Bernard Malamud in Italy: Moral Courage and the Choice of Being Jewish in “The Lady of the Lake”

Samuel Joseph Kessler

Studies in American Jewish Literature, Volume 36, Number 1, 2017, pp. 40-60 (Article)

Published by Penn State University Press

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/650177

Access provided by Virginia Polytechnic Inst. & St.University & (Viva) (22 Mar 2017 23:03 GMT) INST S A M

BERNARD MALAMUD I TUT UEL JOSEPH E

IN ITALY: MORAL AN D S

COURAGE AND THE CHOICE TAT E U K ESSLER N

OF BEING JEWISH IN I V ER S I T “THE LADY OF THE LAKE” VIRGI Y N I A POLY T E C H N I C

ABSTRACT Examined as a whole, Bernard Malamud’s short story collection The Magic Barrel is more cosmopolitan moralism than ghetto tale, where Jews remain central protagonists but the particularities of Jewish life and suffering lose much of their cultural identification as Malamud reaches toward a universal ethical truth. I argue here that through the close reading of one those short stories, “The Lady of the Lake,” we can complement the general scholarly assessment of Malamud’s vision (of “Jews” as universals) with another, this one of Jews and Jewishness as in themselves the pathway to morality. “The Lady of the Lake” reveals Malamud at his most attuned to the complexities of Jewish self-recognition, where he thought that the ethical lay in the act of affirming one’s Jewish self-being.

KEYWORDS: Bernard Malamud, Judaism, ethics, morality, Paul Tillich

, Vol. 36, No. 1, 2017. Copyright © 2017 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 36, No. 1, 2017. Copyright © 2017 The Pennsylvania State University, , Vol. The Magic Barrel, one of Bernard Malamud’s finest short story collections and the winner of the 1959 National Book Award for fiction, contains thirteen tales roughly set in the ten years following the Second World War.1 Malamud, a native New Yorker and later a professor at Bennington College in Vermont, has long been recognized for his contributions to American and Jewish American fiction. 2

Studies in American Jewish Literature Though today his works less frequently anchor scholarship, they continue to 41 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY - - - - - 7 On the whole, Malamud’s 4 appears to be more cosmopolitan moralism always tested responsibility for others. For Malamud. . . , and by applying a lens of religious studies alongside that

Despite niche marketing as “Jewish fiction,” however, exam 3 The Magic Barrel And Victoria Aarons says, “Bernard Malamud is the moralist, 6 Similarly, Marc Ratner Similarly, writes: “The general theme of Malamud’s 5 fiction. The Magic Barrel In In an attempt to address such issues as presented in “The Lady of the Lake” Yet a Yet vision of universal morality is not the only sort of ethics one finds in ingly fixed categories as Jewish identity. How obligated must one be to an invisible an to be one must obligated How identity. Jewish as categories fixed ingly inheritance? Is one responsible more to other Jews than to non-Jews, and status if so, one’s choose not did one as seeing so, be it should why and be that can how as or a they Jew, theirs? At their foundation, such questions are ones of religious meaning making, and the acts of being and becoming. identity, as well as to suggest some larger theoretical questions about Malamud and his from from of literary studies, I believe that we can complement the general scholarly assess ment of Malamud’s vision (i.e., of “Jews” as what universals) for framework with Malamud’s another, to central this as identity one Jewish individual identifying the represents ethical and how that ethical comes to be constructed in the world. affirmation that being born a Jew As I argue at the end of this article, Malamud’s makes one inescapably a that Jew—and that inescapability arises from larger his central a remain control—must no has individual the which over processes torical component in our interpretation of his ethical system as he elucidates it in his writings. What interested Malamud were the moral implications of such seem Malamud’s work. Through Malamud’s a close reading of the story “The Lady of the Lake,” influence the landscape of American letters and have been central in informing the ongoing scholarly conversation about the variation and substance of Jewish American ined as a whole than ghetto tale, where Jews remain central protagonists but the particularities life and suffering of lose Jewish much of their cultural identification as Malamud work Malamud later a of reviewer one As truth. ethical universal a toward reaches wrote, “It is. . . the suffering that redeems, not the life the spirit, and [it is] (that’s the impossible) sense of responsibility of each man for but his neighbor that constitutes the component ‘Jewish’ in his parables.” the humanist, for whom it ‘what means to is be an human’ acknowledgement of incontestable one’s yet to means it ‘what For enterprise. human and Jewish the to central is [compassion] what it means to be Jewish.” universe, is, in Malamud’s be human,’ work is considered by many scholars to be a pluralist vision of humanity where in where humanity of vision pluralist a be to scholars many by considered is work Writes idealism. moral of narrative larger a into subsumed are differences dividual Pirjo Ahokas, appropriation “Malamud’s of Jewishness for his literary purposes is shown in the fact that while he offers the ethical the code positive definition of of menschlichkeit Jewishness in as his work, it is. . . synonymous with his secular code.” work is the humanistic value of suffering as a way toward man’s ennoblement and ennoblement man’s toward way a as suffering of value humanistic the is work enlightenment.” - - - - - social illich’s illich’s T when he and his wife trav 1956 ), centered on a gentile American 1952 ewish American fiction. Writing (con of the central protagonist Henry Levin/ ( Jewishness The Natural vel, vel, ersal morality and its subsequent spiritual purifications. Writes Writes purifications. spiritual subsequent its and morality ersal They are tales of the old medieval sort, burdening a character 8 vision of univ of vision In the third part, I suggest that we understand Malamud’s idea of Jewish iden Jewish of idea Malamud’s understand we that suggest I part, third the In In the second section, I re-narrate Malamud’s story through the lens of Jewish Jewish of lens the through story Malamud’s re-narrate I section, second the In magazines—and a no baseball player. Neither married to a Jew nor particularly religious, Malamud’s longed-for and intermingling cultural complex the exemplify writings early acceptance latent in much of postwar J sciously) as a Jew in the decade after the Holocaust and (equally consciously) as an American (born in America) whose mother tongue was English, these early stories find significance and hope in a sense of shared human suffering, forward a ing Philip Roth: “I am not saying—one cannot, of Malamud—that he has spurned human, be to is it What human. being of difficulties the of examination an or life his are these responsibility, indebtedness, connection, subject: his is humane, be to moral concerns.” construction us of provides and with Judaism Tillich morality in this short story. a language by which to formulation understand of Malamud’s the ethical: as the it. nor respects promotes courage of self-affirmation in a world that neither 1 Bernard Malamud was forty-two years old in eled on fellowship for a year in At Italy. the time, reputation Malamud’s rested on an uncollected set of short stories—published in various respected New York understanding of the ethical within the formation of Jewish identity, this article is article this identity, Jewish of formation the within ethical the of understanding works the in Judaism and Malamud at look I first, the In parts. three into divided find to beginning for language basic a provides section first This scholars. other of ultimately I However, identity. Jewish of constructions literary in place Malamud’s fall short. that these conversations believe I self-identity. argue that the Freeman in “The Lady of the Lake” is the moral crux around which turns. I argue the that what Henry construes as insignificant storyand mere happenstance actually Malamud designates as cru self-identity, decisions concerning his Judaic cial acts of self-fashioning. Henry’s failure to recognize the difference between self-identity and play-acting results in his personal unhappiness and exposes his ethical failings. Tillich. tity the through language of the philosopher and theologian Paul offers “courage,” of conceptualization his especially and existentialism, theological Malamud’s of center the at is that self of creation the and identity of theorization a with agonizing unworldly darkness so that we, the reader/listener, may know what know may reader/listener, the we, that so darkness unworldly agonizing with it is to be good, or not to be good.

