Ready Reference Treatise: The Assistant

By Raja Sharma

The novel “The Assistant” is the second novel written by Bernard Malamud. The story is set in the working class neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York.

The story revolves around the three main characters and the relationship between them first and second generation Americans in the early 1950s.

The three major characters are and aging Jewish refugee from Tsarist Russia, a young Italian American, and a grocer’s daughter.

The Jewish refugee owns a failing small grocery store. The Young Italian American works there as the grocer’s assistant. The grocer has a daughter who falls in love with her father’s assistant. Though there are parental objections and misgivings of her own, she becomes romantically involved with the young American Italian assistant of her father.

“The Assistant” was made into a movie in 1997, and it proved to be a highly successful film. The story was highly admired by the audiences.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jan 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301112951

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: The Assistant

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2013 Raja Sharma

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved

Preface

Guide books or book notes are primarily written to make students understand the original text better, especially from all those angles which are often overlooked by a casual reader.

But, in the recent years it has been noticed that a very large majority of the students, without reading the original texts, rely on the guide books or notes prepared by their teachers or others. This is definitely not a healthy habit because students do pass their exams with the help of such notes; they miss so many things which haunt them in their later lives.

I would strongly advise all students to read the original text once again even if you have already read it, after reading this short treatise. You will see that the same story, after reading this treatise, will begin to give many new meanings to you.

All the best

Raja Sharma

Chapter One: About Bernard Malamud

Bemard Malamud was born on 26th April, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Max Malamud and Bertha, were Russian Jewish immigrants. His brother, Eugene, was born in 1917.

Malamud is a well known American novelist and short story writer. He finds his place among the great writers like Saul Bellow and Philip Roth. He is regarded as one of the