bernard malamud – Cannonball Read 17

The Fixer – Bernard Malamud (1966)

The Fixer by Bernard Malamud

December 13, 2021 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is simply one of the most frightening books I’ve ever read. Like a lot of books, this book is a reminder that the whole world’s been a dystopia depending on who you are. Yakov Bok is a handyman in Kiev. He’s been not exactly passing as gentile to work in a specific neighborhood so much as allowing his unquestioned Jewishness to remain unquestioned. One day is picked up by the police and accused of murdering a local boy and draining his body of all […]

Lesser catching sight of himself in his lonely glass wakes to finish his book.

The Tenants by Bernard Malamud

Idiots First by Bernard Malamud

Rembrandt's Hat by Bernard Malamud

September 7, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The Tenants – 3/5 Stars This is a troubling novel that is sometimes brilliant and amazing, and sometimes too awkward and awful for words. We meet Lesser, a 36 year old novelist living in a tenement in the Bronx. His landlord would love to tear down the building, and offers repeatedly to buy Lesser out of his rent-controlled, but Lesser wants to finish his third novel first, something that might take only a few more months or forever. So he’s the last holdout. One day […]

The early November street was dark though night had ended, but the wind, to the grocer’s surprise, already clawed.

The Assistant by Bernard Malamud

March 2, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is an absolutely brilliant, beautiful, touching, and incisive novel by the writer of The Natural and the various story collections I’ve been reading recently. It’s based on a reworking of one of his previous stories in which we watch the terror and dread of a storekeeper as an empty store on his street is being reworked as a new deli. His own store, a former deli turned more into a grocery is middling, and this seems in part (and certainly this is his perception) because […]

George Fisher was still lying awake, thinking of the accident which he had seen on 121st Street.

The People and Unpublished Stories by Bernard Malamud

February 24, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

Most uncollected stories or worst unpublished stories collections tend to be curious and interesting, but often not very good. From my work in college and grad school reading what’s assigned to me and seeing the different ways that professor chose readings and my own choosing. So here I am looking at this giant book of Bernard Malamud short stories and it’s carefully labeled in terms of which stories go with which collection that he published in his lifetime. This is perfect for me so I […]

We have two lives; the life we learn with and the life we live after that.

The Natural by Bernard Malamud

January 25, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a novel version of a movie I saw a million times as a kid. I feel like at some point if you have a white American dad, he’s required by law to show you The Natural, talk to you about Robert Redford, and point at the screen a few times throughout. Maybe dads of other racial backgrounds do this too, I can’t say, but my white-ass dad made us watch it. It’s kind of a magical movie and prefigures Field of Dreams for […]

Of course it would cost something, but he was an expert in cutting corners; and when there were no more corners left he would make circles rounder.

December 28, 2018 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The Magic Barrel – 5/5 Stars This story collection came out in 1959 and contains the well known title story, but also has several other very good stories. It won the National Book Award as well. As I have previously stated in reviews, the age of the writer (here in a kind of debut effort) lends itself to an already mature and thoughtful work (this was also true for many of Raymond Chandler’s stories as well as the story collection A Lucky Man by Jamel […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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