Talking Horse: Bernard Malamud on Life and Work

Nicholas Delbanco and Alan Cheuse two younger colleagues of Bernard Malamud collected speeches, occasional writings, whatever they could find in which Malamud spoke about his writing, and to a lesser degree, his life. Malamud was a dedicated craftsman, a modest and devoted artist, whose love for the short story is strongly emphasized in this collection. Cynthia Ozick writes of it, "In these pages the Malamudian intellect is so clear, the humanistic sweetness so dear, the literary credo so pure, that it is almost as if the writer's living presence-in all its urgent truthfulness - were magically restores to us." I think a review of this kind is best served by giving a taste of the words of its subject. So here are remarks from Malamud in 1959 in a speech 'The Writer in the Modern world' which he gave upon receiving the National Book Award. " At the same time the writer must imagine a better world for men the while he shows us, in all its ugliness and beauty, the possibilities of this. In recreating thehumanity of man, in reality his greatness, he will, among other things, hold up themirror to the mystery of him, in which poetry and possibility live, though he has endlessly betrayed them. In a sense, the writer in his art, without directly stating it ( though hemay preach, his work must not)must remind man that he has, in his human striving invented nothing less than freedom: and if he will devoutly remember this, he will understand the best way to preserve it and his own highest value."