42 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 43 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY - - - - - how much how , Philip Roth struggled to ex , Roth argued that the actions Commentary Commentary At the level of Malamud’s written word, this “pos this word, written Malamud’s of level the At 9 article for 1963 Following Fish’s theory, because theory, we readers) Following (Malamud’s Fish’s expect 11 10 the Jews really are. To this the Roth Jews really responds, To are. “The success of the struggle But Malamud can only make such a co-option of the Jewish character because because character Jewish the of co-option a such make only can Malamud But What we see, then, is that Malamud’s ability to express the conflict and Being Being Jewish beyond being American, has however, important implications s America: successful, powerful, free, yet weighed down by responsibility and responsibility by down weighed yet free, powerful, successful, America: s 50 tanley Fish writes that “the Jew as a cultural/historical figure is oversaturated, Semitic stereotypes. What his Jewish readers are really worried about, Roth writes, Roth about, worried really are readers Jewish his What stereotypes. Semitic world the of rest the telling them, on “informing” is Jew fellow a that is like them against the defamation of Jewish character. . . has itself made more pressing the his stories and ideas are so deeply enmeshed in the Jewish American urban experi urban American Jewish the in enmeshed deeply so are ideas and stories his The ence. Jews who read his stories must trust that he loves the Jews who live in turn would them subjects he which to torment and longing the else or stories, his to simple In cruelty. a truth universal toward writing between balance this just readers Jewish his to plain for empathy showing and characters) one’s toward harsh being necessitates (which the Jews who populate his stories. In and emotions of his Jewish characters no more reflected the truth of “The Jew” (a concept he takes to be more or less ridiculous) than do the most vicious anti- there there to be something universal in experience, Jewish Malamud can diagnose the Jew the of intimacy the through America postwar of conflicts moral) (read: social as Jew—created the of notion “oversaturated” the co-opts Malamud character. ish it was not by the themselves but Jews by their opponents and oppressors—to tell the undercuts He experience. Jewish particularityof the story through universal a hatred of the anti-Semite by constructing a moral vision of America through the among the Jews. assemblage of small stories of suffering and hope turmoil of the postwar American soul is what he acquires from his Jewishness. S which means that the meanings that accrue [on the Jew] empirical and record accumulate like barnacles are without any for regard the law of in excess of any contradiction.” for the way Malamud expresses the inner anguish and passion of his characters. “The possession of a past,” Robert Alter notes, “is a necessary condition for the imagining of the future; the vaster and more varied the past, the richer the pos be.” will future the of sibilities session of a past” is not always easy to observe. stories Malamud’s are sparse in Malamud’s rare in specific ritual or their cultural use Yet detail. history, of Jewish actually they them read we when because age their of clearly so us to speak stories seem to propose the very same notion we already unconsciously possess about 19 the of fearful triumph, extraordinary after years few a just hopeless division, racial part much want not does and understand to seem cannot it world old an of ghosts for of, always and the greedy, greedy, newest technology and the next evening at the cinema. ------a point is 15 To counteract the anti-Semite, Roth says, is says, Roth anti-Semite, the counteract To 12 14 While the world Malamud creates in his stories bears little resemblance resemblance little bears stories his in creates Malamud world the While 13 than bases from which to explore the human condition. . . . In fact, in what Jewishness and “Jewish I writings,” most Judaism call frequently Malamud’s is He not as disappear so good into for much for metaphor. the “good Jews” humanity. My contention is that Bernard Malamud is not only far from being an author an being from far only not is Malamud Bernard that is contention My concerned with the plight of one small group of humanity [the Jews], but that when he treats Jewish matters, most often he universalized Jews, Jewish culture, history, and Judaism to such an extent as to render them no more Perhaps it is because Malamud unfolds his universal morality tales from such from tales morality universal his unfolds Malamud because is it Perhaps given that English works (unlike those in Yiddish) would be read by non-Jews, non-Jews, by read be would Yiddish) in those (unlike works English that given [Malamud is] uncomfortable creating Jewish characters with negative quali representa Jewish negative to avoid The desire ties such as money grubbing. tions was particularly acute in the post-Holocaust years when writers were life. about critiquing Jewish understandably sensitive And Leah Garrett notes that And Leah Garrett Such an interweaving of the Jew and the world might arguably be at the heart the at be arguably might world the and Jew the of interweaving an Such of urbanizing, gritty American cities where Jewish characters struggle each through day and the questions they ask are not those of national or intellectual con human lives. of interdependent cern but focused rather on the intimacy and pain akin way a in moral” “the in us instructsstory Malamud a end, to beginning Read to “divine view;” Heschel’s but in every sentence, a individual character’s “point of view” remains like that of the biblical firmly prophet’s, and undoubtedly en experience. meshed in the details of Jewish Jewish experiential minutia that contemporary scholars have struggled to under and Jewishness his universal Writes vision. stand the balance between Malamud’s Abramson: Edward to those of his Yiddish peers or predecessors, wrapped up as they were in dybbuks, in were they as up wrapped predecessors, or peers Yiddish his of those to ani profoundly less no as read stories Malamud’s shtetls, and scrolls, Torah rabbis, vision a offer tales Malamud’s of Many experience. Jewish American the by mated need for a Jewish self-consciousness that is relevant to this time and place. . . indicate that . [To] moral crisis is something to be hushed up, is not of course, to no of is life Jewish that view of point rabbinical a it is nor line; prophetic the take mankind.” of rest the to significance not to deny that the Jews suffer but to make through that suffering a cry for the suffering of the whole world. of explaining the Jewishness of writing. Abraham Writes Malamud’s Joshua He task is to schel, yet convey “Theas a a divine prophet’s person view, he view.” of

