What are you reading the week of December 5, 2015?
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1fredbacon
Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American author of novels and short stories. Along with Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseball novel, The Natural, was adapted into a 1984 film starring Robert Redford. His 1966 novel The Fixer (also filmed), about antisemitism in Tsarist Russia, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Bernard Malamud was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Bertha (née Fidelman) and Max Malamud, Russian Jewish immigrants. A brother, Eugene, was born in 1917. Malamud entered adolescence at the start of the Great Depression. From 1928 to 1932, Bernard attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. During his youth, he saw many films and enjoyed relating their plots to his school friends. He was especially fond of Charlie Chaplin's comedies. Malamud worked for a year at $4.50 a day as a teacher-in-training, before attending college on a government loan. He received his B.A. degree from City College of New York in 1936. In 1942, he obtained a master's degree from Columbia University, writing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. He was excused from military service in World War II because he was the sole support of his widowed mother. He first worked for the Bureau of the Census in Washington D.C., then taught English in New York, mostly high school night classes for adults.
Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman composition each semester at Oregon State University (OSU), an experience fictionalized in his 1961 novel A New Life. Because he lacked the Ph.D., he was not allowed to teach literature courses, and for a number of years his rank was that of instructor. In those days, OSU, a land grant university, placed little emphasis on the teaching of humanities or the writing of fiction. While at OSU, he devoted 3 days out of every week to his writing, and gradually emerged as a major American author. In 1961, he left OSU to teach creative writing at Bennington College, a position he held until retirement. In 1967, he was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 – March 20, 2007), an Italian-American Roman Catholic, and a 1939 Cornell University graduate. They married on November 6, 1945, despite the opposition of their respective parents. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. Ann and Bernard had two children, Paul (b. 1947) and Janna (b. 1952). Janna Malamud Smith is the author of a memoir about her father, titled My Father is a Book.
Raised Jewish, Malamud was in adulthood an agnostic humanist.
Malamud died in Manhattan in 1986, at the age of 71.
Malamud wrote slowly and carefully; he was not especially prolific. He is the author of eight novels and four collections of short stories. The posthumously published Collected Stories contains 65 short stories and is 629 pages long. Maxim Lieber served as his literary agent in 1942 and 1945.
He completed his first novel, The Light Sleeper, in 1948, but later burned the manuscript. His first published novel was The Natural (1952), which has become one of his best remembered and most symbolic works. The story traces the life of Roy Hobbs, an unknown middle-aged baseball player who achieves legendary status with his stellar talent. This novel was made into a 1984 movie starring Robert Redford (described by the film writer David Thomson as "poor baseball and worse Malamud").
Malamud’s second novel, The Assistant (1957), set in New York and drawing on Malamud's own childhood, is an account of the life of Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Although he is struggling financially, Bober takes in a drifter of dubious character.
In 1967, his novel The Fixer, about anti-semitism in Tsarist Russia, won the both the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His other novels include Dubin's Lives, a powerful evocation of middle age which uses biography to recreate the narrative richness of its protagonists' lives, and The Tenants, an arguably meta-narrative on Malamud's own writing and creative struggles, which, set in New York, deals with racial issues and the emergence of black/African American literature in the American 1970s landscape.
The Magic Barrel was his first published collection of short stories (1958) and won Malamud the first of two National Book Awards that he received in his lifetime. Most of the stories depict the search for hope and meaning within the bleak enclosures of poor urban settings. The title story focuses on the unlikely relationship of Leo Finkle, an unmarried rabbinical student, and Pinye Salzman, a colorful marriage broker. Finkle has spent most of life with his nose buried in books and therefore isn’t well-educated in life itself. However, Finkle has a greater interest – the art of romance. He engages the services of Salzman, who shows Finkle a number of potential brides from his "magic barrel" but with each picture Finkle grows more uninterested. After Salzman convinces him to meet Lily Hirschorn, Finkle realizes his life is truly empty and lacking the passion to love God or humanity. When Finkle discovers a picture of Salzman’s daughter and sees her suffering, he sets out on a new mission to save her. Other well-known stories included in the collection are: "The Last Mohican", "Angel Levine", "The First Seven Years", and "The Mourners". This last story focuses on Kessler, the defiant old man in need of "social security" and Gruber, the belligerent landlord who doesn't want Kessler in the tenement anymore.
Malamud’s fiction touches lightly upon mythic elements and explores themes like isolation, class, and the conflict between bourgeois and artistic values.
