
4 )8-5 7 .
B ell , P earl K .
"Morality Tale Without Mercy . "
New
Leader , 1 8 Oct . 1 9? 1 , pp . 1 7 - 1 8 .
B ellman , Samuel I rving .
"Women , C hildren, and I di ots
First : Transformation Psychology . "
Ip B ernard
' ' •
-
· --- -�
----==-
Malarr.ud and the Critics .
and Joyce W . Field .
Press , 1970 ,
pp .
B enson , Jackson J .
-
New Y ork : New York Univ .
1 1 - 28 .
l
I
I n The Fiction of
Eds . R ichard Astra and Jackson
C ornvallis : Oregon S tate Univ . Press ,
13 -42 .
pp .
B lackrran , Ruth .
Malarr.ud .
P•
�
"An I ntroduction: B ernard IV:alazrud
B ernard Malamud .
1976 ,
-
Eds . Leslie A . Fi eld
and the Haunting of America . "
J . B enson .
. � ._.- � -
---====- � �-= - - --::_�-- -·
Rev . of T he Magic Barrel , by Bernard
C hristian S c ience Monitor , 1 5 May 1 958 ,
' i
11 .
Bluefarb , Sam .
"The Syncretisrr: of B ernard Malamud . "
I n B ernard Malamud : A C ollection of C ritical
Essays .
Eds . Leslie A . Field and Joyce W . Field .
Englewood C l iffs , N . J . : Prentice-Hall , 1 975 ,
pp .
!
I
" I
72-79 .
B oroff , David .
· '
I
I
"American Judaisn: Looks �t the L iving
Arts J! inest Flowering . "
l
i
American Judaism , 13
i
( Winter 1 963/ 1 964 ) , 1 8 .
- -- - - - - - - - .
" Loser�·, But Not Lost . "
1 2 Oct . 1 963 ,
B reslin , J . B .
Malamud .
p.
33 .
Rev . of Rembrandt ' s Hat , by B ernard
America , 1 29 ( 1973J , 1 5 .
B royard , Anatole .
"I f
the
Hat Doesn ' t Fit . . . . ..
New York Times , 1 7 May 1 973 ,
Bryden , R onald .
Saturday R eview ,
" I C incinnatus . "
170 .
p.
41 .
Spectator , 204
l,
I
I
'
II
I
'
I
I
- ---- - -
--- - ------ -
---- --
'
-
--
r
( June , 1960 ) , 8 1 0 .
B urch , Beth , and Paul W . Burch .
" Myth on Myth:
B ernard Malamud ' s- 'The Talking Hors e . • "
Stories
in Short Fiction , 1 6 ( 1979 ) , 350 - 53 .
Burgess , Anthony .
"American T hemes . "
I n The Novel
Now: A Guide to C ontemporary Fiction .
New York :
Norton , 1 967 , pp . 197 - 98 .
Cadle , Dean .
''B ernard Malamud . "
Wilson Library
Bulletin , 33 ( 1 958 ) , 266 .
Canham , Laurel .
j
I
"Matrix and Allegory in S elected
Malamud S hort S tories . "
Linguistics in Literature ,
2 , No . 3 ( 1977 ) , 59 � 9 1 .
C harles , Gerda .
i
t
"The Smooth and the Rough . "
Jewish
i
I
I
I
I
I
I
Obs erver and Middle East Review , 23 (Jan . , 1 974 ) , 25 .
C ohen , Sandy .
B ernard Malamud and the Trial by Love .
Melville S tudies in Arrerican Literature , No . 1 .
Ed . Robert Brainsard Pearsall .
Amsterdare : Rodopi
N . V . , -1 974 .
.. A C orrect C ompass ion. "
Tirr�es Literary Suppl ement ,
1 Apr . 1960 , p . 205 .
C unningham , Valentine .
" Old Hats . "
Listener , 90
( OQt . , 197 J ) , 49 1 - 92 .
D ollard , Peter A .
Malamud .
R ev . of R embrandt ' s Hat , by B ernard
L ibrary Journal , 98 ( 1973 ) , 1601 .
Ducharme , Robert .·
Art and I dea in the Novels of B ernard
Malamud : T oward the Fixer .
