November 23, 2006

Book 47: The Magic Barrel

The Magic Barrel
Bernard Malamud

This book of short stories is so profoundly affecting that it ranks up there with many novels I've read. I can only imagine what Malamud's novels are like. It's an odd way to start a review, perhaps, but Malamud's skill in handling human emotion makes this collection stand out from other literature I've read. I haven't read a lot of short stories and I don't claim to be an authority on them by any means, but I think it would be hard for any writer to match Malamud's immense talent in the short form. Instead of finding himself limited by the small page counts (some stories are only eight pages long), Malamud uses exactly the amount of space he needs, often providing stark endings that leave the reader in somehow satisfying suspension.

The only shortcoming I could sense in this collection is that it is, in a way, too coherent. Malamud's stories have a basic form to them, in that there is often a conflict between two characters, one of whom needs to learn something from the other. While I found myself asking, "Okay, who is going to get in the fight here?" as I neared the end of the collection, Malamud's variety of stories and ability to mix things up within his form managed to keep me interested. His characters are easily distinguishable, and while their experiences fit a frame, they are by no means similar. We have Jews and Gentiles, immigrants and natives, dead and alive but all with a spectacular spark of life to them. I can imagine these characters, whose flaws make them interesting and surprisingly real.

Malamud tackles some big issues in this collection but doesn't preach about them. He raises questions while subtly posing answers, which come in the form of thinking about the questions in the first place. His most interesting stories are the ones that deal with the legacy of the Holocaust for American Jews, particularly "The Last Mohican" and "The Lady of the Lake". Both of these stories take on different angles of American Jewry's attitude towards the Holocaust, and it is a shockingly searing condemnation. Malamud manages to be provoking without being bitter and asks as much of the reader as he appears to be asking himself in writing these stories.

I would highly recommend this collection to anyone who wants to read to feel deep empathy, for anyone who doubts the power of words and the limited length of the short story. Malamud has mastered the form. His endings are stark like Hemingway but, as I found in A Farewell to Arms, still profoundly affecting. We don't know what his characters are to do next, but neither do they. They remain suspended in time and the questions remain looming, yet strangely fulfilling.

Grade: A

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