Bernard Malamud was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Bertha (née Fidelman) and Max Malamud, Russian Jewish immigrants. A brother, Eugene, was born in 1917. Malamud entered adolescence at the start of the Great Depression. From 1928 to 1932, Bernard attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. During his youth, he saw many films and enjoyed relating their plots to his school friends. He was especially fond of Charlie Chaplin's comedies. Malamud worked for a year at $4.50 a day as a teacher-in-training, before attending college on a government loan. He received his B.A. degree from City College of New York in 1936. In 1942, he obtained a master's degree from Columbia University, writing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. He was excused from military service in World War II because he was the sole support of his widowed mother. He first worked for the Bureau of the Census in Washington D.C., then taught English in New York, mostly high school night classes for adults.
Starting in 1949, Malamud taught four sections of freshman composition each semester at Oregon State University (OSU), an experience fictionalized in his 1961 novel A New Life. Because he lacked the Ph.D., he was not allowed to teach literature courses, and for a number of years his rank was that of instructor. In those days, OSU, a land grant university, placed little emphasis on the teaching of humanities or the writing of fiction. While at OSU, he devoted 3 days out of every week to his writing, and gradually emerged as a major American author. In 1961, he left OSU to teach creative writing at Bennington College, a position he held until retirement. In 1967, he was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1942, Malamud met Ann De Chiara (November 1, 1917 – March 20, 2007), an Italian-American Roman Catholic, and a 1939 Cornell University graduate. They married on November 6, 1945, despite the opposition of their respective parents. Ann typed his manuscripts and reviewed his writing. Ann and Bernard had two children, Paul (b. 1947) and Janna (b. 1952). Janna Malamud Smith is the author of a memoir about her father, titled My Father is a Book.
Raised Jewish, Malamud was in adulthood an agnostic humanist.
Malamud died in Manhattan in 1986, at the age of 71.
Malamud wrote slowly and carefully; he was not especially prolific. He is the author of eight novels and four collections of short stories. The posthumously published Collected Stories contains 65 short stories and is 629 pages long. Maxim Lieber served as his literary agent in 1942 and 1945.
He completed his first novel, The Light Sleeper, in 1948, but later burned the manuscript. His first published novel was The Natural (1952), which has become one of his best remembered and most symbolic works. The story traces the life of Roy Hobbs, an unknown middle-aged baseball player who achieves legendary status with his stellar talent. This novel was made into a 1984 movie starring Robert Redford (described by the film writer David Thomson as "poor baseball and worse Malamud").
Malamud’s second novel, The Assistant (1957), set in New York and drawing on Malamud's own childhood, is an account of the life of Morris Bober, a Jewish immigrant who owns a grocery store in Brooklyn. Although he is struggling financially, Bober takes in a drifter of dubious character.
In 1967, his novel The Fixer, about anti-semitism in Tsarist Russia, won the both the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His other novels include Dubin's Lives, a powerful evocation of middle age which uses biography to recreate the narrative richness of its protagonists' lives, and The Tenants, an arguably meta-narrative on Malamud's own writing and creative struggles, which, set in New York, deals with racial issues and the emergence of black/African American literature in the American 1970s landscape.
The Magic Barrel was his first published collection of short stories (1958) and won Malamud the first of two National Book Awards that he received in his lifetime. Most of the stories depict the search for hope and meaning within the bleak enclosures of poor urban settings. The title story focuses on the unlikely relationship of Leo Finkle, an unmarried rabbinical student, and Pinye Salzman, a colorful marriage broker. Finkle has spent most of life with his nose buried in books and therefore isn’t well-educated in life itself. However, Finkle has a greater interest – the art of romance. He engages the services of Salzman, who shows Finkle a number of potential brides from his "magic barrel" but with each picture Finkle grows more uninterested. After Salzman convinces him to meet Lily Hirschorn, Finkle realizes his life is truly empty and lacking the passion to love God or humanity. When Finkle discovers a picture of Salzman’s daughter and sees her suffering, he sets out on a new mission to save her. Other well-known stories included in the collection are: "The Last Mohican", "Angel Levine", "The First Seven Years", and "The Mourners". This last story focuses on Kessler, the defiant old man in need of "social security" and Gruber, the belligerent landlord who doesn't want Kessler in the tenement anymore.
Malamud’s fiction touches lightly upon mythic elements and explores themes like isolation, class, and the conflict between bourgeois and artistic values.
