| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Tenants of a Decaying World,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Tenants (Paperback)
"The Tenants" tells the story of a writer labouring to complete a novel which he has been struggling over for the past 10 years. He is involved in this sublime act of producing his best work in a dilapidated building of which he is the sole tenant. He stays there much to the chagrin of it's troubled owner who is eager to demolish it. The situation gets worse as a black writer sneaks into the building and starts his literary pursuit.The novel presents deftly how racial hatred overcomes the most civilized of beings. The white writer is apparently devoid of any racial considerations especially in contrast to Willie, whose entire being emanates hatred for non-black people. Still, we see the former being influenced by them without his knowledge. By falling in love with Irene he is in a way trying to possess a female member of his race who somehow looks out of place in the company of a black. His love is sincere, but he fails to defend it from being contaminated. The novel portrays the tragedy of art. We see the superhuman efforts of the writer to transcend base passions on the wings of universal art meet with ultimate destruction in the hands of a society decaying physically, morally and conscientiously. Malamud has written this novel in a crisp, short manner. The author uses symbolism very effectively to present the pitiable state of the environment where creativity struggles to lift its head. The deprecated and dirty building, the inflammated bladders of Irene, the tragedy-struck family of Lievenspiel, the black girl who could never experience orgasm, the foul mouthed Willie and his friends, all these clearly cut the shape of the frigid truths of an apparently successful and contented society. The book sees man and society and so do who read it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the dialogue alone ...,
By Charlie Stella (Fords, New Joisey) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Tenants (Paperback)
It wasn't "The Assistant" for me, but it was a pretty good read (the dialogue alone was worth the price of admission). Malamud handled the diversity of characters very well and although I wasn't over joyed at the ending, I didn't expect to be. A sometimes angry, sometimes funny read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Food For the Misunderstood,
This review is from: The Tenants (Paperback)
I belive that Malamud ought to be approached with a certain mindset and that mindset should not be reading for the sake of having fun. There are other novels that I read for that purpose. The level of enjoyment to be achieved through reading his work can better be compared to that of listening to a great teacher, rather than a great entertainer. Whenever I read Malamud, and I am in process of finishing the last of his works, I feel that I have gained a deeper sense of the human condition - that of light emerging from seeming fruitlessness. If you seek something lighter, then perhaps Malamud is not for you, but for those of us who seek Literature with this characteristic, he is unrivaled.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
See all 6 books this book cites
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
|
|