44 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 45 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY - - - were also those in which he was settling was he which in those also were 16 The Magic Barrel Magic The , after Malamud and his wife had returned to America from from America to returned had wife his and Malamud after , 1958 and 1957 Writing Writing stories wherein the Jew transcends Jewishness for sheer expression Still, let us be careful not to assume that all of tales Malamud’s are crafted that he were a Jew. I understood the sentiment. I was glad I was, although my although was, I glad was I sentiment. the understood I Jew. a were he that my married I when mourning in sat had He that. about doubts his had father gentile wife, but I had thought it through and felt I knew what I was doing. After the birth of our son my father came gently to greet my wife and touch his grandchild. I thought of him. . . and felt I would often be writing about Jews, in celebration and expiation, though perhaps that was having it both ways. I wanted it both ways. I conceived of myself as a cosmopolitan man his freedom. enjoying Malamud Malamud himself hints at this The interpretation. years composing the sto At this time I was sharing an office with a colleague who often wished aloud identities the modern world has most jumbled about, where untrustworthy frag ments of inherited tradition confront a vast new continent of seemingly endless personal freedom. alike or possess the same narrative architecture to achieve his philosophical ends. Between Malamud wrote Europe, a at trio least of stories about Americans Jewish in Italy, to say, for I have left those people behind me. The freedom he so cosmopolitan desires, cultivation, becomes this the mechanism by which he seeks humanity particularity. the Jewish beyond of the truth of human existence is therefore one own life. way Imagine: ten years Malamud’s after the Holocaust a of Jew and his gentile explaining the arc of wife go on cheery cannot holiday trulyIt in be Europe. conceived, unless what is most in Jewish the (and Jew what therefore had most been hunted to extinction) be must what therefore (and humanity in universal most is what as reinterpreted is whose those for cipher a becomes Malamud reading way, this In cherished). most ries that would become would that ries the to relation in stood he where negotiating professor, and writer a as life his into among America rural of people the to and came he whence from Brooklyn of Jews later, remembered He whom he lived. tone, Malamud’s his conception of himself, sets him outside the world of Jewry and its everyday travails. My writings will be of remembrances of Jews, he seems Following these two scholars, fering and wevirtue is for mightMalamud to invest his with Jewish protagonists a certain say that to cast in centrality It the is experience. American postwar to make a claim that, Jewsthough as universals in suf Americans are a people gathered together from lands, scattered be—recognized. some identifiable must be, be—should can and society American in exists core moral story. every its way through Malamud wends This belief in moral universalism - - - - ). Bored with 105 , opens with the eign country provide some provide country eign ). About this Robert Solotaroff Solotaroff identifies a key linkage 105 The Magic Barrel 18 17 ), he says to the proprietress of his pensione, although a although pensione, his of proprietress the to says he ), 107 of this article I will translate such “decision-making” into the 3 From From France Henry travels to settling Italy, in the town of Stresa along the Alone, Henry dreams of adventure and watches the steamy young Italian In In the part I’ve seen in my time” ( time” my in seen I’ve at all. not seen that many had probably York New from clerk Macy’s lovers dancing in the streets late on weekend nights. Having been told of the in the story, that between Jewishness and ethics, that Malamud will return to time to return will Malamud that ethics, and Jewishness between that story, the in makes his way in Italy. and again as Freeman shores of Lake Maggiore. Initially Henry is enchanted by the the windows in French his northern beauty, room, his large bath. But as Italian he tours the vari ous islands he is disappointed—disappointed in a way for a that that demand unself-conscious its with American, reads as distinctly “Gardens alleyways. medieval and gardens manicured than interesting more thing relative—but relative—but wants no part of the ethical imperatives or the suffering Malamud implicitly argues inheritance.” are also a Jew’s 2 “The Lady of the Lake,” the eighth story in protagonist Henry Levin abroad in Europe romance” “seeking ( his life as a floor salesman in book Macy’s department Jewish his and off forethought—sloughs much recently Henry—without Paris come in into money, some of the past—tired “tired Freeman, surname and takes to calling himself Henry R. of the limitations it had imposed upon ( him” writes, “Since [Henry] has not made his way into the next Kierkegaardian level, the ethical, he happily accepts the financial inheritance—surely from a Jewish one of which, “The Lady of the pursued Lake,” the theme of universal morality through a distinctly Jewish vocabulary and cultural imagery. Reading this story gives one the impression that being abroad shifted—if only for some if months, only for a view year—Malamud’s of Jews, Jewishness, and being an American vocabularyfulfill a individual finding for Malamud story shows Italian This Jew. ment not just in the metaphor of Jewish identity but even more so in the actual (or does not keep) that identity alive. decision-making that keeps language of Paul Tillich: as revealing one’s Jewishness as self-affirmed becoming. The a story discussed below reveals courageous Malamud at his act most of attuned to the complexities of Jewish self-recognition, of its definitions, his definition derived of content in Malamud the modern age. how And it shows of its the ethical through action, in this case, and through acknowledging fully becom of affirmation the is ethical] [the as “Insofar wrote, Tillich As self. Jewish one’s ing it is virtue self altogether.” one’s

46 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 47 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY - - ). 13 ). These are are These ). – physically—

). ). She is more 112 112 12 – ” ( 111 ). Amid the richness of the natural world he feels his own 111 ). For the first time in the story Malamud gestures at life Henry’s before 9 Henry wanders away from the guided tour, down a path toward the beach he he beach the toward path a down tour, guided the from away wanders Henry Malamud’s tale, the of meeting real first their encounter, beach daylight this In The next day Henry tours Isola del Dongo, partly to search for the woman ). Malamud’s foreshadow is subtle and cruel. We the readers link Henry’s ear Henry’s link readers the We cruel. and subtle is foreshadow Malamud’s ). – 109 108 skin without a past. “And she had grace to lean on; herself also favored favored also herself on; lean to grace had she “And past. a without skin mama, what a queenly high-assed form—itself the cause of grace reminds us self-evaluation of the trajectory dialectical of of description Freeman’s The girl looks at Henry of from the shores the or the lake, Jew? story—American and Malamud writes, “Freeman was, of course, a New City York boy from way ( back. of . his and . background certainaware other disadvantages” had seen from the rowboat the night before. Sure now that the woman in the white white the in woman the that now Sure before. night the rowboat the from seen had virtues, its the by ever than enchanted more island, to him this drew is what dress and tired shore the on down sits he emptiness, own his of warnings the of heedless overcome. It takes bright only in moments glistening forskin the wet woman her . to . emerge, girl “a water. in the a white of out bath steps the up coming . . suit. ing sunlight. . . [a blanket draped] over her high-arched breast” ( beautiful than he had imagined. He is awed and this vision creates the template for all future girl of experiences—the as Henry’s No matter body. what she says, where they meet, or what he she dreams, a remains female beautiful form. She is the place. Neither is it happenstance that Henry’s memories of his earlier years and years earlier his of memories Henry’s that happenstance it is Neither place. the storycome the of remainder the for pursue will he woman the of sighting first his this standing was woman a realized quickly “Freeman sentences. uninterrupted in though face, her out make course, of not, could He . . . wall. marble low a of side he sensed she was young; only the skirt of her white dress moved in the breeze” ( lier years to the mystery of this island and its inhabitants, and it will be revealed her of memories terrible the else all above values likewise white in woman the that for self, hints without youth. But Henry regard will continue to deny his “Levin” and this will ultimately cost him everything. in white, but also because the night itself sees finally had he tour his inspired On life. his in a missing been had depth Paris, from of arrival his since feeling that, the beauty of the gardens. Again, gazing out at the endless variety of the garden “he experienced a painful, contracting remembrance—more like a warning—of personal poverty” ( hollow self, his life built atop an emptiness that this beautiful place was designed in chilling malice. here that pursues him even yet to obscure enchantments of one more island—Isola del Dongo—he rents a boat and rows out one evening. Something is different about this place and it stirs in him “the sense of awe and beauty he had felt” when he first arrived in as Italy, well as “a sad memory of unlived life, his own, of all that had slipped through his fingers” ( of mysteries dark the and Dongo del Isola of presence the to it linking “Freeman,” ------). Though the reader still knows 113 ). The girl is unlikely to care much for his for much care to unlikely is girl The ). ). She appears unfazed, as if the question 112 113 As they examine one another Henry “discovered in her eyes a hidden hunger, hunger, hidden a eyes her in “discovered Henry another one examine they As The point of decision arrives in their very first conversation. “The girl stud As for the momentary questioning (because he’s “a New York City boy”) of his his of boy”) City York New “a he’s (because questioning momentary the for As primary metaphor for the emptiness in life. Henry’s Her history, whatever it is, will somehow be the one Henry himself so casually sloughed off in Paris and so so Henry which upon that skin, Her physique. his from dismantled painstakingly verythe of character. his sign of a possess emptiness to out turn will gazes, fondly will embody his act of forgetting. She ied him for a full minute, and you, perhaps, then Jewish?’” hesitantly asked, ‘Are Henry This is beautiful horrified. young cannot Italian spend five minutes in his presence without forcing on him the circumstances of his birth. Knowing he can pass for a gentile, thinking this will bring her close to him, and batting “without an eyelash, he said, no, ( he wasn’t” introduces she own: her of one adds lie his atop and fancy, passing a only been had herself as Isabella del Dongo, wealthy scion not of yet The the ap reader, island. praised of the fallacy of the statement, girl’s is impressed but confused, precisely he’s come to Europe searching for romance and failing to notice the dark relation dark the notice to failing and romance for searching Europe to come he’s misconstrues lust for love. the island and his memory, ship between or memory thereof; perhaps it was sadness; and he felt he was, for this if reason, not unknown others, sincerely welcome” ( nothing of the girl, repeated Malamud’s narrative connections between Henry’s painfully dismantled past and the Isola del Dongo provide a clue into who she will come to be That for he Henry. continues to misinterpret these signs assures in a sense from the very out the no Which reader less is that why, they there. are set and without ever really being created, the girl in the white dress becomes the certainly certainly his Jewish qualities, the ones that make him less of a American, “true” wealth, to relate perhaps, could, They pedigree. without is he signify that ones the though this is as less being likely, nouveau riche does not have the same class im plications in postwar America as they did in pre–Great War Europe. newfound to America, proclaim is embarrassed not families, in dynastic lacking mostly still wealth. So these “certain other disadvantages” are most likely his Jewish ones. self-promotion: his recovers quickly Henry beauty, Italian an with be to worthiness “but he knew he a wasn’t bad-looking guy, even, it could be said, quite on the arms and legs “well-proportioned well-molded,” had He a “nose handsome side.” ( flat” respectfully lay stomach his and poor upbringing, Jewish he thinks, but at least he can present her with a suitable blue-blood American on the outside, polished and shined, as best as the coun try makes them. His interpretation of himself as an exterior form mimics what he loves about her. He is, upon this examination, not the someone misogynist Not the assumes. he reader beauty, equal of lover a wants She shallow. Just thought. she can share ideas with but someone she can share a bed thinking with. Henry,

