A Talk with Bernard Malamud

Abstract

I was fortunate to meet Mr. Malamud and have this interview after he read my article, "Bernard Malamud's Renewal of the Human Spirit," which deals with three of his seven novels, The Assistant and A New Life and Dubin's Lives. AU of these novels are written with his own definition of art, on the basic theme of self-transcendence, exploring the idea of suffering, and with deft use of irony. The article, which will be published in the annual journal of American Studies Association of Korea, examines the fact that the heroes in his navels have the belief that their life can renew itself and yearn for a better life, even though they get extremely caught up in isolation and suffer deep frustration. I sent the article to Mr. Malamud who was a 1981""'1982 fellow of Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, California. On February 2, 1982, I interviewed him at his office which overlooks Stanford University. He had many enlightening comments about art, suffering, self-transcendence, morality, democracy, freedom, love, Zen Buddhism, the image of a bird in his novels, the technique of foreshadowing, and translations. He is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories: The Natural(l952), The Assistant (1957), A New Live(l961), The Fixer (l966), Pictures of Fidelman: An Exhibition (I969), The Tenants(I971), Dubin's Lives (l979), The Magic Barrel (l958), Idiots First (l963), and Rembrandt's Haf(I973).