People and Uncollected Stories [Hardcover]

Bernard Malamud (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1990

Written by the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for "The Fixer" and a National Book Award for "The Magic Barrel" this book contains 16 of the projected 20 chapters of Malamud's final novel, "The People".

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When Malamud died in 1986, he left the first draft of a novel and 16 uncollected stories, 10 published in literary magazines, the remaining six among his papers. Collected here, they provide an excellent overview of his career. Most of the stories focus on tired, bewildered, vulnerable men (many of them Jewish, another form of alienation) trying to make sense of an uncongenial world. Among those written in the last years of his life are some that can rank with his best. "Zora's Noise" concerns a second wife who hears mysterious celestial sounds, and her cellist husband, who finally understands their significance. A splendid example of Malamud's mingling of the fantastical and the real, it resonates with wisdom and compassionate understanding. "An Exorcism" is a story within a story about a lame, lonely writer betrayed by his protege. The unfinished novel, The People , is a strange and wonderful adventure story, whose protagonist, a greenhorn emigre peddler, Yozip Bloom, becomes chief of an Indian tribe expelled from their lands by duplicitous white men. Beginning as a funny western, it gradually segues into a dark tale of perfidy and misery; his outline shows, however, that Malamud intended to conclude it on an affirmative note. Valuable both for its chronological span and for the genuine reading pleasure it affords, this is a must-have volume for anyone who treasures the work of one of the century's most talented writers.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This work brings out Malamud's final, unfinished novel, The People , together with 14 uncollected stories, written from the 1940s to the author's death in 1986. The People is a wry and unsettling story of a Jewish immigrant's adoption by a 19th-century Native American tribe and their struggle to survive the expansionist and genocidal practices of the U.S. government. Though less polished than his other published work, it nevertheless represents an attempt to probe the ways in which the "promise" of America was predicated upon the demise of its native people. The stories, though diverse, deal in different ways with the issue of ties that bind: family, marriage, and group loyalties versus individual dreams and desires. This is a significant addition to Malamud's singular work. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/89.
- Deborah Gussman, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 271 pages
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus (January 15, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0701136499
• ISBN-13: 978-0701136499
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,497,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Leave well enough alone, December 7, 2003

By 

Jeff C. Vande Zande (Bay City, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The People: And Other Uncollected Fiction (Hardcover)

There are some fine stories in this book. The collection is great for any scholar of Malamud, or anyone who just can't get enough of Malamud's short fiction. However, the unfinished novel "The People" should have never been published. It's a sketch at best. Malamud wouldn't have wanted it published, and so it shouldn't have been. This book acts as though it has a posthumous novel of Malamud's, but it doesn't. "The People" is disappointing, and jumps all over the place. There was really no point in publishing it.