48 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 49 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY - - - - ). He, too, strips down 124 ). He worried about why she had asked had she why about worried He ). 115 Henry made an attempt on each of the next two days to find the girl on from dart her Watching time. first the for unclothed her sees he evening That On the shore Henry thinks of Isabella and imagines what her family’s history family’s her what imagines and Isabella of thinks Henry shore the On Their meeting is cut short by the returning tour guide, who forces Henry tance that can come between two people standing so close, but when she takes his hand and brings him on tour through the house he is brought again into a feeling of warm happiness. behind a bush to swim out into the lake, Henry “had this utterly amazing vision of naked, her, but before he could even focus his eyes on her flower-like behind, she was already in the swimming water, for the raft” ( the island but failed. He wrote her a letter. On the third day, a Sunday, she sum she Sunday, a day, third the On letter. a her wrote He failed. but island the moned him to the island in the evening. On arriving he searched in the gardens and found her. “Beholding her, the lovely face, sharply incised, femininity, yet the soft dark in eyes its pensive, her hair loosely knotted gracefulat neck, the Freeman ached napeto his of oar-blistered fingers.” her She stroked her hair and he was dumbstruck at the abeauty, regular romantic. Again at the sight of her he is recalled to the sadness of old memories: “Freeman. . . could not help thinking as he dwelt upon her lost gesture, that she might be as elusive as it, as evanescent; and so might this island He be.” is saddened at the idea, at the dis ing his son, vocabulary—”whacked”—suggesting with that Malamud’s Henry is acting more the child than the man on holiday. Not only is responsibility Henry as an adult failing to treat Isabella as his more than aesthetic adornment, but he is also neglecting a more abstract maturity: adults must take responsibility for is something deeply There childish identity. received their own history, their own whacking begins in to The fantasizing tour about guide’s becoming entirely new. nudge the reader toward a more skeptical, less sympathetic view of Mal Henry. feel us making tone, his to harshness adding language, his shifting slowly is amud at his behavior and desires. somewhat ashamed at Henry, must be, conjuring up knights of old and courts “His of own historyhonor. was attempting of afraid wasn’t he and malleable, were men but again, else something ( combinations” daring certain create to if he was Jewish, thinking perhaps it was determine “to his or ‘eligibility’” some such, had or a that negative she’d experience, Jews, he thought to himself, “were might we as exactly comes question the of dismissal His all. after everywhere” now now expect it: “With ancient history why bother” even to explain? That part of his life was over. what Malamud desires us to be. To empathize with Henry, we must be convinced be must we Henry, with empathize To be. to us desires Malamud what his dreams bear some possible fruition that in his reality, willingness to abandon eventually can sorrow empty of drafts wafting with live and name!) (his history his flesh. find consolation in supple scold father a of image the is this ways many In island. the off boat next the onto ------aloof, aloof, we have a vi

). Because we think the 26 – 125 ). What caused these doubts? Freeman’s Freeman’s doubts? these caused What ). 126 come to stand in the way of some other ambition, then being a Jew Jew a being then ambition, other some of way the in stand to come does These illogical imaginings about and Jewishness his attempts to hide it con Yet it Yet is not the most reasonable conclusion, ample evidence of which Mal The next evening Henry lies in bed imagining the contours of their life to ). This is ). a complex, illogical sentence. Henry at once affirms his Jewishness, 126 sume his thinking for the rest of The the following morning, night. when Henry inevitable its on story the set to opportunity narrative the seizes Malamud awakes, swim, Isabella’s and his after Tuesday the morning, this Until course. ultimate and the reader could not truly be sure about relationship, could Henry and Isabella’s not know what elements would lead to its consummation or abandonment. But, writes Malamud, Henry “awoke the next morning, beset by a swarm of doubts ( possibilities” and plans his concerning late-night qualms about his Jewish whether identity, he could forget it, hide it, flee from it, or repurpose it. anxieties His could have been about any part of that garden evening they shared—her age, her dreams, her semi-profligate sexuality, her taunts, her melancholy, her different language. But they are not. All else is Mal Add self-identity. his Jewish subsumed a by disquiet ignored, brooding over consistent amud’s linkage of Isola del Dongo feelings with of Henry’s emptiness no crime to past be was, Jewish; that it a could man’s safely be said, expendable” ( is one what choice one’s not is Jew—it a be one that sin no is it that allows is, that be not should one though that, says also he clause second the in Yet all. after born, be if that mark, enduring an be not also should it Jew, a born being for punished Jew a ing should be allowed to be forgotten. is It circular logic: the very thing (Jewishness) is it if but disability; a as seen be not arguably can disability a as seen be might that because precisely mark its of free be to allowed be should man a disability, a as seen as a disability. it can actually be argued that it should not be seen and gives chase but by the time he reaches the raft she has returned to shore and redressed. Nude but separated, and Isabella coquettish yet sion as of two people moving along non-aligned planes. They are searching for different sorts of freedom, and yet know though what we it don’t is that Isabella seeks, Malamud provides strong portents that it will find little correspondence wishes to offer. with what Henry What gether. worries him most is lie “the he had told a that her, Jew,” he wasn’t and he interprets her asking about his possible Jewishness as a sign that “quite clear[ly] she wanted nothing to do with a Jew” ( girl is the princess del Dongo, Malamud the writer wants us also to think interpretation that of her Henry’s question is the one most logically conceived. If she sympathy much shown past the in never they’ve well, royalty, Italian true-blood is be any different? Why would Isabella the Jews. toward amud has given us, and he provides even more in the next sentence. He might not tell her about his Jewishness, Henry thinks, and let her realize that “it was

