Why Read Bernard Malamud?

I have written before about Bernard Malamud here and here, especially. So I was keen to read PETER ORNER ON BERNARD MALAMUD by JEFF SCHWAGER published by McSweeney's. Some highlights for you.

JEFF SCHWAGER: For those who’ve gone this long without reading Bernard Malamud, why should they seek out his stories now?

 PETER ORNER: Because they stab you in the heart. He’s elemental. He literally gets to the heart of what we’re all about—what it is to be alive, to have a family, to fall in love, to die. He’s as elemental as it gets. Many of his stories are about people who are poor and struggling. His people work hard, and what do they get for it? Malamud’s stories are about the people who have come to this country without much and aren’t getting much. They’re trying to endure, and they don’t always succeed. These are not stories of triumph. Which is a hard sell, right?

***

 JEFF: It’s like Spanglish.

PETER: True, people often create their own vernacular. And, you know, it takes an artist of his caliber to work with that vernacular. In a way, it’s made up. Yes, people talked the way Malamud’s people talk, and they certainly talked that way in my family. But Malamud is also tracking something bigger than an imitation of an old world way of talking. As you suggest, like other people, Malamud’s people are working with what they have. There’s something so universal about this. That’s why I think he chafed at being called a Jewish writer. I think he found it a limiting concept. In some ways these are the most Jewish stories ever written by an American, and yet they utterly transcend that idea. These are stories that capture what it means to come to this country and not make it. And if people can’t relate to that, then they should start talking to people who come to this country and don’t make it.

You should read how they compare him to Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. 

Even more important: read him. 

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12/16/21