The Assistant (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Bernard Malamud
- First Published: 1957
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: 1930’s
- 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
Places Discussed
Grocery store. Morris Bober’s family store in Manhattan. As an economic and social barrier, the store resembles a bit of European ghetto transported to New York, though it could be located in any large city in which European refugees gather. Having escaped Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, Morris has nevertheless contrived a prison of his own making, one which threatens to kill the spirit of his wife, Ida, and his daughter, Helen. Poverty ceaselessly grinds them down. Every morning at 5:30 a.m. Morris crawls out of bed to give the “Polish woman”...
[The entire page is 910 words long]
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