50 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 51 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY ------). 128 sabella—’ Freeman sabella—’ turned Freeman to ask her to marry him; but she was standing Late the next day Henry meets Isabella in piazza. the She seems town’s dis “‘I “Pointing to the snowy mountains, her hand moving in a gentle arc, she Again, just as before, Henry and Isabella exist on different planes, seeming Here, Here, in this plot decision, the underlying machinery propelling the story asked, ‘Don’t those peaks—those seven—look like a Menorah?’” ( like a Menorah?’” those peaks—those seven—look asked, ‘Don’t to return thoughts apart.Isabella’s veryfar actually being but dialogue in speak to in conjured menorah a of image the detail, cultural small a with time this Jews, the Malamud’s unlikely. seems That Henry? testing she Is peaks. mountain distant the descriptions mannerisms, of heretofore so Isabella’s exacting in their mimicry of Henry’s psychological state, suggest once again that she is some sort of cypher tion, and his soul. tracted, though she apparently brushes it aside soon after stepping near him. He kisses her fingers and then they settle into a tram ride up the mountain to take talk, in and They the on don’t view. reaching the mountaintop view stand in si lent Then, admiration. as Isabella names the distant cliffs, they both turn to one another to speak. apart him, her face pale. from Henry’s Jewish identity and the decisions he makespeared regardingin the it. first What paragraph had to ap be an innocent himself detail Henry (“Levin R. tookFreeman”) is revealed to ten calling pages before the story’s end as the radical moment in life which becomesHenry’s unmoored from its existential (if not emotional or intellectual) former wholeness. Jewish identity, in Malamud’s linkedveryidentities,specificallyotherbecertainlike canwhichnot to telling, is moments in a life or certain cultural communities in which one lived. For Mal amud Jewish identity is an unidentifiable presence, a thing without thingness, a responsibility and a problem with absolutely no outward manifestations and the simplest ease of being hidden. As Malamud reveals in finalthe pages,story’s the fact of possessing a Jewish identity bridges immense cultural distances, creating with individual each endows that strangers near between community empathic an commu This content. emotional and memory shared of reserve amorphous some nal space is what Henry has divorced himself from, thinking that to release the he man” “free must negate the “Jewish His us.” awaking to a “swarm of doubts” more than suggests that, to Malamud the storyteller who unwinds the destiny of his characters, Henry has committed a grievous sin. By willfully sublimating his connec human his empathy, his lost has Henry people) his thereby (and memory and loneliness, and the inevitable trajectory of the story comes into Isabella, full the metaphor relief. for wanton Henry’s abandonment of his Jewishness, will confront him with the true depth of his sin in some horrifying way and thence abandon him. is revealed. “The Lady of the Lake” is not about the lady or the lake. It is about - - - - ) 28 “Something like that.” “Something adorned with jewels?” crown Virgin’s see the else do you “Or “Maybe the crown,” he faltered. “It all depends how you look at it.” – 127 sabella asked. ( Henry did not come to to Europe cement his bond with the vision” “Jewish As his bedtime tussling the previous night solidified, Henry has dedicated The text continues, “Like a seven-branched candelabrum holding white candles I in the sky?” Henry, as usual, does not notice these signs. “‘Like a what?’ Freeman politely Freeman what?’ a “‘Like signs. these notice not does usual, as Henry, body, body, himself a stranger to his own No identity. wonder, then, that he can but continue to deny the truth written upon flesh as his own he for searches a way to get closer to her own. of the mountains—or, the Jewish vision of anything. But Jewish one’s identity, a menorah is, means existentially to live the life that Henry most fears, the life that prompted him to change his name in the first place. Understanding what a to is, Alps, European the of peaks snow-capped the in one seeing and is, menorah a particular is to be part to of It negate a being specificity, free. somehow Henry, to acknowledge that ity, one will never be the same as all those other Europeans, see what they see when they look upon the Alps. will never himself from the story removing and therefore of the himself to being “Freeman” Jews. He is convinced that if he asks her to marry him she will respond in affirmative. How pathetic the he seems all of a sudden, his love built on lust for her for his own inner crisis of Jewish identity. Isabella is “standing apart,” “pale.” Her Her “pale.” apart,” is Isabella “standing for his inner own crisis identity. of Jewish words are not self-recognition a is Jewish test mov but a sign, a portent. Henry’s ing away from him, still perhaps within reach but growing thin, weak. Whereas the first description of was Isabella skin of glistening “wet in bright she sunlight” the longer no is Isabella sky. Italian rosy the of unreflective pallid, become now has misdirected of queasiness sickly restrained, the but possibility of temptress strange lust and unwise choices. inquired. He had a sudden frightening remembrance of her seeing him naked as he came out of the lake and felt constrained to tell her that circumcision is rigueur in de stateside The is hospitals.” word all “menorah” he hears. He does not watch her actions, does not see her body in relation to his own. He is still wor ried that she is an aristocratic anti-Semite, that his chance to sleep with her will be compromised by his missing a piece of skin, that her vision of the menorah in the mountaintops is a ruse to prove his unworthiness. Who but the most insu larly hedonistic individual could interpret the mention of a Jewish ritual object solely through its implications for having sex? Being a understanding Jew, what

