The Assistant: A Novel - Softcover

Malamud, Bernard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0374504849 ISBN 13: 9780374504847

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003

Synopsis

The Assistant, Bernard Malamud's second novel, originally published in 1957, is the story of Morris Bober, a grocer in postwar Brooklyn, who "wants better" for himself and his family. First two robbers appear and hold him up; then things take a turn for the better when broken-nosed Frank Alpine becomes his assistant. But there are complications: Frank, whose reaction to Jews is ambivalent, falls in love with Helen Bober; at the same time he begins to steal from the store.

Like Malamud's best stories, this novel unerringly evokes an immigrant world of cramped circumstances and great expectations. Malamud defined the immigrant experience in a way that has proven vital for several generations of writers.

"His best novel . . . The Assistant is as tightly written as a prose poem." --Morris Dickstein in Leopards in the Temple: The Transformation of American Fiction 1945-1970

About this title

From the Publisher:

"The Assistant", by Pulitzer Prize-recipient Bernard Malamud, is considered an American literary classic. A real find for lovers of literature, praised by the Jewish Theological Seminary and Jewish Book World.

From the Back Cover:

Bernard Malamud was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on April 26, 1914, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. By his death in 1986, he had won the Pulitzer Prize and twice won the National Book Award and his books (such as "The Fixer", "The Natural") and stories (such as "The Angel Levine," "The Jewbird") had become American classics. "The Assistant," published in 1957, represents this great writer's belief in the noble drama of everyday lives and the universality of the Jewish experience.

George Guidall, winner of the 1999 "AUDIE", the audio publishing industry's highest honor, has recorded more than 500 books on tape. They range from Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" to present-day best sellers. He has also spent 30 years in the theater as an actor, director and teacher. He replaced Eli Wallach in "Caf Crown" and played the lead in Neil Simon's "Chapter Two." Television audiences have frequently seen Mr. Guidall on "Law and Order."

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0374504849
• ISBN 13: 9780374504847
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272