num_pages: 246
description: Bernard Malamud’s second novel, originally published in 1957, is the story of Morris Bober, a grocer in postwar Brooklyn, who “wants better” for himself and his family. First two robbers appear and hold him up; then things take a turn for the better when broken-nosed Frank Alpine becomes his assistant. But there are complications: Frank, whose reaction to Jews is ambivalent, falls in love with Helen Bober; at the same time he begins to steal from the store.Like Malamud’s best stories, this novel unerringly evokes an immigrant world of cramped circumstances and great expectations. Malamud defined the immigrant experience in a way that has proven vital for several generations of writers.
language: English
title: The Assistant
titlecomplete: The Assistant
genres: Jewish, 20th Century, American, Americana, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Classics, The United States Of America, Fiction
ratings_count: 10497
places: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, New York (State)
awards: awardedAt: -378662400000
name: National Jewish Book Award
category: Fiction, awardedAt: -378662400000
name: Rosenthal Family Foundation Award, awardedAt: -378662400000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction
publisher: Farrar Straus and Giroux