Alex-The+Fixer

 THE FIXER By: Bernard Malamud

**//__ Biography __//**

(any where in this biography (SL) is from this [|Source Link] ) He was born in Brooklyn NewYork in April, 26 1914 He grew up with no books, any records, music or pictures on the walls. He liked to read and to go a local Yiddish (language spoken by Jewish people in Europe) theater. He started to try to write his own stories. He recieves his bachelors degree from city college of NewYork. After graduation he worked in a factory and as a clerk at the Census Bureau in Washington, D.C. Although he wrote in his spare time, Malamud did not begin writing seriously until hearing of the horrors of the Holocaust, when the Germans, led by Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), put six million Jewish people to death during World War II.(SL) He started to read about Jewish history, then started teaching creative writing at Bennington College. His first novel was __The Natural__ it is about the life of american baseball player, Roy Hobbs. He wrote his second novel called The Assistant, its about a jewish immigrant that owns a grocery store and hires a anti-semtic. Malamud was awarded the national book award in 1959 for his first collection of short stories "The Magic Barrel". A New Life(1961), considered one of Malamud's most true-life-novels.(SL) His next novel is The Fixer whis is one of his most powerful works.(SL)

__ all below is from (SL) In //Dubin's Lives// (1979), which took Malamud over five years to write, the main character, William Dubin, attempts to create a sense of worth for himself, both as a man and as a writer. Malamud's last finished novel, //God's Grace// (1982), studies both the original Holocaust and a new, imagined Holocaust of the future. The novel is a wild, at times brilliant, at times confusing, description of a flood similar to that in the Bible story of Noah's ark. Malamud continued to place stories in top American magazines. Mervyn Rothstein reported in the //New York Times// that Malamud said at the end of his life, "With me, it's story, story, story." In Malamud's next-to-last collection, //Rembrandt's Hat,// only one story, "The Silver Crown," deals with Jewish themes. Malamud's final, unfinished work, "The Tribe," concerns the adventures of a Russian Jewish peddler, Yozip, among the western Native American Indians. Malamud gave few interviews, but those he did grant provided the best insight into his work, as when he told Michiko Kakutani in the //New York Times:// "People say I write so much about misery, but you write about what you write best." Bernard Malamud died on March 18, 1986. END OF BIOGRAPHY __



The Fixer is about Yakov Bok. He is a Jewish handy man. Who leaves his safe Jewish village because he is tire of it, his wife left, no work,no money, and wants to learn more about the world. He landed in Kiev Russia, where he made his new life under Yakov Ivanovitch Dologushev. After he saved a man from the black hundreds gang. which repaid him by giving him a job at a brick yard. Were he got accused of killing a young boy for sacrificial purposes. He is locked up in jail for couple of years. They wanted to keep him in jail till he confesses that he did it. They are going to bring him to court for his trial. Will they convict him? or will they let him go? FYI..... i was very suprised!

I would recommend this book to everyone i know because : This book was very informational. All threw the book you do not want to set it down, like a vortex it sucks you in. It never gets boring at all during the book. It is like a book drug you will get addicted as soon as you get past page 1.

I have Some constructive critism is sometimes it was hard to try and follow the dialect. Someone would start a conversation and in the middle another person would talk you could tell another person was talking by what they said, but otherwise you could not.

What did work well is how the author made the words have feelings. it wasnt like blah blah blah, you didnt read the words..... you FELT them.

This book is outstanding in many ways. It makes you think about how you live your life and how you spend it. It is a deep realization. I think they put this book on the outstanding books list is because it teaches you many life lessons like: what you do will affect everyone and anyone eventhough you might know it. another example whenever you are feeling lonely and friendless you always have a friend at your side even if you didnt know it till later. an example of this in The Fixer is when he is in the cell all by himself and his lawyer comes in after a while says.. dont be lonely everyone outside is fighting for you, you have friends everywhere cheering for you hoping for the best. People are starting to writing articles in the paper about you.. dont give up.

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