Non­fic­tion

My Father is a Book: A Mem­oir of Bernard Malamud

Jan­na Mala­mud Smith
  • Review
By – April 26, 2012
My Father Is a Book: A Mem­oir of Bernard Mala­mud could more accu­rate­ly be sub­ti­tled A Mem­oir of My Father and Me.” This mem­oir reveals more about Jan­na Mala­mud Smith and her rela­tion­ship with her father than it does about Bernard Mala­mud, either as a father or as the not­ed Jew­ish- Amer­i­can author of short fic­tion and nov­els.

Ear­ly on, Smith writes my father and I were intense­ly attached,” and her book tracks that attach­ment through child­hood, ado­les­cence, and young adult­hood. Although she recounts her father’s ear­ly years — he was 38 when she was born — she tells very lit­tle about her family’s life. Her old­er broth­er is bare­ly men­tioned; in pass­ing we real­ize that her moth­er was an accom­plished par­ent, wife, and host­ess, but Smith has lit­tle to say about her as a per­son and a mother. 

Smith por­trays Mala­mud as a pri­vate per­son, a ded­i­cat­ed writer who need­ed dis­ci­pline and order, but who also enjoyed the recog­ni­tion, friend­ships, and com­fort­able pros­per­i­ty his writ­ing brought him. He main­tained long-term cor­re­spon­dences with old friends, with his young Ben­ning­ton lover, and with Smith her­self. Giv­en his unhap­py and, in his eyes, inad­e­quate child­hood, Mala­mud achieved con­sid­er­able suc­cess per­son­al­ly and professionally. 

Under the scruti­ny of his daugh­ter, a prac­tic­ing psy­chother­a­pist, per­son­al and famil­ial ten­sions are revealed, along with many inci­dents and anec­dotes, but they do not deep­en our under­stand­ing of Bernard Mala­mud and the art to which he devot­ed his life.

Maron L. Wax­man, retired edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor, spe­cial projects, at the Amer­i­can Muse­um of Nat­ur­al His­to­ry, was also an edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor at Harper­Collins and Book-of-the-Month Club.

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