- The Natural (1952)
- The Assistant (1957)
- The Magic Barrel (1958)
- A New Life (1961)
- Idiots First (1963)
- The Fixer (1966)
- Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition (1969)
- The Tenants (1971)
- Rembrandt's Hat (1974)
- Dubin's Lives (1979)
- God's Grace (1982)
- The Stories of Bernard Malamud (1983)
- The People and Uncollected Stories (includes the unfinished novel The People) (1989)
- The Complete Stories (1997)
2charl08
I'm reading Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink the autobiography of Elvis Costello. It's jumping around a lot, but he's packing in a lot of interesting celebrity name dropping and stories about being young in Liverpool, so I'm persisting.
3LivelyLady
Just finished KILLING REAGAN by Bill O'Reilly. Only read it for a book group discussion. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the info and the way the author presented it. His facts were dense so it was not a quick read. I will eat more by this author!
4dianeham
I am reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson.
5rocketjk
Thanks for the weekly start! I love Malamud's writing. I read The Natural in high school. My HS English teacher represented it as Malamud's attempt to recreate Greek drama via baseball. At any rate, if your only exposure to this story is via the movie, for which long gulag terms should have been imposed, in my opinion, I urge you to read the novel.
Speaking of great classic literature (ha!), I am reading and enjoying Frederick Forsyth's Cold War thriller, The Fourth Protocol.
Speaking of great classic literature (ha!), I am reading and enjoying Frederick Forsyth's Cold War thriller, The Fourth Protocol.
6NarratorLady
About to begin My Brilliant Friend even though it was recommended by a friend who hasn't always proved reliable book-wise. But Jhumpa Lahiri has written a blurb calling it "an unconditional masterpiece" and that's good enough for me!
7richardderus
Thank you again, Fred, for the weekly threads! I know how much work it is.
8seitherin
Still reading Matter by Iain M. Banks and The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way by Bill Bryson.
9buffalopoet
Just read the first few essays in Distrust That Particular Flavor by William Gibson - enjoying them, and anybody who came of age at the same time the internet did (email was this crazy but newly-available-to-students thing my freshman year of college in 1985), nostalgic and thought-provoking. And fun!
10mollygrace
I finished Evie Wyld's After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, a wise, incredibly moving novel about the damage done to young men in war, how that pain effects the lives of future generations -- a kind of "inherited pain", as one reviewer called it. Another review I read commented on Wyld's fascination with men "who commit appalling acts but are not appalling people." It is a disturbing, dark, yet funny, compassionate, healing story. I've now read both of Evie Wyld's books -- the other is All the Birds, Singing -- and admired them both. I look forward to the next.
I'm now reading Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles.
I'm now reading Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles.
11fredbacon
>7 richardderus: It's not a problem. I enjoy doing it. It satisfies a personal need for stability. :-)
Having said that, I do have a minor problem. In two weeks, I'm going to be traveling back to Arkansas to visit my family for the holidays. I won't have internet access that weekend. Is there someone who can take on the responsibility of starting the thread for December 19th? It would just need to be that one weekend.
Now for my week's reading. There has been very little of it. I've had too much to do at work, and my doctor and I have been experimenting with a different combination of medications. It's left me in a kind of itchy emotional state that makes sitting still and reading difficult. One day, I will finish the book I've been stuck on for the past three weeks.
Having said that, I do have a minor problem. In two weeks, I'm going to be traveling back to Arkansas to visit my family for the holidays. I won't have internet access that weekend. Is there someone who can take on the responsibility of starting the thread for December 19th? It would just need to be that one weekend.
Now for my week's reading. There has been very little of it. I've had too much to do at work, and my doctor and I have been experimenting with a different combination of medications. It's left me in a kind of itchy emotional state that makes sitting still and reading difficult. One day, I will finish the book I've been stuck on for the past three weeks.
14Halcy0n
I just finished Around the World in 80 Days, and now I'm reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
15dianeham
>11 fredbacon: i'm willing to start the topic for you. I'm fairly new to LT but I thnk I can handle it.
16framboise
Finished the silly, light-hearted, rare chick-lit by a guy, Crazy Rich Asians which was about 200 pages too long. Entertaining for the first half. Needless to say, I won't continue the series.
Now I get to start The Martian which is waiting for me on my kindle. I raved about the movie when I saw it in October. Hope the book isn't too scientific in the details for a lay person.
Now I get to start The Martian which is waiting for me on my kindle. I raved about the movie when I saw it in October. Hope the book isn't too scientific in the details for a lay person.
17fredbacon
>15 dianeham: You're hired! Do you know how to start a new top and make a link to it so that people can find it?