52 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 53 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY ------)—most 129 ), not neces 129 to hear her, or better, was incapable of wanted see if one happened to look upon the snow-capped would The mountaintop conversation a failure for both lovers, Henry and Isabella Henry thinks during these hours after in his the room trip has any Nothing It It is at this point that Henry receives the first of two important disclosures the For first world time, begins here on to the come mountaintop, Isabella’s anyway he had come to Europe to find a worth “girl marrying” ( that all is that and her loves he thinks he and beautiful is Isabella heiress. an sarily matters. thing whatsoever to final do words: what with “That’s I Isabella’s was afraid of.” It is as if even heard Henry which her, hadn’t quite possibly he had not—in the metaphorical sense. He had not well-to-do well-to-do tourists as they parade through the grand island estate flaunting their postwar On prosperity. top of which she has a secret, whose contours Malamud has been slyly drawing and the keen reader has perhaps anticipated. The secret cannot be that she is that poor, she comes from a family with no titles or grand in shameful little a even perhaps, Embarrassing frightening. not is Poverty homes. the face of so many wealthy tourists, but it does not necessitate the sly question Jewishness. ing, all the hinting and disjointed questions about return to their respective homes. After some self-pity and doubt Henry decides that and savings, has he that much, that all matter not does poverty Isabella’s that tian tourist actually see the crown of the Virgin? Henry cannot tell us, and though and us, tell cannot Henry Virgin? the of crown the see actually tourist tian thus far in the story we think Isabella might be able to, we now begin to doubt if even she knows the Christian alternative. So at the very moment Henry is re jecting what might very well be an authentic Jewish vision of the menorah (and his chance to sleep with Isabella), he grasps onto in “freeman-ship” the shape of an assumed Christian alternative, which is really no more than a half-life, a life without a name. from unhappy Isabella that conclusion. finalize Isabella is the not story’s the Ital ian princess she has so far claimed to be, but is only the lowly daughter She caretaker. island’s of tells Henry the that her father had encouraged her with him, wanting her to go to America, “but under the right circumstances” ( encouraging Freeman, about first at sure wasn’t She Jew. a with assume, we likely, not “‘I’m while.” a after me to clearer be would you thought “I saying stay, to him she responds. what I was afraid of,” he says. “That’s hiding anything,” into focus. She lives a small, frightened life She in is poor, probably uneducated, a alone but large for her father, constantly and watching beautiful country. Malamud Malamud is saying, is as literal as the mountains. both It’s the way one sees the cajoles; Isabella people, your Pick world. the in see to chooses one what and world moun Henry’s makes what is choice This Virgin? or menorah Christians, or Jews what know doesn’t Henry pathetic. more the all Isabella with conversation taintop a Christian European Chris a Would alternative. non-Jewish Isabella’s apes merely answer Henry’s Alps. - - - - ). On the island Henry rushes to the garden. garden. the to rushes Henry island the On ). her. But why should this last her. conversation be ) 129 132 understanding “To whom goodbye?” affectionately “To Freeman mocked. “I have come to inevitable soft, the came then bright, moistly eyes with him at gazed She her, meaning her, “Goodbye,” Isabella whispered. Isabella “Goodbye,” marry you.” ( a Jew?” you thunder: “Are This is the moment at which Malamud poses his central question: What is Which that. than honor more with Henry depicts Malamud not. does he And Deciding Deciding that he must keep Isabella in his life, and absolutely unwilling to unmoored; unmoored; men who sit on the docks and, though not glamorous, have a sense of place, and men who row in-between, who, for lack of so much commitment, time spend in transit that more of life is lived out on the waters than in embrace the of lovers on either telling shore. Henry In Malamud’s is wholly respon sible for this fate. Henry’s consummate narcissism, his ignorant attachment to a non-Jewish identity whose specificities (and implications) he does not under stand, and his singular obsession with physique, Isabella’s are personal failings. Henry has no right to blame the world for his troubles. is what ultimately keeps the story consistent with universalist Malamud’s moral identity, Jewish his to relation in are Isabella vis-à-vis choices Henry’s of All vision. this aspect of his cultural heritage. Recall dependent on his outlook as regards are necessaryimagining a the is for “Thepast condition Alter: a of Robert possession Henry has of possession in the of the future.” no sense past. of is He being “free” singular, of being without meaningful connection to any one identity beyond the implication of denying one’s Jewish identity? the Jewish and Unhappiness implication loneliness, of he denying one’s answers; the sense of being no one in a world that expects everyone to be some one. There are no true only men,” “free men who are moored and men who are hearing wants. he what hears desires, he what sees Henry ones? previous than different any and world; this in free is nothing Yet fantasy. man’s free a himself for built has He one expects. in the currency come for things doesn’t sometimes the payment confront the implications of her words what “That’s I was afraid Henry of,” re turns by boat to her father island. at He sees the Isabella’s docks and thinks that the father has come to collect him, to bring him Henry the whole as world around revolves On himself. the water between land and comfort to daughter. For island, he looks again toward the mountains, thinking of the menorah. “Where had she got the word, he wondered. . . . Wherever she had, he must settle ( this tonight” all for and once subject Isabella is standing among the statuary in the same or description outfit Malamud’s this as Is bride.” when future a of figure the white, he “wearing first her, saw As thought? Henry is It approaches unclear. turns Isabella to face him, Freeman’s her question the other way round. chance to answer him one more allowing

54 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 55 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY - - - - - If one If 19 that alienates Isabella from from Isabella alienates that ). ) for 132 132 themselves to continue living in a . It is this is It . for transform the Jews were shipped away to slaughter. were the Jews what

for “Buchenwald,” Isabella said, “when I was a little girl. The Fascists sent us sent Fascists The girl. little a was I “when said, Isabella “Buchenwald,” ”—being a Jew not defined as suffering but suffering as a sign that one has one that sign a as suffering but suffering as defined not Jew a ”—being Malamud would have known the line from childhood. Isabella’s decision would Malamud have known the line from Isabella’s childhood. 20 for oughly confused as to her intent. When she revealed her breasts. . . to his horror he discerned tattooed on the soft and tender flesh a distorted numbers. bluish line of mean is past My Jews. are We marry you. can’t I . . . it. did Nazis The there. ( for.” what I suffered ingful to me. I treasure Suffering comes with being Jewish. Not “what I but suffered,” “what I suf One One last make time never? Henry disavows his many Jewishness. “How no’s her heart. is carved answer literally over Isabella’s Slowly she unbuttoned her bodice, arousing Freeman, though he was thor So what about Malamud’s description of Isabella dressed all in white? If she is is she If white? in all dressed Isabella of description Malamud’s about what So one based on suffering and the Though Holocaust. Isabella herself demonstrates no signs outward religious practice of she Jewish identifies with those who do, or at least with those who are descendants of those who once did. Henry does not. the from himself separated has doing so in and heritage that disavowed has Henry meaning suffering. of No Isabella’s one who did not go through the camps can understand But the one horror. who identifies as a Jew can recognize what those suffered camps the through go did who ship in the Jewish people is also his exit from men human Free society generally. and be mistrusted. lonely men, doomed to wander are persist with such foolish questions?” ( Why do you fered not is he definition; his in delicate is Malamud Jewishness. one’s to true remained a to precursor those who would the replace idea of identity inherited with Jewish his own self-presentation. Which, judging from his thoughts toward Isabella, is a superficial one, interested in sexual gratification and access to physical beauty without any thought to the larger implications of human social life. the In end it is not that Henry has separated himself from the It is Jews. that he has separated himself from that most human quality longed for by all people: to member his be of abdication accepted Henry’s community. a of member treasured a and into would rather see crown the in Virgin’s the mountaintops, such a person cannot understand bride, why invoke the Malamud not is image? to Perhaps depicting be Freeman’s Lord the meet they as people Jewish the to escort the bride, Sabbath the as Isabella Sab the welcome us let bride; the greet to Beloved, my “Come, hour: holy their in bath.” Henry and that Malamud holds up as the Writes true content of identity. Jewish “Let me concern Eileen Watts, suggest is that not Malamud’s only for what Jews must endure, but for how they must extinction.” attempted their condoned tacitly and orchestrated that world ------, and that part of the content of of content the of part that and , It is a valid observation, and does seem seem does and observation, valid a is It 21 suffering for suffering between Jewish people everywhere. Henry Henry everywhere. people Jewish between but ]), and then arguing that the ethical is the measure measure the is ethical the that arguing then and ]), empathy 29 – suffering 28 is this unique historical historical unique this is Seeing her tattooed breast may actually be the first instance in which Isabella in Isabella be which the instance may first actually breast her tattooed Seeing for cause in Jewish tradition it is only the males who are outwardly marked, Malamud Malamud marked, outwardly are who males the only is it tradition Jewish in cause into them) hide to attempts concomitant the (and themes two these interwoven has a single tale of incompatible desires. Henry can hide his circumcision (worrying her tattoo can hide and Isabella enough), he it that did at not hide well one point win went they night the raft the on near Freeman let not does she reason the (likely inscribed is what than more are Jewishness of identifications but lake), the in ning be. to courage a is it commitment; existential an is Jewish Being body. the on to fit with the single-line inclusion of Holocaust references in many of Malamud’s Malamud’s of many in references Holocaust of inclusion single-line the with fit to into skin, and identity be Jewish inscribed literally the But because Nazis stories. As I suggested in the opening pages of this article, Malamud uses the particulari ties of Jewishness to access universal feelings of loss, sadness, and memory. But is Jewishness likewise a and both mark of humanly transcendent unique identity, of a “The reading through close Lady of What is emerges the how Lake” distinct. these and two caught particularity—get elements—universality up in a complex web of individual meaning decisions where and interpersonal existentialism, situations.from comes One languagemaking for self-identity under of sort this standing arises not from a metaphysical essence but from the continued act of being. Add ing to this the empathies theological of and Tillich, Paul we arrive at a religious of the formulation that seems Malamud’s depict to more accurately existentialism to metaphysical the reintroduces Tillich scholars. other by posed those than ethical self (“the self-transcendence of idea Nietzschean the adopting by first existentialism, which surpasses the self” [ we limit uppermost the and self-actualization at attempt one’s between space the of 3 to marry a Jew is made, her boundaries drawn, her loyalties secured. Say the kab at the balists: end and of battles the when all week is uttered are oaths after done, waged, goods are bought and sold and children loved and theological scolded, Jewish in the too So bride always. re eve, Friday every and each people, her to turns of the literature is Israel People often depicted as bridegroom. bride to the Lord’s how clear not is It Songs.) of Song the of interpretation rabbinical chief the is (This liturgi Jewish specifically in was Malamud interested, how fact in even or learned, But the parallels are inescapable cal and imagery. are made stronger by his sugges not is Jewishness that tion the lacks that empathy, and therefore forsakes the right to be loved by Isabella. by forsakes the right to be loved and therefore lacks that empathy, timeless a from transforms she eyes—when Henry’s in humanity deeper some gains in this of note made have scholars Malamud Many woman. actual an to nymphet end. story’s the at Holocaust the of trusion

