The Assistant (Magill’s Choice: American Ethnic Writers)
At a glance:
- Author: Bernard Malamud
- First Published: 1957
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, New York City, Guilt, 1930’s, Robbery or robbers, Ethics, Judaism, Grocery trade
- Locales: Brooklyn, NY
The Work
In The Assistant, Bernard Malamud carefully structures his realistic second novel so that the story of the intertwined fates of Frank Alpine and the Bobers grows to symbolize self-discipline and suffering. The hero, Frank Alpine, unlike the hero of Malamud’s The Natural (1952), achieves self-integration and the subsequent identification with a group.
Frank enters the life of the Bobers when he comes with Ward Minoque, who represents his worst self, to the struggling neighborhood store of Morris Bober to steal. Unlike Ward, Frank immediately...
[The entire page is 758 words long]
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