Awards
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction 1959
Synopses & Reviews
Winner of the National Book Award for Fiction Introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri
Bernard Malamud's first book of short stories, The Magic Barrel, has been recognized as a classic from the time it was published in 1959. The stories are set in New York and in Italy (where Malamud's alter ego, the struggleing New York Jewish Painter Arthur Fidelman, roams amid the ruins of old Europe in search of his artistic patrimony); they tell of egg candlers and shoemakers, matchmakers, and rabbis, in a voice that blends vigorous urban realism, Yiddish idiom, and a dash of artistic magic.
The Magic Barrel is a book about New York and about the immigrant experience, and it is high point in the modern American short story. Few books of any kind have managed to depict struggle and frustration and heartbreak with such delight, or such artistry.
Review
"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 noctures." Partisan Review
Review
"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." The Chicago Tribune
Synopsis
Introduction by Jhumpa Lahiri.
Bernard Malamud's first book of short stories, The Magic Barrel, has been recognized as a classic from the time it was published in 1959. The stories are set in New York and in Italy (where Malamud's alter ego, the struggleing New York Jewish Painter Arthur Fidelman, roams amid the ruins of old Europe in search of his artistic patrimony); they tell of egg candlers and shoemakers, matchmakers, and rabbis, in a voice that blends vigorous urban realism, Yiddish idiom, and a dash of artistic magic.
The Magic Barrel is a book about New York and about the immigrant experience, and it is high point in the modern American short story. Few books of any kind have managed to depict struggle and frustration and heartbreak with such delight, or such artistry.
About the Author
Bernard Malamud (1914-1986) also wrote eight novels, he won the Pulitzer Prize and a second National Book award for
The Fixer. Born in Brooklyn, he taught for many years at Bennington College in Vermont.
Table of Contents
The first seven years -- The mourners -- The girl of my dreams -- Angel Levine -- Behold the key -- Take pity -- The prison -- The Lady of the Lake -- A summer's reading -- The bill -- The last Mohican -- The loan -- The magic barrel.