56 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 57 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY

------23 e—likewise re ). 31 narrativ

is mutually reinforcing, and that it it that and reinforcing, mutually is courage to be courage

the and and being all his works as metaphors for the universal, perhaps pushes

Cynthia Ozick, likewise attempting to distance Malamud from 22 Some Some have argued. . . that his humble Jews are stand-ins for universal suf fering: [but] in fiction as in life, living human beings ought not to be thrust trans these escapes easily Malamud metaphor. of perils annihilating the into as the symbol—through Jew the blunt erasures—the allegorical gressive Jew, butcher, shoemaker, census-taker, and earthy specificity of his ordinary Jews: gro (several), tailor janitor, peddler, candler, egg baker, student, night-school failed). (several, writer (failed), painter actor, driver, taxi failing), (several, cer Tillich’s language Tillich’s provides a means of interpreting Malamud whereby the With With Malamud, the fulfillment of this self-actualization often looks a great In “The Lady of the Lake,” Malamud suggests that the ethical arises from the from arises ethical the that suggests Malamud of Lake,” the “The Lady In those who interpret beyond. lies which ethical, the forgets and quotidian and material the into far too writes, She of “The Lady of the Lake,” the bluntness of tattooed numbers on the skin, or the of “The Lady of the Lake,” earthiness of a circumcised penis, can be powerful metaphors for identity, Jewish although ones that must be affirmed in order for the characters to realize their ethical potential. Jewish need not give way to the universal or the writes Tillich that material. the relationship between of question ethical “The ethical. the find we that negotiation this of space the in is Ozick Ozick is in many ways correct. But she forgets that sometimes the earthy“blunt specificity” and is also symbolic. As Malamud wrote in the concluding pages Judaism of idea might Malamud’s sense, possess—whether this In selves. Jewish affirmed by created space itdoes the in he sides is, be that divine,“religion;” from come historical,not does and “religious” ornot is morality Jewish kosher or eating praying from derived is ultimately ethics Judaism’s that not think food or observing the Jew, Sabbath. a Instead, born is the One being history. of of Jewishness is peculiarities and a form exigencies the of by self- dictated fashioning Jewishness. that of self-actualization the pursue courageously must one therefore and deal like universal humanism. And this is where—reminding readers of the first part of this article—I believe that some of misled. Malamud’s It interpreters does have seem been possible that, at its most a perfected, self-actualized Malamud’s Judaism vision is of synonymous with universal humanism. But impor tantly, Malamud does not divorce ethics from the way that one ethical space. arrives at the can imagine for self-transcendence. God resides (God is?) in the gathering together together gathering the in is?) (God resides God self-transcendence. for imagine can cour much how in is stance ethical person’s a of measure the and selves, surpassed of courage of character moral “the being: own one’s of task the to devotes he or she age remains incomprehensible without its ontological character” ( meta-power of sort Any Judaism. that self-affirm to characters Jewish his of courage

. - - - 2016 ). 2 ). In Malamud’s story, story, ). In Malamud’s 2 ). For Henry, ). the For Henry, promises of anonymity in 3 is currently the Postdoctoral Fellow in Judaic Studies at Virginia Virginia at Studies Judaic in Fellow Postdoctoral the currently is LER SS Through Through Tillich, we come to see that the details in this short story reveal bound up. “I treasure what I suffered for” she says. Not for the right to pray three three pray to right the for Not says. she for” suffered I what treasure “I up. bound times a day and say O “Hear, as Israel,” had the martyrs of suffered the Talmud under the Romans. She has courageously suffered for the right to ference, to do express it as part dif of a group (the Jews), and to recognize its ethical worth alongside all the other ways of living in this world. KE J. SAMUEL otherwise might not exist. “The courage to be is the ethical act affirms in his which own man being in spite of those elements of his existence which conflict with his essential ( self-affirmation” Europe, royalty and and money, feminine are beauty, those elements in conflict with his essential self. He runs to Europe to disappear from his being But a Jew. ethical an at arrives Malamud end, the In being. one’s from disappear cannot one even at the place Jewish identity, cost where of holding love or onto wealth one’s or honor, is depicted as the highest good. Isabella embodies ideal Malamud’s of but together people Jewish the keeps that one as is which self-actualization, Jewish that has sloughed off the medieval rabbinic cloak in which it had so long been the nature the of to nature of question leads courage the inescapably being. And ontological can being of nature the of question ontological The reversed. be can procedure the be asked as the ethical question of the nature of courage” ( Henry equates the bravado of courage play-acting of with Jewishness, Tillich’s his being. express If to the whether) (or how about is Henry for question ontological suggest), Malamud and Tillich both (as ethics with correlated directly is being if and failure to then his Henry’s acknowledge is Jewishness from transformed a simple Malamud Though dimension. of meta-historical to one history of family question as take play-acting it gentile is so indeed Henry’s heretical, far, certainly wouldn’t space the is which God, of house very the destroying also but undermining only not created through Jewish self-actualization. For Malamud, Jewishness is at the is unal “Courage Tillich, Wrote affirmed. be must It self-position. one’s of center terable ( inner aim or entelechy” one’s essential nature, the affirmation of one’s view Malamud’s of Jewish identity as one that must what be is both Jewishness self-affirming one’s and history, in cruelty much so surviving After self-surpassing. and it is what a creates the remains moral partsurest space one where of identity, urbanization and civil emancipation. His book manuscript, “The Transformation Transformation “Themanuscript, book His emancipation. civil and urbanization of Judaism: Rabbis, Synagogues, and Preaching in Nineteenth-Century Central traces Europe,” the development and importance of the sermon rabbi’s and the Polytechnic Institute and State University. He received his Ph.D. from the Depart the from Ph.D. his received He in University. State Hill and Institute Chapel Polytechnic at Carolina North of University the at Studies Religious of ment to response in practice religious Jewish of transformation the on focuses work His

