Customer Reviews

Dubin's Lives

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3 star:		(2)
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The story of William Dubin,the biographer, who believes all lives are ordered or at least make consistent sense,though comes to realize that it is only the biographer in him that can deliver this scenario to the lives of others but focusing in on certain chance moments in a subjects life.During a hectic year attempting to write the life of DH Lawrence,Dubin sees events and emotions slipping out of control and his idealistic view of human exsistence fall apart.
This was Malamuds great theme;how little control we actually have over our lives.Nature,chance meetings,the times we grew up in and the new ones we live in (with new sensibilities and morals) all shape us like water shapes rock,and human exsistence isn't based on permanence.
Malamud paints such vivid scenes with so few words that I will be able to picture in my mind forever William Dubins long walk route,his trip to Sweden,to Venice and his confusion in the snow. A lovely book. I enjoyed being in its company.

A strong book that engages the reader in its story as though s/he is a character. Taking you on a rather poignant journey through the seasons, not only of the year but of William Dubin's life, his stayed yet tender relationship with his wife and his fun, youth replenishing affair with the 23yr old Fanny Bick. All the time we are reminded that life is for living and the moment for siezing.

I don't write a lot of reviews, but I thought I would chime in on this one because it seems that hardly anybody reads Malamud anymore. This is a nice, subtle, introspective novel that offers thoughtful insights into aging, marriage, writing, and nature.

The story's protagonist fit a little too closely to the author and the protagonist was unfair, repressed sexually, and self-absorbed. I came away from the book feeling it hit too close to home for Mr. Mulamud to distance himself from the main character. There are hilarious scenes, especially the one where Fannie has sex with another man in the room Dubin has rented for their own liason, and he stumbles upon them. Fannie comes across as meat. I can't put my finger on exactly when I began to think about the author's life instead of the story, over half way through. The tale seemed a pretext for a justification, hanging so heavily on the fact that Dubin's wife was an experienced widow and he a virgin when they married. Dubin is, more or less, a construct to justify an older man's taking advantage of a young woman, an excuse for leaping on the back of the younger colt and letting the old nag shift for herself. The add on character of the daughter was dreary and wierd. I usually admire Malumud's work, and was disappointed to see him grappling with his own shadow this time round. The book seemed contrived and shallow, but some of the scenes were excellent. I could almost see the author obsessing over his own sex life.

A biography of a biographer is the best way to describe it. If you like a good novel, this is the ticket.

Long ago, a creative writing teacher recommended this book to me. I've finally read it, and in turn I highly recommend it. Malamud shows a mastery of prose and an immense talent for description. His passages describing the changing seasons are incredible!

At first, the author's tendency to bend the "laws" of punctuation and grammar threw me a little. The first twenty pages didn't hold my interest, but after that I adjusted to his style and grew to appreciate it. It was worth persevering.

The book tells a story that is at once absorbing, sensual, frustrating and heartbeaking. Whatever the author's intentions, I found the title character to be rather less than admirable -- and normally a book with an unlikeable protagonist would be hard-pressed to keep my interest. This one did earn my interest, and even gained moments of insight and sympathy that brought me inside the flaws of the main character and allowed me to understand him, even if I never exactly liked the man.

I recommend this book for its deep exploration of a flawed man as he grapples with love, aging, and temptation. Well done.

Yes, Malamud can do it both, and in Dubin's Lives he scores on both fronts.

In this novel the reader will find some of Malamud's best writing and some of his worst. First, there is Malamud's penetrating analysis of married life. Malamud did not pull any punches here about the pitfalls and peaks of marriage, and when he writes about this subject, the novel shines.

Second, this work is marred by a great deal of repetition. Dubin is stuck in his life and the novel gets stuck along with it (perhaps from design, perhaps as collateral damage) and this can leave the reader disillusioned and bored.

Finally, and most damning, there is Malamud's penchant for the gag ending, and this novel has a whopper. After so much grave and introspective observations on life, love, marriage and freedom, after so much matter, Malamud could not end this novel on a serious note. He has the character run away with his member in his hand, as if to play a joke on the character, himself, and worst of all, on us his readers.

malamud in staight away into the story.He has a prudence of verbiage! as usual this tale counter points all his other fictions. althoughI have the notion this is premised on his own encounters in life. I heartily urge thoughtful people to read this book.