TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/112089/11208900.079

Text File | 1990-09-19 | 4KB | 69 lines

BOOKS, Page 106

Underdogs


    THE PEOPLE AND UNCOLLECTED STORIES
    by Bernard Malamud

    Farrar, Straus & Giroux/269 pages; $18.95

    In a 1968 story called An Exorcism, Bernard Malamud wrote of
Eli Fogel, a middle-aged author suddenly saddled with a young
acolyte named Gary Simson. Fogel enjoys the veneration, up to a
point; his work has garnered moderate recognition and less money.
But Simson's relentless requests for advice, tips on writing and
letters of recommendation distract Fogel from his own efforts, in
this case his slow progress in finishing another novel: "Perfection
comes hard to an imperfectionist. He had visions of himself dying
before the book was completed. It was a terrible thought: Fogel
seated at the table, staring at his manuscript, pen in hand, the
page ending in a blot."

    With hindsight this passage seems chilling. An Exorcism was
not included among the 25 works in The Stories of Bernard Malamud
(1983). But it appears in this posthumous collection, along with
The People, a novel interrupted in its 17th chapter by Malamud's
death in 1986.

    In its truncated and unrevised form, The People will add little
to Malamud's reputation, which hardly needs embellishment in any
case. His novels, including The Natural and The Assistant, and
books of stories such as The Magic Barrel and Idiots First long ago
established his place among the best postwar American writers. This
triumph was not easily won. Malamud never catered to popular tastes
or expectations. His fiction was often as grim as it was
enchanting. He wrote, and rewrote, slowly, with consummate care.

    Unhappily denied such attentions, The People is a rough draft
of the novel it might have become. The year is 1870, and Yozip
Bloom, a Russian immigrant and itinerant Jewish peddler, roams the
Pacific Northwest. He is kidnaped by an Indian tribe that calls
itself the People. For reasons not entirely clear, Yozip has been
singled out as the spokesman, Yiddish-inflected English and all,
who will defend the rights of the People against the perfidious,
treaty-breaking whites.

    In outline this story is pure Malamud. It sets a sympathetic
vision of the underdogs and downtrodden against a backdrop of myth
and spacious possibilities. When the narrative breaks off, the good
guys are losing, a situation that is also typical of its author.
But in the notes he left for the remaining four chapters, Malamud
outlined a way for Yozip to be of further, and possibly victorious,
service to those who had adopted him.

    The best part of this volume can be found in the 16 stories
following the unfinished novel. Five have never been published, and
the rest were never collected in hard covers. It is difficult to
imagine why not. Malamud hit his stride early, writing stories of
old men trying to preserve their dignity amid the shambles of harsh
circumstances. In The Literary Life of Laban Goldman, an elderly
Jew attends night school to improve his English and get away from
his nagging wife; he experiences a brief moment of triumph when the
Brooklyn Eagle publishes his letter to the editor urging a
relaxation of New York State divorce laws. The Grocery Store evokes
the atmosphere in which the author, the son of a grocer, grew up
in Brooklyn.

    Almost alone among his contemporaries, Malamud was equally
gifted at the novel and short story. In some moods he preferred the
short form: "In a few pages a good story portrays the complexity
of a life while producing the surprise and effect of knowledge --
not a bad payoff." All the stories salvaged here are good, and so
is the payoff.