Malamud, Bernard

The Fixer

New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966. First Edition. Hardcover. "We believe The Fixer to be a great novel. Bernard Malamud has put a lifetime of working at his craft into this extraordinary book. What makes the difference here is that the author's consummate skill has been applied to a great theme- injustice- and embodied in a great story. The Fixer is the story of a little man, a handy-man, who becomes a hero before our eyes. Yakov Bok is the last man in the world who wants to be a hero; it's an honor he feels he could do without. But...Yakov lives in Tsarist Russia in Kiev during a virulent period of anti-Semitism, and when the body of a dead boy is found in a cave, the local Black Hundreds group accuses the Jews of his murder. From the Jews to a Jew is only a short step: Yakov is arrested for a crime he did not commit. In the long suffering that follows his refusal to "confess," Yakov is transformed from a little man into a big one." (from front flap) The fourth novel by Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), the great Jewish-American author in the twentieth-century canon along with his contemporaries including Saul Bellow & Philip Roth, all of whose works are now venerably enshrined in the Library of America series. This novel is among Malamud's most well-known & popular, as it won both the Pulitzer Prize & the National Book Award (a double honor accorded to very few writers), & was made into the acclaimed 1968 film starring Alan Bates as Yakov Bok. Hardcover in clipped dust jacket, first edition, "First printing, 1966" as stated on copyright page. An essential Malamud collectible & a high point of American literature, among the deepest depictions of anti-Semitism- & universal injustice- ever written, in its rarest original form. Book in very fine condition with only very light rubbing, fading & mild spotting to thin edges & corners of beige-cloth front, back covers & spine; very slight rubbing, browning & sparse spotting to side & lower edges of text block; mild rubbing, spotting & moderate fading to orange-dyed upper edge of same. Interior very fine with only slight fading to blank black paste-downs & endpapers; tiny bumps at upper corners of a few page leaves. Dust jacket relatively fine with mild rubbing, faint scratching, very light browning & occasional spotting to front, back covers, spine & flaps; mild wear & some tiny bumps, creases at thin edges & corners of same. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #4583]

Price: $80.00