The Magic Barrel: Stories
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.
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Community Reviews
I had read A New Life prior to this but had incredibly hazy memory of it. I had only a general positive impression, and I planned to reread it. But then I saw this on a used bookstore's shelf for a few dollars and decided to try it, again not having that much specific in mind about what to expect other than that he is generally a good writer. I knew he was Jewish but didn't realize how much that influences his writing. I say this because every single story in the book is centered around Jewishness and the Jewish immigrant experience. I generally find it interesting, but 13 stories in a row about it doesn't leave a lot of room for variety. I liked some of them, but I worry that the ones I did not like were disappoints to me simply because I was growing tired of meeting yet another character going through marriage matchmaking or being traumatized by the holocaust (which was particularly recent given this was written in the 50s). There are multiple stories dealing with the conflict between the obligation to be charitable and the cultural value of refusing charity. Every story deals in some way with people lost and alienated in a gentile world. I think 3 of them dealth with some form of matchmaking. Almost all of them dealt with poverty. Oddly, only one of them had that much to do with interactions between the Jewish characters and the non-Jewish world, and even that was minimal. When you read a novel, these themes might show up repeatedly, but they typically do so in more varied ways (which is ironic since it is theoretically all the same plot). But for me in particular, I don't personally relate to the characters because I am not from that culture, and I have already encountered quite a bit of art of various media so I wasn't really learning anything new. If anything, a lot of the characters and situations and dialogue came off as very cliche, though I suppose that could be an issue of influence by Malamud rather than on him. But the plots in general were all fairly predictable.
Three of the stories are at least set in a different country, Italy, which did help with the variety issue, and actually those 3 were all among the best stories. The language in all the stories was great - he is a very solid writer. I think humor might have helped a bit, but generally I just found the stories to be bland.
Three of the stories are at least set in a different country, Italy, which did help with the variety issue, and actually those 3 were all among the best stories. The language in all the stories was great - he is a very solid writer. I think humor might have helped a bit, but generally I just found the stories to be bland.
