Pictures of Fidelman is a series of six fairly independent tales of Arthur Fidelman, a Bronx Jew and failed painter who has traveled to Rome to write on Giotto. He seems unable to move forward with his new life nor to completely let go of his desire to be a successful painter. He bounces around Italy trying to find himself (or maybe lose himself) but never seems to accomplish either. The fifth of the stories is an attempt by Malamud at stream of consciousness (the title of the story is "Portraits of the Artist") otherwise they are typically Malamud who writes cleanly and passionately.

This book was for sale at the school Book Fair when I was in third grade. I liked the cover so I bought it. No one said anything at the time but they did not act too surprised when I asked why the lady called the man a Pig, beast, onanist! Also the line about the cross... kids read the darndest things

"The Natural" is a quiet, contemplative novel that uses the mythology of baseball to frame a poetic parable of fate...of the idea of "what could have been."
Baseball, more than any other sport, has a history composed equally of fact and legend. That's its' charm. Using that gauzy place between the real and the myth, Malamud tells the tale of Roy Hobbs, the greatest baseball player who ever lived, but who hardly ever played.
Hobbs' life, at least the part we are privy to, is shaped by his decisions and actions surrounding three women. They each, and I'm reducing this to absurdity, represent a basic ideal: home-spun decency, harsh reality and seductive temptation. It could be said that where he ends up at the end of the novel is determined solely by the choices he makes regarding each woman. His character becomes better defined as the reader discovers Hobbs' feelings towards each as well.
It's difficult not to see Robert Redford's face in the mind's eye, nor to hear Randy Newman's music in the background whilst reading the book. Those images and sounds have penetrated popular culture so deeply, it doesn't matter if you haven't seen the movie.
Read the book first, then see the movie. They actually make the other better.

I know the plot only by reading a literature critic's article on the books. I like them very much because I could know about Jewish people's lives in the U.S. and the conflict of their traditional ideology and with American life.People here can seldom get books written by Jewish American writers, so I am thinking of by some now.

There's a staggering range of emotion here: from apocalyptic doom, to fearful survival, to irascible and choleric comedy, to wrenching simplicity of striving towards good, and bringing about a cataclysm. Humanity or, better still, human history personified... God's Grace is like Swift's Gulliver's travels: simple enough to captivate a casual reader, deep enough to drown a philosopher. A moving masterpiece.

This book is a delightful tragicomedy that mixes elements of Robinson Crusoe and the Book Genesis built upon a tastefully disguised post-modern stage.

The paleontologist Cohn is the sole human survivor of the nuclear holocaust. Together with a chimp, Buz, he lands upon an uninhabited island. The chimp has an implant that enables human communication. More monkeys appear. Cohn tries to establish a society. Having studied for the rabbinate Cohn teaches his Judaic world-view, but faces opposition from Buz whose previous human companion thought him the principles of Christianity. Cohn tries to recreate the monkeys in his own image, and goes as far as formulating his own set of seven commandments and creating his own addition to the scheme of evolution. But alas, paradise is lost again.

While it is not surprising that previous reviewers have mostly focused on the religious aspects involved in the story -too bad that anti-Semitism always lurks right around the corner- this short novel is way beyond a satire of religion. Using a very light and smooth writing style Malamud presents the reader with a narrative in which humor, horror, grace and mystery blend seamlessly. A modern classic.

Calvin Cohn, a Jewish paleontologist, son of a rabbi, is the only human survivor of a thermonuclear disaster. He has to content himself with the company of a few chimps and baboons. God is responsible for this second flood and He blames humans for destroying nature; Cohn has survived due to an error and he is let to live and make the best he can. In this scenario of desolation, Cohn becomes a god-like creature, he believes he can recreate the world, impose a new social order based on high moral and spiritual values, hard working, order, aiming to turn his fellow chimps into a better lot than humans. Amongst the chimps there is "Buz", a Christian who has been taught how to speak, sweet "Mary Madelyn" the only reproductive female of the group, "Esau" the nonconformist, a mysterious albino ape, and the cast-out gorilla "George" who is enchanted by the cantor's singing...

This a novel heavy in meanings, in the use of parables, fables and allegories. Following Malamud's pessimistic outlook on human nature, Cohn is just one more of his characters standing in a long line of losers, an individual who fears his fate and becomes the object of ridicule and pity. In his disguised reincarnation of Adam, Moses, and finally Christ, Cohn symbolizes the necessity of gaining moral wisdom through suffering. In a metaphorical language and fantastic-like "Chagall" prose, Malamud creates a thought-disturbing novel, an account of human nature fragile standing, and a celebration to its strenghts as well as a lament to its weaknesses.

"The Tenants" tells the story of a writer labouring to complete a novel which he has been struggling over for the past 10 years. He is involved in this sublime act of producing his best work in a dilapidated building of which he is the sole tenant. He stays there much to the chagrin of it's troubled owner who is eager to demolish it. The situation gets worse as a black writer sneaks into the building and starts his literary pursuit.

The novel presents deftly how racial hatred overcomes the most civilized of beings. The white writer is apparently devoid of any racial considerations especially in contrast to Willie, whose entire being emanates hatred for non-black people. Still, we see the former being influenced by them without his knowledge. By falling in love with Irene he is in a way trying to possess a female member of his race who somehow looks out of place in the company of a black. His love is sincere, but he fails to defend it from being contaminated.

The novel portrays the tragedy of art. We see the superhuman efforts of the writer to transcend base passions on the wings of universal art meet with ultimate destruction in the hands of a society decaying physically, morally and conscientiously.

Malamud has written this novel in a crisp, short manner. The author uses symbolism very effectively to present the pitiable state of the environment where creativity struggles to lift its head. The deprecated and dirty building, the inflammated bladders of Irene, the tragedy-struck family of Lievenspiel, the black girl who could never experience orgasm, the foul mouthed Willie and his friends, all these clearly cut the shape of the frigid truths of an apparently successful and contented society. The book sees man and society and so do who read it.

Set in a decaying Manhattan tenement waiting to be condemned, "The Tenants" tells the story of a white novelist desperately trying to finish his novel before the wrecking ball comes down on him. Things get complicated when an aspiring African-American writer moves in and a rivalry begins.