Customer Reviews

The Assistant

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
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I've read this book 50 years after it was published, but unlike some novels, it's not dated at all. Not only does it work well as a period piece, but its portrayal of people, of the body blows dealt by life, and of the way this country doesn't live up to what immigrants think they are going to find is relevant today. I felt the publisher's blurb on the edition I had and some other reviews may have oversimplified or misstated some of the characters. Frank is not some remorseless sociopath who walks in to rob, rape and pillage. Frank is a complex person who for much of the book is caught in a vicious circle of doing wrong, experiencing tremendous pain of conscience, determining to make right what he has done, getting into difficulties, and doing wrong again to get out of a jam. At one point, he is described as a man of morality, and there is hope for him. He's not a thug; that would be Ward, the police officer's son who returns to the neighborhood to commit crimes. Helen takes a long time to realize that she isn't entirely blameless in her involvement with Frank. Whether a rape takes place is somewhat ambiguous, but Helen believes this is what happened. Helen is caught in the trap of waiting for nothing, in her own words. Frank looks better and better given the other choices she has. Morris, Helen's father, looks at his mom and pop grocery store as a prison. Morris is a victim, yet if he had made a little effort to help himself, things may have turned out better for him. He is a terrible businessman, he makes foolish decisions about his health, and he is taken advantage of by everyone. The whole family is caught in a trap by the failing store and grinding poverty that has them in a downward spiral. Morris and Ida are Russian Jews who came to America with the hope of finding something better. It appears the only thing that is better is the absence of pogroms. The people in this book are Italians, Germans, Poles, Norwegians. Today the immigrants come from different countries, but I'm willing to bet that quite a few have the same experience in this country that Morris's family did. Today it may even be worse. Aside from the characters, the author gives a wonderful description of a 1950s Brooklyn neighborhood. The reader can picture everything in such detail it's like watching a DVD in one's head. A book like this will always hold up, and I'm anxious to read more of the author's work. Finally, this novel made TIME magazine's Top 100 novels last year, which is why I picked it up.

The word "Assistant" includes the letters S.A.I.N.T And, the person who is the assistant herein well reflects Christianity's concepts of sainthood or someone who is "born again."

A simple ground floor grocery man, Morris Bober, lives in a simple second story flat with his wife, Ida, and beautiful 23-year old daughter, Helen. Business is worsening, and while it falls, he meets Frank Alpine - an Italian goyim.

Frank works for peanuts for Morris and manages to raise the business from its ashes. Things begin to look good - but Ida's fears of a goyim living so close to her very Jewish daughter are well deserved.

Frank is not a saint by birth. Frank is an orphan who lived an abusive childhood, and he merely wants to be loved. He practically enslaves himself for Morris - partly to be loved and partly for penance. But, whatever his evil ways were, he is almost devoid of the same after meeting Morris. Malamud probably intentionally chose Frank to be Italian - and incorporates what the Roman Catholic Church associates as "being born again": baptism. Working in the grocery for Morris is Frank's baptism.

What makes this book so fascinating is the concept of rebirth after criminality. Really, criminality's born again Christianity became vogue a decade or decades after publication of this novel (1957) with the 1976 book written by Charles Colson of Watergate fame.

This insightful work on Christianity becomes even more fascinating when one considers the source - a young Jewish writer who grew up in a delicatessen with an impoverished father who is much like Morris. And, the greatest part of the rebirth arises in the end when Italian Frank - learning about Judaism - converts. He is a born again Jew.

The grocery is commonly referred to as a prison which confined Morris and later confines Frank. But, from that prison others benefit. And, most particularly we learn of the goodness of those imprisoned in poverty - something espoused by Saint Francis who is mentioned numerous times in this book.

This is a great story. This is a great book with many layers. And, this book could be assigned to religion students as well as the obvious English or literature students.

If ever there was a verbally-tight book, it is this. Every page is interesting, every word, and there is never a dull page. In true Melamud style, the stories are short but powerful. The superb writing of the plot moves consistently. However, I did get the feeling toward the end that a number of dramatic sequences seemed crammed at the end, and without the minute attention paid to the earlier part of the story.

The plot evolves in post-war, a neighborhood in New York among an aging Jewish grocer whose deli/food store business struggles amidst modernism and greedy competition. The main characters, Morris, his stoic wife Ida and a grown daughter Helen live above the store and work long hours to keep it alive. Daughter Helen yearns to have a loving man and an education.

Enter Frank Alpine, a young Italian man who after a criminal act upon Morris, and unbeknown to Morris, Frank lands a job in the store to pay his debt. Here, he continuously fends off his demons while attempting to follow a morally correct life and in his command, the store goes through economic and physical changes that fluctuate greatly, not always good or bad. And, as expected, he falls in love with the daughter and their relationship takes turns and twists too.