Mouton: T he Hague ,
171 .
I I
I
r
'
Paris , 1974 .
Edelman , L .
" Without Preachment : Another Magi c Barrel
o f Malamud S tories . "
National Jewish Monthly ,
87 ( June , 1 973 ) , 54- 56 .
"The Loathly Ladies . "
Eigner , Edwin M .
Malamud and the Criti cs .
and Joyce W . Field .
I n B ernard
Eds . Leslie A . Field
New York : New York Univ .
Press , 1 970 , pp . 85- 108 .
" Unashamed Humanism . "
Feinstein , Elaine .
London
Magazine , 1 3 , No . 6 ( Feb . /Mar . , 1 974 ) , 137 - 40 .
Field , Leslie A .
Jew . "
"B ernard Malamud and the Marginal
I n The Fiction of B ernard Malamud .
Richard Astro anq .Jackson J . Benson.
Eds .
C ornvall is :
Oregon State Univ . Press , 1 976 , pp . 97 - 1 1 6 .
- - - -- - - - - - , and Joyc e
W.
"An I nterview with
I n B ernard Malamud : A C ollection
B ernard Malam1,1d . "
of Critical Essays .
W . Field .
Fiel d .
Eds . Leslie A . Field and Joyce
Englewood C li ffs , N . J . : Prentice-Hall ,
1975 , pp . 8 - 1? .
- - - - - - - - - - , and Joyce W . Fiel d .
" I ntroduction - - Malamud ,
Mercy , and Menschlechkeit . "
In
C ollection of C ritical Essays .
Field and Joyc� W . Field .
B ernard Malamud : A
Eds . Leslie A .
Englewood C liffs , N . J . :
Prentice-Hall , 1 975 , pp . 1 - 7 .
Fl int , Joyce �arl ene .
" I n S earch of f� eaning : Bernard
Nalamud , Norrr.an Wi.ailer , John Updike . "
DAI , 3 0
( 1 969 ) , 3006 A ( Washington State U nivers ity ) .
1 72 .
, I
��
Foff , Arthur .
- -�·
--
---
--
"Strangers Aniid Ruins . "
..,�,.:
-� ....
-�---==-=---- ·
=------.....- -=------=--
Northwest
Review , 2 ( Fall/W inter 1 958 ) , 6 J - 6 7 .
Franc is , H . E .
"Bernard Malamud ' s Everyman . "
Mi dstream ,
7 , No . 1 ( Winter 1 96 1 ) , 93- 97 .
Freedman , 'William .
"American Jewish Fiction: So What ' s
the B ig D eal ? "
C hicago Review , 1 9 , No . 1 ( 1 9 66 ) ,
90- 1 07 .
- - -- - - - - - - .
" From B ernard Malamud , with Discipline
In The Fifties : Fiction, Poetry ,
and with :Love . "
Drama .
Ed . Warren French .
D eLand , Fla . : Everett/
Edwards , 1 97 0 , pp . 1JJ- 4J .
Friedman , Alan Warren .
"The Hero as Schnook . "
B ernard Malamud and the C ritics .
Field and Joyce
w.
Field .
In
Eds . Leslie A .
-
New York : New Y ork Univ .
Press , 1 9 7 0 , pp . 2e5-JOJ .
- - - - - -- - -- .
"The J ew ' s C o mplaint in R ecent American
Fictiona B eyond Exodus and Still in the Wilderness . ''
Southern R eview , 8 , ( 1 972 ) , 4 1 - 5 9 .
Frye , Northrop .
Anatomy of C riticisma Four Essays .
Princeton , N . J . a Princ eton Univ . Press , 1 957 .
Glicksberg , C harles I .
"A J ewish American Literature ? "
Southwest R eview , 53 ( 1 9 6 8 ) , 1 96 - 205 .
Goldman , Mark .
"B ernard Malamud ' s C omic V ision and
the Theme o f I dentity . "
the Critics .
F i el d .
I n B ernard Malamud and
Eds . Leslie A . Field and Joyce W .
New Y ork : New Y ork Univ . Press , 1 970 ,
17 J .
I
I
,
-- -----=- - -
�-
'
� _,.. .. �-
'
-
- -==:=::..__ - --
--- -
--
��
-----
---
pp . 1 51 -70 .
