A New Life (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Bernard Malamud
- First Published: 1961
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, Self-discovery, Antiheroes, Adultery, Small-town life, Colleges or universities, Italy or Italians, Satire, Thirteenth century
- Locales: Northwest (U.S.)
A New Life continues Malamud's treatment, begun in The Natural and refined in The Assistant, of the search for self-definition. This most picaresque of his works follows the struggles of S. Levin, a young professor from New York who hopes to redeem what he perceives as a failed life through relocation to a technical college in the Northwest. Set in the 1950's, the novel substitutes the mythic placelessness of Malamud's earlier novels with a Stendhalian realism replete with topical allusions to the Cold War, McCarthyism, and liberalism versus loyalty oaths.
...[The entire page is 1455 words long]
- Add A New Life to your favorites