Morris Bober is an aging Jewish grocer in a poor neighborhood of immigrants in post-war Brooklyn. Amidst greed, competition, and modernism, he struggles to keep his small business afloat. Despite the long hours he puts in with the dedication of an ant, he is losing the fight. His wife becomes cynical and believes a good marriage for the daughter, Helen, is the only way out of their poverty. Helen, on the other hand, only wants an education.

Frank Alpine, a young homeless Italian immigrant, turns up and manages to convince Morris to hire him as assistant in the store. Frank has a secret, and unbeknownst to the Bobers, he is there to “pay his debt.” He is determined, ambitious, hardworking, and strives to live a morally correct life, but he is dogged by his demons. Between the comings and goings in the deteriorating store, tensions increase as Frank and Helen become romantically involved. With the continuing decline of the business and the neighborhood, a quiet desperation settles, and each withdraws even more into him/herself, almost as if existed merely to await the impending doom.

Although there is some melodrama involved (one misfortune begetting another almost no end), I find the novel very compelling. The story is about disillusionment, fear, loyalty, hope and courage. It is also about having a second chance, a rebirth. Nothing grand or spectacular happens here, our characters are small people, the silent ones, whose lives are a grind, depressing even. But goodness, we realize, continue to exist amidst bleakness and isolation, and grace triumphs.

There are plenty of insights to be had from this novel, yet Malamud is able to expertly frame the story without moralizing. The story is very absorbing too, it was quite hard to put it down. This was my first Malamud and definitely not my last! ( )

This is the first book I've read by Malamud, and I found it quite compelling. At first the characterizations seemed somewhat stereotypical, but what is stereogype other than a partial reflection of the truth. What drove me through the novel was the transformation of the character (Frank), and the complexification of the character (Morris). Underneath the stereotypes of these men, and the women as well, there is a spiritual battle, that is nicely resolved in the destiny, or is it fate, that Frank effects. Perhaps it is so telling because we assign to the Jews a spiritual journey that is only informed by either the Holocaust, the Christian perspective, or the perspective of the Torah. It is Ida that functions as the Torah, always setting a moral boundry, and it is Helen who functions as Moses, always attempting to reach the promised land. Fundamental to all of this is the mandatory hospitality that is owed to the stranger - something that the righteous man (Morris) and the law (Ida) circle about, giving a sense of rabbinic casuistry and interpretation. That the stranger (Frank) embodies so many moralities makes the stew all that much richer. That these spiritual perspectives are embodied in the drudgery of a poor grocery store, and the lives that are ensnared there, is the genius of Malamud's prose and storytelling. ( )

I read this for 4th quarter
read 264 pages
The main character Morris Bober, who is a grocer in Brooklyn wants to better his familys life. Things start out bad for Morris when he is robbed, and then life improves when he hires Frank Alpine to become his Assistant. Alpine is quit a character since he falls in love with Bobers daughter Helen, and he starts to steal from the store. This story is good at showing an immigrant world. ( )

After the owner of a small grocery store gets robbed and struck on the head, his shop suffers in sales with him having to rest in bed until healed, until a young man comes along and takes the job of clerk until the owner can get back on his feet.

Morris, the shopkeeper, is a Jewish man who has worked his entire life keeping his grocery store afloat, and his newfound clerk, Frank, is a gentile, who, as Morris is unaware, helped with the robbery that had given poor Morris his head injury. Frank worked to improve the store, gaining back customers who had been lost over the ages, as well as repaying his share of the money stolen from Morris. His eye, too, catches on Morris' daughter, Helen, though she initially avoids him on account of his gentile nature.

One of Time Magazine's all-time 100 novels, The Assistant paints a picture of urban Jewish life, and shows that for a man struggling to make ends meet, there seems to be a neverending stream of misery and disappointment. Morris just wants to have business pick up, or find a buyer for the store, but neither of those seem to happen, or if they do seem to start happening, they taper off before they get too beneficial.

This book provides a slice of the hard city life, and it does so well. It tends to jump around from one point-of-view to another, but while it may be momentarily upsetting, does not make for an unenjoyable read.

I'd recommend this book for fans of Michael Chabon, or quite possibly any book written in the 50s about New York City. ( )

What a fantastic book! The story of an immigrant, Jewish storekeeper and his family is so well written I could not put it down. Not an uplifting book but an account of how it was for many immigrants trying to everything they could to keep alive and to better their children. A great story of the human experience. ( )