19sebago
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. Not sure how I missed this one when it came out years ago.. but I am enjoying very much! :)
20snash
I finally paid attention to the many accolades for The Boys in the Boat Glad I did since it is a superb book. As the book explains, to row an 8 man scull well involves much more than 8 men rowing, and this book is much more than the story of a trip to the Olympics.
21dianeham
There is a button for a new topic, yes? And there is a link on the botton of the old topic to link to the new one? Is there an author you want be to put in the first post?
22fredbacon
>21 dianeham: I don't have any author in mind. You can pick a favorite author of your own, or not post a biography at all if you wish. I generally look for someone with a bio on wikipedia that isn't too long or too short. I'll then edit the article down to avoid it being too long.
24jnwelch
Girl Waits with Gun was a good - thriller? It's based on a true story, much to my surprise.
Just started The Tournament at Gorlan, a new one in the Ranger's Apprentice series, and I have Doctorow's World's Fair teed up.
Just started The Tournament at Gorlan, a new one in the Ranger's Apprentice series, and I have Doctorow's World's Fair teed up.
25Steph310
I'm reading some Neal Stephenson myself - Cryptonomicon. I read a review somewhere that said it's a modern War and Peace, but I don't think so. I read about half of War and Peace, and had to put it down because it was hitting a bit too close to home at the time. Cryptonomicon is patterned after War and Peace, but Stephenson isn't quite the author Leo Tolstoy is. It's still a good read though.
27grkmwk
It's been a few weeks since I made it onto LT, but I'm still reading The Way of Kings. It's very good, but as I've found with other epic fantasy reads, I need big chunks of time to settle into the story before I can pick up my reading pace, and what with the holidays, that just isn't happening as often as I'd like. Ah well, it's still enjoyable!
I also started two new books for the Advent/Christmas season: The Greatest Gift and The Christmas Letters.
I also started two new books for the Advent/Christmas season: The Greatest Gift and The Christmas Letters.
30mollygrace
Paolo Giordano's Like Family arrived in yesterday's mail and I read it last night, perhaps too quickly. There's a lot going on in that small (144 pages) book, much to think about.
I'm still reading Jane Bowles' Two Serious Ladies.
I'm still reading Jane Bowles' Two Serious Ladies.
31ahef1963
It took a week, but I just finished reading Sally Bedell Smith's Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch. It was fascinating reading.
I've been flattened by the flu, but once I feel better I'm going to read The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo.
I've been flattened by the flu, but once I feel better I'm going to read The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo.
32dianeham
>31 ahef1963: I had to stop reading Nesbo, the detective was just too self-destructive.
33cdyankeefan
I've had a good reading week. I finished Gold Fame Citrus which was odd but oddly compelling. I then finished Uciest Girl Alive which I have mixed feelings about. I have since started The Good Lck Girls of Shipwreck Lane a reread for my book club and also started The Wind Up Bird Chronicle
34framboise
Almost done with Someone Else's Twin by Nancy L. Segal, a prominent and respected researcher in twin studies who is herself a twin. This book concentrates on one case of switched-at-birth twins involving a pair of identical twin girls and a single non-twin which took place in the Canary Islands. A very in-depth look at the psychological, biological, legal and familial aspects of these types of separations on all the parties involved. Also highlights other similar cases, of which only a handful or so have been reported.
35mynovelthoughts
I just finished The Lowland which was a beautiful novel; I love stories that take place in India or are about Indians . Next up is Jamrach's Menagerie.
36Meredy
I'm close to finishing The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading, by Phyllis Rose, which is very much a writer's book as well as a reader's book.
37figsfromthistle
I am reading The Flanders Panel, by Arturo Perez-Reverte.
39Meredy
>35 mynovelthoughts:, >38 rocketjk: I seldom give five stars, but that one got five from me when I read it two years ago. [ review ]
40jnwelch
I'm reading World's Fair by Doctorow, and just picked up The Tokaido Road by Lucia St. Clair Robson.
41nancyewhite
>26 dianeham: I am interested to hear your opinion on Beatlebone. I saw it on the New York Times Best of 2015 list and was intrigued.
42framboise
Reading Everything I Never Told You which has been on my list for over a year. Good so far.
44dianeham
>41 nancyewhite: beatlebone was excellent but I couldn't read it when I was tired. It's not a book you read for plot but it's a beautiful book.
46snash
I finished a LTER, Good People, a collection of short stories. They're stream of consciousness, a rambling of what goes on in the head, at least some of the time. Some are almost like prose poems. While I didn't find a deeper revelation in all of them, some were quite striking.
