The Tenants (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Bernard Malamud
- First Published: 1971
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: The 1960’s
- Setting: New York City
- Principal Characters: Harry Lesser, Willie Spearmint, Levenspiel, Irene Bell, Mary Kettlesmith
- Genres: Long fiction, Absurdist literature
- Subjects: Blacks, Writing, Jews or Jewish life, Fantasy, Realism
- Locales: New York, NY
The Novel
In The Tenants, Malamud blends gritty realism, absurd comedy, and fantasy to deal with both social issues and the nature of the creative writing process. The setting of the novel is an abandoned apartment house in New York City in the 1960’s, a time of racial strife affecting both the book’s Jewish and black characters. The point of view is that of Harry Lesser, rendered in third-person-limited narration. All experience, even when the narration appears omniscient, is filtered through Harry’s mind and voice.
The tenement, on East Thirty-first...
[The entire page is 2107 words long]
