The Assistant: A Novel

Sadly there are only a handful of books that you find yourself spending a lot of time discussing with anyone who cares to listen, a book that changes your perception, that helps you look at life from a somewhat different perspective, that touches your heart.Bernard Malamud's book The Assistant is that kind of Gem.The change that Frank, one of the main characters, undergoes, is gradual and great and, for me it defines the word Redemption. The story is also about Love and Obsession, for the two may at times be inseparable, and in Frank's case it certainly is.Malamud makes all the people in the book solidly real, full of many of the biases, contradictions, loyalties that virtually all of us carry within us.I found this book deeply moving, and for a long time I could not find the words to explain how and why. But, now I think I found what it is. At least for me, this story, these characters speak directly to my Soul.There is a hard to find movie version of the Assistant, which is fairly good, but as expected nothing as good as the book.

I enjoyed this story. It never felt dated even though the book was first published in the 1950's. The story takes place in New York around 1925 and focuses on one family, a poor Jewish grocer and his wife and adult daughter. The economy is bad, so times are tough, and the grocer has never been a particularly inspired businessman. Under strange circumstances he takes on an assistant he really can't afford. The relationships that develop between this assistant and the grocer's family is intense, in both positive and negative ways, and transformative for all involved. I liked the way the story ended also. Elements of the story include the religious biases of the time between Jew and non-Jew, the economic struggles in the poor economy, the disappointments borne by the daughter who is in her twenties but without prospects, the disappointments of the grocer who has struggled all his life with nothing to show for it, and the internal struggles of the assistant with himself regarding the kind of person he is and how he always manages to ruin his luck. The character development is impressive. There's a great deal going on in this tale.

Just hasn't aged well. I'll try to finish but it's a crawl for a short book. Seems like an aging writer that was pushing at this point in his career (didn't bother to check on Wikipedia but it was one of his later works). There's a sense of a intellectual Jewish writer who was cribbing his tone from James M. Cain and so on. I'm a little mystified how this book can be put on the same level as A Walk on the Wild Side which some do. That book isn't an easy read either, but it is a work of genius that will endure forever. This one can't endure because it never got there in the first place. Malamud should've stuck with Morris the grocer who he clearly knew well and left his imagining of an Italian hoodlum in the drawer.

It was fascinating at first as Malamud leads us into the life and family and neighborhood of this failing little grocery store and its Jewish proprietor. Then comes an assistant, an Italian, who has tsouris (Yiddish for troubles) of his own. Things spiral slowly and inevitably downward and become (at least for me) more and more depressing, as Frank, the shop assistant, starts courting the grocer's daughter. When a new grocery store opened up in the neighborhood and th spiral steepened, I got tired of all the bad situations and characters making bad decisions. Sorry to say I just gave up.

This is merely a placeholder for a proper review. Though short, this book is dense with heady topics and characters which evince a nuanced psychology, individually and in the intersections of their lives.It would be easy to write the book off as hopelessly bleak, but there is real hope and redemption here.

had to read this book for English class and was plesantly surprised by how much I liked it! It is a little graphic in terms of sexual content but mostly just gives context clues for the reader to infer what actually took place.

loved this book

An ethnic shop owner story that connects all generations by finding the thread of humanity that opens each door for every customer.The size of the sale matters not

Not to be confused with the Robert Walser novel of the same name, it appears you can only buy this novel second hand on Amazon UK now which is a great shame, it is possibly out of print, at least in this country, I bought mine second hand and it's a really good quality edition.I had been urged to read The Assistant by a number of people a couple of years ago. Books often take time to arrive at their turn, and so it came to pass that I gave The Assistant a go.In The Assistant, a lowly shopkeeper, Morris Bober ekes by a small living in a run down delicatessen with his wife and daughter, verging on penniless, their existence is a narrow one. Morris and his wife rarely leave their shop and living quarters, and because of their poor finances their daughter can only attend night school not college proper. Helen Bober too, has begun to narrow her own existence, embarrassed by her poverty she cuts off contact with friends and shuts down a relationship with a wealthier man.Into the midst of this comes a sudden attack, the Bober's have apparently been targeted for a robbery the fundamental cause being anti-semitic in nature. The robbers take what they can, but Bober has little to give anyway. After becoming injured during the robbery Bober is forced to take on an Assistant, and after discovering Frank Alpine sleeping in his cellar, hires him in exchange for lodgings.But is Frank Alpine all he seems to be??The Assistant is very well written, and so is enjoyable from that angle, but it has a dour nature and a grimness that in the end doesn't strike the uplifting note that I was led to believe it would at least not for me personally. Frank Alpine is difficult to identify with considering his behaviour and I couldn't warm to him. Helen's existence but lack of life and youth depressed me, old before her time. That said it's character portraits are very sound, detailed, rich. But would somebody really behave as Frank does?? I'm not sure.The nature and reasoning behind anti-semitism has always confused me and continues to do so in this novel, to hate someone merely for being a Jew alone, seems not merely racism or prejudice but entirely lacking in logic. It makes me sad.All in all, it is a good book, an interesting study in human nature but I will probably pass it on and not read it a second time 7/10

In many ways, this is a novel about nothing. It reminds me of 'the grapes of wrath'. The characters are a group of poor people who are struggling to make a living, often at the expense of fulfilling their personal dreams. In reviews, much has been made of the fact that they are Jewish, but I wonder whether this is incidental. They could probably have come from ant poor community. Tithe characters are utterly compelling and the unfolding narrative is fascinating.

A Good read with a surprising ending.

i actually ordered this by mistake, not realising it was a Kindle book - and i don;t have a kindle! was not able to cancel it on the amazon website which was annoying

Quick delivery, great story, good price