The Tenants

By Bernard Malamud

Book Overview

With a new introduction by Aleksandar Hemon In The Tenants (1971), Bernard Malamud brought his unerring sense of modern urban life to bear on the conflict between blacks and Jews then inflaming his native Brooklyn. The sole tenant in a rundown tenement, Henry Lesser is struggling to finish a novel, but his solitary pursuit of the sublime grows complicated when Willie Spearmint, a black writer ambivalent toward Jews, moves into the building. Henry and Willie are artistic rivals and unwilling neighbors, and their uneasy peace is disturbed by the presence of Willie's white girlfriend Irene and the landlord Levenspiel's attempts to evict both men and demolish the building. This novel's conflict, current then, is perennial now; it reveals the slippery nature of the human condition, and the human capacity for violence and undoing.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374521026
• ISBN13: 9780374521028
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux-3pl
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Life a la Malamud!

Two writers. One Jew-Harry- one black-Willie- live in an abandoned tenamant block and have an antagonistic relationship. Malamud wrote this at the height of the black-jew tensions of the late 60's early 70's and it explores the link between identity and racism-Willie is seeking a definition of blackness that excludes and dominates, whilst Harry seeks love but doesn't know either how to find it or give it,and neither can escape from their never to be finished books. This is typical Malamud fayre;at times bleak, at times humourous and with characters that only destroy themselves or their ambitions. A definate for Malamud addicts.

Worth the dialogue alone ...

It wasn't "The Assistant" for me, but it was a pretty good read (the dialogue alone was worth the price of admission). Malamud handled the diversity of characters very well and although I wasn't over joyed at the ending, I didn't expect to be. A sometimes angry, sometimes funny read.

Short, gritty novel about rival novelists(1 black, 1 white)

Set in a decaying Manhattan tenement waiting to be condemned, "The Tenants" tells the story of a white novelist desperately trying to finish his novel before the wrecking ball comes down on him. Things get complicated when an aspiring African-American writer moves in and a rivalry begins.