Immediately, Melamud gives us a distinct picture of the desperation the family endures. You can grasp with ease the images and separation of personalities. This is done with precision applied by the finest authors. We get more than we anticipate, when Melamud provides extensive insight into his character descriptions, and most important, to their thoughts. Above that, he provides us with questions and answers we might need to further develop the characters thoughts and actions.

After absorption into the story, I still had questions and I'm sure you will too and maybe it takes another read. Overall, the short classic is excellent. ........MzRizz

As a teacher of literature for 23 years, I have watched students from age 16 to 80 become fully engaged with The Assistant. After they finish, they feel fulfilled, uplifted, enlightened, and even (God forbid!) more knowledgeable. The main characters -- Morris, a modest Jewish grocery store owner in New York, and Frank, a young Italian hoodlum trying to change into a mensch--steal your heart away. Of course, Malamud is never sentimental. He uses your mind to reach into your heart. It's not just Frank who changes for the better in this book; it's all who read it well.

It's sad to me that Bernard Malamud's novels seem to be falling by the wayside lately. After reading The Assistant recently, I've been reminded of just how excellent Malamud's writing is. In particular, Malamud is excellent in The Assistant, his best novel. This is definitely one of the must-read novels of the twentieth century.

The novel centers around the characters affected by Morris Bober's grocery in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn. The middle-aged Morris has lost his life working in the unsuccessful store. Because of the economic/spiritual struggles caused by the store, each member of the family has been scarred. Morris's wife Ida has become bitter and cynical. His daughter Helen searches longingly for love and laments the failed realization of her dreams. Then, into their lives comes Frank Alpine, a troubled, depressed man who will become the assistant at the store. The four struggle with one another, attempting constantly to overcome their harsh fate and to obtain some sort of fulfillment together.

It's a fairly simple story that reads really well, and remarkably quickly, in my opinion. Despite the simplicity of the story, however, meaning, almost archetypal meaning, ebbs at every moment. It's a beautifully conceived and constructed work touching on themes of morality, justice, redemption, and love. It's very much about what it means to be human. The Assistant is definitely one of those novels that serious readers should catch.

It seems impossible, yet somehow Malamud made magic. Here is retold the story of St. Francis of Assisi through the life of a failing Jewish grocer. Allow me to rephrase: the story is not retold, it is taken apart, reapplied and subtly explicated. The life of a Catholic saint applied to the interaction of frustratingly flawed characters leads to a perfect conclusion and examination of, surprisingly, what it means to be Jewish and what it means to be good.

This is Bernard Malamud's best book. It is written with a kind of understated beauty . The story of Frankie Alpine the assistant who works in the grocery of Morris Bober , and connects himself in suffering with Jewish identity contains the heart of Malamud's 'universalization of his own Jewishness'. The book is a moving story, including the love story between Alpine and the elderly grocer's daughter. Malamud's tender and humane ironic tone informs his warm relation to his characters.

One of those rare books which seems to fully make concrete an abstract ideal of human goodness.

The store of Morris Bober, in twenty-one years, had moved from being a delicatessen to a poor grocery. Bober's wife hoped he would sell the store. Morris had lost many of his customers to a new store in the neighborhood.

The harder Morris Bober worked, the less he seemed to have. On the day Bober took in ten dollars he was robbed. The robbers thought he was holding out on them. Afterward he was in bed with a thick bandaged head and his wife tended the store.

Frank Alpine appeared in the neighborhood. Frank Alpine worked at Morris's store when Morris was sick. A salesman told Frank that the store was a death tomb and that if he stayed for six months he would be there forever. Storekeepers knew when times were better.

With Frank in the store business was better. There were, however, other reasons for the uptick in business and Frank was not all he seemed. He had a history and his motives were mixed. Later the characters underwent various changes of fortune, but Frank's adhesion to Morris's family and enterprise was remarkable.

It is not so much the plot, which is serviceable, but the setting of the small failing grocery store that gives the novel its pathos. Furthermore, the means the author uses are strictly realistic touches, culled, it seems, from the facts of his upbringing. Ending on a wave of hope, the novel, at the close, pictures a harmonious world for the characters, briefly. The storytelling is elegant, and the intensity is nearly Russian.

This book was one of the few I have read that seem to just flow. Trying to pay attention never was a problem and the story continued as necessary. The character development was incredible, as this was an emotionally endearing novel. The reader feels the pain of the Bober family and the anguish of Frank Alpine when he is humiliated time after time. I highly recommend it.

Arguably one of the greatest novels of our time (up there with Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" ... Should be a must read from high school through college. This was my third read (over a 30 year span) ... I expect my next few reads to be even more fulfulling.