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Malamud, B. (1963) Idiots First
Malamud, B. (1963) Idiots First
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bearded stranger disappeared into the bushes. A policeman came running, and "Vey is mir," his wife muttered. "Put on shoes or tomorrow comes sure
though he beat the bushes with his nightstick, could turn up nothing. Mendel and ·pneumonia." She was a woman with a big belly, years younger than her husband.
Isaac hurried out of the little park. When Mendel glanced back the dead tree had its Staring at Isaac, she turned away.
thin arm raised, the thick one down. He moaned. Mendel apologetically related his errand. "All I need more is thirty-five
They boarded a trolley, stopping at the home of a former friend, but he had died dollars."
years ago. On the same block they went into a cafeteria and ordered two fried eggs "Thirty-five?'' said the rabbi's wife. "Why not thirty-five thousand? Who has
for Isaac. The tables were crowded except where aheavyset man sat eating soup with so much money? My husband is a poor rabbi. The doctors take away every penny."
kasha. After one look at him they left in haste, although Isaac wept. "Dear friend," said the rabbi, "if I had I would give you."
Mendel had another address on a slip of paper but the house was too far away, in "I got already seventy," Mendel said, heavy-hearted. "All I need more is
Queens, so they stood in a doorway shivering. thirty-five."
What can I do, he frantically thought, in one short hour? "God will give you," said the rabbi.
He remembered the furniture in the house. It was junk but might bring a few "In the grave," said Mendel. "I need tonight. Come, Isaac."
dollars. "Come, Isaac." They went once more to the pawnbroker's to talk to him, but "Wait," called the rabbi.
the shop was dark and an iron gate - rings and gold watches glinting through it - was He hurried inside, came out with a fur-lined caftan, and handed it to Mendel.
drawn tight across his place of business. "Yascha," shrieked his wife, "not your new coat!"
They huddled behind a telephone pole, both freezing. Isaac whimpered. "I got my old one. Who needs two coats for one body?"
"See the big moon, Isaac. The whole sky is white." "Yascha, I am screaming -"
He pointed but Isaac wouldn't look. "Who can go among poor people, tell me, in a new coat?"
Mendel dreamed for a minute of the sky lit up, long sheets of light in all "Yascha," she cried, "what can this man do with your coat? He needs tonight
direction. Under the sky, in California, sat Uncle Leo drinking tea with lemon. the money. The pawnbrokers are asleep."
Mendel felt warm but woke up cold. "So let him wake them up."
Across the street stood an ancient brick synagogue. "No." She grabbed the coat from Mendel.
He pounded on the huge door but no one appe(lred. He waited till he had breath He held on to a sleeve, wrestling her for the coat. Her I know, Mendel thought.
and desperately knocked again. At las.t there were footsteps within, and the "Shylock," he muttered. Her eyes glittered.
synagogue door creaked open on its massive brass hinges. The rabbi groaned and tottered dizzily. His wife cried out as Mendel yanked the
A darkly dressed sexton, holding a dripping candle, glared at them. coat from her hands. ·
"Who knocks this time of night with so much noise on the synagogue door?" '.'Run," cried the rabbi.
Mendel told the sexton his troubles. "Please, I would like to speak to the rabbi." "Run, Isaac."
"The rabbi is an old man. He sleeps now. His wife won't let you see him. Go They ran out of the house and down the steps.
home and come back tomorrow.'' "Stop, you thief," called the rabbi's wife.
"To tomorrow I said goodbye already. I am a dying man." The rabbi pressed both hands to his temples and fell to the floor.
Though the sexton seemed doubtful he pointed to an old wooden house next "Help!" his wife wept. "Heart attack! Help!" .
door. "In there he lives." He disappeared into the synagogue with his lit candle But Mendel and Isaac ran through the streets with the rabbi's ne·w fur-lined
casting shadows around him. caftan. After them noiselessly ran Ginzburg.
Mendel, with Isaac clutching his sleeve, went up the wooden steps and rang the It was very late when Mendel bought the train ticket in the only booth open.
bell. After five minutes a big-faced, gray-haired bulky woman came out on the porch _There wasn? ~ime to stop for a sandwich so Isaac ate his peanuts and they
with a torn robe thrown over her nightdress. She emphatically said the rabbi was burned to the tram m the vast deserted station.
sleeping and could not be waked. "So in the morning," Mendel gasped as they ran, "there comes a man that he
But as she was insisting, the rabbi himself tottered to the door. He listened sells sandwiches and coffee. Eat but get change. When reaches California the train
a minute and said, "Who wants to see me let them come in." will be waiting for you on the station Uncle Leo. If you don't recognize him he wiii
They entered a cluttered room. The rabbi was an old skinny man with bent recognize you. Tell him I send best regards."
shoulders and a wisp of white beard. He wore a flannel nightgown and black But when they arrived at the gate to the platform it was shut, the light out.
skullcap; his feet were bare. Mendel, groaning, beat on the gate with his fists.