58 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE 59 KESSLER BERNARD MALAMUD IN ITALY

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), , no. , no. 31 The Cambridge Companion to

1977 , May , May ). (December (December (Cynthia Ozick, “Judging the World: 2001 The Magic Worlds of Bernard Malamud New York Times York New Commentary . . (New Straus Farrar, York: and Cudahy, 4 132 New York Times York New - Commentary Book Review

663 American Studies in Scandinavia Studies American s] the more America felt its age and the shrinking op ): [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, , ed. John N. Duvall (Cambridge: Cambridge University 1950 1964 1945 ; and Evelyn ed. Avery, The Magic Barrel 141 New York Times York New - The Creative Itch,” Itch,” The Creative (Summer (Summer Defenses Defenses of the Imagination: Jewish Writers and the Modern Historical 4 129 , Cynthia Ozick reviewed the the Library of America’s Bernard Malamud Malamud Bernard America’s of Library the the reviewed Ozick Cynthia , ), , no. , no. 2014 5

2012 (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, Society, Publication The Jewish (Philadelphia: ). In her she review, wrote: “His and landscapes, the nature’s are mind’s, inimi . revolutions. ons, “Jewish American Fiction,” American Fiction,” ons, “Jewish arc arc L. Ratner, “Style and Humanity in Malamud’s Fiction,” obert Alter, ernard ernard Malamud, eview hilip Roth, “Writing about Jews,” about Jews,” “Writing hilip Roth, hilip Roth, “Writing American Fiction” American Fiction” “Writing hilip Roth, irjo Ahokas, “Through the Ghetto to The Giotto: of Process Transformation Inner ee Victoria Aarons, “American Jewish Fiction,” in tanley Fish, “What’s Up with tanley the Fish, “What’s Jews,” n early n n the postwar years “[t]he Jew was engaging America, whether for good or otherwise, otherwise, or good for whether America, engaging was Jew “[t]he years postwar the n P ‘Last Mohican,’” in Malamud’s M R Aar P R Crisis I and Jewish writers refereeing the encounter portrayed it along lines of sociological differentiation. . . . [In the could experience ghetto Jewish more the improvement, even or renewal for portunities provide the model for a . new . sensibility. . The accusation once leveled against the Wisse, R. (Ruth of into the belonging” circle inner has his become password outsider Hero Modern as Schlemiel The S 2011 P The Library of America’s Bernard Malamud Collections,” Collections,” Malamud Bernard The Library of America’s 2014 table; its the wounded Malamudian openness sensibility, to large feeling, has had no successors. . . . A new generation, mostly unacquainted with the risks of uncompro mising and hard-edged compassion, deserves Malamud even more than the one that made up his contemporary readership.” S American Fiction After Press, Press, York of New University (Albany: State Thomas Lask, “ B to this edition. citations are Subsequent I volumes for the 1848

...... 1 5 3 8 2 4 7 9 6 11 12 10 The author wishes to Jonathan Hess thank (UNC Dr. Chapel Hill) for initial encourage ment and advice in the early stages of this article, as well as the anonymous reviewers and most especially the editor of SAJL, Dr. Benjamin continued Schreier. Dr. Schreier’s sug than it would otherwisegestion and critique has made this article much more been. have monumental synagogue within German-speaking Jewry in the decades following the NOTES

- - ), ]), 1969 1952 [April 2 [ The Magic 1954 elationship,” elationship,” , no. R

). And Christof And ). 19

(Boston: Twayne, (Boston: Twayne, 1958 , 10 . The Cambridge Companion The Cambridge 174 , May May , (New York: Farrar, Straus & ): , ed. Evelyn Avery (Albany: SUNY Avery , ed. Evelyn 2010 ). Charles Poore argues that “[Henry The Koren Siddur, American Edition (New York: Harper Torchbooks, Torchbooks, Harper York: (New ticle to argue for examples from other . 1 221 147 ], New York Times York New Twentieth Century Twentieth Literature ): , vol. vol. , (November (November 2003 2 1994 ( 24 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, Press, University Yale (New Haven, CT:

, no. , no. , ed. Michael P. , Kramer ed. and Michael Hana Wirth-Nesher P. [New 34

The Prophets The ). The Stories of Bernard Malamud 2009 Bernard Bernard Malamud: A Study of the Short Fiction . Italics in original. . Italics AJS Review 140 The Courage The to Courage Be ), ix. The Magic Worlds of Bernard Malamud of Bernard Worlds The Magic ), ). . 1983 arrett, arrett, “Just One of the Goys: Salinger’s, Miller’s, and Malamud’s Hidden 61 79 2001 do not dwell on it at any length, but they evoke it in a phrase, a descriptive pas descriptive a phrase, a in it evoke they but length, any at it on dwell not do ), ]: alamud stories, I believe that this interpretation holds true for them as well. that this interpretation alamud stories, I believe alamud Stories: ‘The German Refugee,’ ‘Man in the and Drawer,’ ‘The Lady of . Subsequent citations are to this edition. citations are . Subsequent zick, “Judging the World.” the zick, “Judging iroux, iroux, erusalem: Koren, erusalem: Koren, obert Solotaroff, braham Joshua Heschel, Heschel, Joshua braham ernard ernard Malamud, ileen H. Watts, “Not True Although Truth: The Holocaust’s Legacy in Three mily Miller Budick writes, “One response to the impossibility of language to rep dward A. Abramson, “Bernard Malamud and the Jews: An Ambiguous Ambiguous An Jews: the and Malamud “Bernard Abramson, A. dward ranslation by Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, aul Tillich, Tillich, aul J ewish Heroes,” ewish Heroes,” and the End of American Innocence,” 1973 Though it is outside of the scope of this ar M O barbarism as we growing face spread today’s of despotism. The stories in Barrel ( sorrow” irremediable of memory a sage, hope for a romantic marriage to nobility collapses not [Levin’s] writes, “And Wegelin because the lady he courts turns out to not be daughter, because only the caretaker’s she is less than he imagined, but because she treasures what she has suffered for in Buchenwald, treasures, that is, the very Jewish solidarity which changing he his has name” denied (“The by American Schlemiel Abroad: Malamud’s Italian Stories 28 R 1989 E M the Lake,’” Press, T ( E resent the unrepresentable event of the Holocaust has been just such a of privileging ‘silence’ as the only decorous way of responding to what cannot be said” (“The American Literary Imagination,” in the Jewish Holocaust to Jewish American Literature York: Cambridge University Press, Levin,] appearing as affluent as expect Europeans all Americans to be. . . falls in love with a girl light who pretends to be This, a as princess. all who remember yesterday’s novels and light is operas about know, as antique a romantic plot as you can find in a hard search among literature’s warehouses. If it is saved by not Mr. convinced that he I’m has salvaged Malamud—and it—we must concentrate on the special air of fantasy he achieves at the end, and the suggestion of the modern barbarism world’s he has placed at the heart of need it. to . be . reminded of . We the time Hitlerian of x. Emphasis original. x. Emphasis E Studies of English Yearbook The Leah G J B G P A

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60 STUDIES IN AMERICAN JEWISH LITERATURE