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The Tenants of Moonbloom (1963)

by Edward Lewis Wallant

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330678,167 (3.92)16
Norman Moonbloom is a loser, a drop-out who can't even make it as a deadbeat. His brother, a slumlord, hires him to collect rent in the buildings he owns in Manhattan. Making his rounds from apartment to apartment, Moonbloom confronts a wildly varied assortment of brilliantly described urban characters, among them a gay jazz musician with a sideline as a gigolo, a Holocaust survivor, and a brilliant young black writer modeled on James Baldwin. Moonbloom hears their cries of outrage and abuse; he learns about their secret sorrows and desires. And as he grows familiar with their stories, he finds that he is drawn, in spite of his best judgment, into a desperate attempt to improve their lives. Edward Lewis Wallant's astonishing comic tour de force is a neglected masterpiece of 1960s America.… (more)
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English (4)  Spanish (2)  All languages (6)
Showing 4 of 4
With twelve years of college behind him and no degree to show for it Norman Moonbloom goes to work for his slumlord brother managing apartment buildings in New York City. He collects the rent, cash only, hears complaints, listens to his tenants and observes them and their lives.

Soon he becomes increasingly involved in their lives, caught up their squabbles. The buildings are squalid and his brother won’t spend money on maintenance. Norman soon takes matters into his own hands and engages in a frenzy of cleaning, painting, tiling and plastering with the help of the slothful and underpaid super. Norman wants to make everything right in that little world and when his task is complete he knows he will be fired. ( )
  Hagelstein | Mar 23, 2023 |
Il Club del Libro / DRS
Libro del mese Aprile 2019

Tema del mese
Giallo/Thriller ( )
  JaqJaq | Jan 7, 2022 |
Hilarious and way underappreciated. This is an eccentric cousin of Confederacy of Dunces; you know the type -- myriad partners, straddling the fence as it were, some messy business with a tax-dodge start-up, that one weird holiday when the tequila ghostwrote his version of middle school and what really happened at swimming practice.

Yeah this is that off-shoot and it remains profound and side-splitting. ( )
  jonfaith | Feb 22, 2019 |


Liked this a lot. Hope to revisit it again someday. ( )
1 vote darby3 | Mar 29, 2013 |
Showing 4 of 4
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Lashed in the twisted phone wire, Norman was a victim of his own tendency to fool around, but, finally anchored, he became quiet.
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Norman Moonbloom is a loser, a drop-out who can't even make it as a deadbeat. His brother, a slumlord, hires him to collect rent in the buildings he owns in Manhattan. Making his rounds from apartment to apartment, Moonbloom confronts a wildly varied assortment of brilliantly described urban characters, among them a gay jazz musician with a sideline as a gigolo, a Holocaust survivor, and a brilliant young black writer modeled on James Baldwin. Moonbloom hears their cries of outrage and abuse; he learns about their secret sorrows and desires. And as he grows familiar with their stories, he finds that he is drawn, in spite of his best judgment, into a desperate attempt to improve their lives. Edward Lewis Wallant's astonishing comic tour de force is a neglected masterpiece of 1960s America.

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