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"Too late," said the uniformed ticket collector, a bulky, bearded man with hairy They struggled nose to nose, Ginzburg, though his astonished eyes bulged,
nostrils and a fishy smell. began to laugh. "You pipsqueak nothing. I'll freeze you to pieces."
He pointed to the station clock. "Already past twelve." His eyes lit in rage and Mendel felt an unbearable cold like an icy dagger
"But I see standing there still the train," Mendel said, hopping in his grief. invading his body, all of his parts shriveling.
"It just left - in one more minute." Now I die without helping Isaac.
"A minute is enough. Just open the gate." A crowd gathered~ Isaac yelped in fright.
"Too late I told you." Clinging to Ginzburg in his last agony, Mendel saw reflected in the ticket
Mendel socked ·his bony chest with both hands. "With my whole heart I beg you collector's eyes the depth of his terror. But he saw that Ginzburg, staring at himself in
this little favor." Mendel's eyes, saw mirrored in them the extenf of his own awful wrath. He beheld
"Favors you had enough already. For you the train is gone. You shoulda been a shimmering, starry, blinding light that produced darkness.
dead already at midnight. I told you that yesterday. This is the best I can do." Ginzburg looked astounded. "Who me?"
"Ginzburg!" Mendel shrank from him. . His grip on the squirming old man slowly loosened, and Mendel, his heart barely
"Who else?" The voice was metallic, eyes glittered, the expression amused. beating, slumped to the ground.
"For myself," the old man begged, "I don't ask a thing. But what will happen to "Go," Ginzburg muttered, "take him to the train."
my boy?" · . . . , . "Let pass," he commanded a guard.
Ginzburg shrugged slightly. "What wdl happen happens. This 1sn t my respons~- The crowd parted. Isaac helped his father up and they tottered down the steps to
bility. I got enough to think about without worrying about somebody on one the platform where the train waited, lit and ready to go.
cylinder.'' Mendel found Isaac a coach seat and hastily embraced him. "Help Uncle Leo,
"What then is your responsibility?" Isaakil. Also remember your father and mother."
"To create conditions. To make happen what happens. I ain't in the anthropo- "Be nice to him," he said to the condu~tor. "Show him where everything is."
morphic business.'' He waited on the platform until the train began slowly to move. Isaac sat at the
"Whatever business you in, where is your pity?" edge of his seat, his face strained in the direction of his journey. When the train was
"This ain't my commodity. The law is the law." gone, Mendel ascended the stairs to see what had become of Ginzburg.
"Which law is this?"
"The cosmic universal law, goddamit, the one I got to follow myself." Notes: 1. Schlaf- Sleep. 2. Hungrig- Hungry. 3. Gutyuntif- Happy holiday. 4. Veyismir
"What kind of a law is it?" cried Mendel. "For God's sake, don't you -Woe is me. (All in Yiddish.)
understand what I went through in my life with this poor boy? Look at him. For For discussion: Try to explain the title of this short story in relation to the social antagonism
depicted in it. The blend of realistic detail and some fairy-tale elements. The identity of Ginzburg.
thirty-nine years, since the day he was born, I wait for him to grow up, but h.e don't.
Comment on the final clash between Mendel and Ginzburg. The economy and emotionalism of
Do you understand what this means in a father's heart? Why don't you let him go to Malamud's language. His use of Yiddish words and other linguistic features pertaining to Jewish users of
his uncle?" His voice had risen and he was shouting. American English (notice the word order and sentence structure).
Isaac mewled loudly.
"Better calm down or you'll hurt somebody's feelings," Ginzburg said with
a wink toward Isaac.
"All my life," Mendel cried, his body trembling, "what did I have? I was poor.
SAUL B LLOW (1915)
I suffered from my health. When I worked I worked too hard. When I didn't work
A university graduate in anthropology and sociology, novelist, short-story writer, Nobel Prize
was worse. My wife died a young woman. But I didn't ask from anybody nothing.
winner (1976); he shows in many of his fictional heroes the contemporary American intellectual
Now I ask a small favor. Be so kind, Mr. Ginzburg." undergoing a painful crisis of confidence in existing accepted values. His novel Herzog (1964)
The ticket collector was picking his teeth with a match stick. shows such a crisis in a Jewish-American professor of philosophy: Moses Herzog develops
"You ain't the only one, my friend, some got it worse than you. That's how it a serious neurosis, which he impulsively attempts to overcome by a kind of "epistular
autotherapy". He writes messages and letters presenting problems of his mind to different
goes in this country."
famous living as well as dead people. By the end of the narrative he is shown achieving
"You dog you." Mendel lunged at Ginzburg's throat and began to choke. "You a reasonable mental balance and a kind of acceptable settlement with life and society. Our two
bastard, don't you understand what it means human?" excerpts present unabridged parts from the very beginning of the novel and from its conclusion.
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