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Sign up todayBernard Malamud Reading “The Mourners” from The Magic Barrel
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Learn more"The Mourners" comes from Malamud's National Book Award–winning collection, The Magic Barrel, about poor immigrant Jews—grocers, tailors, janitors, cobblers—whose suffering transcends the particular to become universal. Set in a cheap rooming house whose landlord and janitor join forces to evict a poor and aged Jewish tenant, the story ends with Gruber, the landlord, morally transformed by the sight of his tenant's misery. As compassion replaces cruelty, the two men mourn together. In Malamud's reading, the sudden descent of grace on the adversaries emerges with poignant force.
Bernard Malamud (1914–1986) was an American author of novels and short stories. Born in Brooklyn and educated at Columbia University, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the twentieth century. His 1966 novel The Fixer, about anti-Semitism in czarist Russia, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He also authored many short stories, winning a National Book Award for his collection The Magic Barrel. He was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction in 183. He taught English at Oregon State University from 1949 to 1961.
Bernard Malamud (1914–1986) was an American author of novels and short stories. Born in Brooklyn and educated at Columbia University, he was one of the great American Jewish authors of the twentieth century. His 1966 novel The Fixer, about anti-Semitism in czarist Russia, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He also authored many short stories, winning a National Book Award for his collection The Magic Barrel. He was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Fiction in 183. He taught English at Oregon State University from 1949 to 1961.
Reviews
“In the short story, Malamud achieved an almost psalm-like compression. He has been called the Jewish Hawthorne, but he might just as well be thought a Jewish Chopin, a prose composer of preludes and nocturnes.”
“There are thirteen stories in The Magic Barrel and every one of them is a small, highly individualized work of art. This is the kind of book that calls for not admiration but gratitude.”
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