Time , 9 May 1 969 , p . 1 08 .
" Goodbye Old Paint . "
"B ernard Malamud and the
Grebstein, Sheldon Norman .
Jewish Mov.ement . "
In B ernard Malamud : A C ollection
of C ritical Essa�s .
Joyce W . Field .
Eds . Leslie A . Field and
Englewood C li ffs , N . J . : Prentice­
Hall , 1 975 , pp . 1 8- 44 .
Gross , John .
"Mar j orie Morningstar , Ph . D . "
New '�'
Statesman , 64 ( Nov . , 1 962 ) , 784 .
Gunn , Giles B .
"B ernard Malamud and the High C ost of
In Adversity and Grac e ; S tudies in Recent
Living . "
American Literature .
Ed . Nathan A . Scott , Jr .
C hicago : Univ . of C hicago , 1 968 , pp . 59-85 .
Handy ,
w·.
J.
"The Malamud Hero : A.. Quest for Exi stenc e . "
I n The Fiction of B ernard Malamud .
Astro and Jackson J . B enson .
Eds . Richard
C ornvallis : Oregon
State Uni v . Press , 1 976 , pp . 65 - 86 .
Hassan , I hab .
"Bernard Malamud : 1 976 . Fictions Within
Our Fictions . "
I n The Fict ion O f B ernard Malamud .
Eds . R ichard Astro and Jackson J . B enson.
C ornvalli s a Oregon S tate Univ . Press , 1 976 , pp . 43-6 4 .
- -- - - - - - - - .
"The Hopes o f Man . "
New Y ork T imes B ook
Review , 13 Oct . 1 963 , p . 5 .
Hays , P et er L .
Stories . "
"Malamud ' s Y i ddish-Accented M edieval
I n The Fiction o f B ernard Malamud .
R ichard Astro and Jackson J . B enson .
.Cornvallis :
Oregon State Univ . Press , 1 976 , pp . 87- 96 .
1 74 .
Eds .
-
- - ·
-·
--� -
Hershinow , Sheldon J .
-
-
---::=:._
---=---=-= ---------=" - - - -=-=:::
�
B ernard Malamu d .
-
�� ·� ·� "
�
�
")>.�
.
New Y ork :
Ungar , 1980 .
Hi cks , Granville .
"His Hopes on the Human Heart . "
Saturday Review ,
1 2 Oct . 1 96J , pp . J 1 -J2 .
"The Uprooted . "
Saturday R eview , 1 7 May
1 9.58 , p . 1 6 .
Hill , John S .
"Malamud ' s ' The Lady of the Lake ' a A
Univers ity Review
Lesson in Re j ection . "
]
C ity , Mo . , J6 ( 1969 ) , 1 4 9 - .50 .
Hoffer , Bates .
[Kansas
"T he Magic in Malamud ' s Barrel . "
Linguistics in Literature , 2 , No . J ( 19 77 ) , 1 -26 .
Hoffman , Frederick J .
"Marginal S oc iet ies and t he
I n The Modern Novel
C ontemporary American Novel . "
in America .
PP •
Jrd Ed .
C hicago a Henry Regnery , t 96J ,
224 - 55 .
Hogan , William .
C hronicle
"B ernard Malamud ' s ' Gallows Humor . "'
[san F�ancisco] ,
Hoyt , C harles A .
"The New Romanticism . "
Malamud and the C ritics .
and Joyce W . Field .
1 97 0 ,
PP •
25 Oct . 1 96J , p . 2) .
In B ernard
Eds . Leslie A . Field
New York a New York Uriiv . Press ,
1 7 1 - 84 .
" I nterview with B ernard Malamud . "
New Y ork T imes Book
R eview , lJ O ct . 1 96J , p . 5 .
J ohnson , Marigold .
"Small M erci es . "
New Statesman ,
86 ( 1 9 7 J ) , 4JJ .
Jones , G . William .
"Current Novelists and ' Entering
1 75 .
;I
I nto the Worl d . ' "
Southwest R eview , 49 ( 1 994 ) ,
9 1- 9 6 .
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"Freedom and Wit , the Jewish Writer
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\
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