Malamud is one of my favorite writers but I must admit I didn't enjoy this one. It's the story of a married biography writer in his late 50's who has an affair with a young girl. It's the type of thing some people enjoy reading about but I have no interest in. As I was reading, the thought occured to me that this could have been written by just about any writer and it was a shame that someone as talented as Malamud found it necessary to write.

"The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your daily course" (p.149)

For me, Dubin's Lives is The Great American Novel. I read it for the first time, soon after it was published in 1979, as a young man, and read it again when I was properly into adulthood. Even with those limited horizons, it had a profound effect on me, this story of a biographer struggling with his work, his marriage, aging and depression, his relationship with his adult children, and his affair with Fanny Bick, half his age. Reading for the third time, as I approach Dubin's age, the book has an even more powerful resonance (though it is testament to the strength of the writing that, even as an 18 year old I was able to feel Dubin's struggles latent within me).

The ghosts of Thoreau, Lawrence and Hardy haunt the pages of the book, as the lives he writes haunt Dubin. Echoing Thoreau, Dubin's relationship with his landscape is central to the book and, though the story moves across a number of years through the New England seasons, for me it will always be a book to be read in winter.

I've been reading Thoreau's Walden simultaneously with my rereading of Dubin's Lives and I now have Philip Davis's much-praised biography 'Bernard Malamud - A Writer's Life' lined up to complete the triangle, Davis reflecting on Malamud reflecting on Dubin reflecting on Thoreau!

I am curious myself why I am reading Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth now at this time in my life! hmm the 70's ....my growing up years..maybe that's a clue.

This is about a biographer, his wife and his mistress. Also about marriage, mid-life crises, family relationships and love ties. William Dubin, has chosen to become a biographer because by writing biographies he reasons he will be able to grasp another person’s life. Maybe through understanding others he would come to understand himself. He has written biographies on Robert Frost, Henry Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. Now he is writing about D. H. Lawrence whose complicated love relationships have him analyzing his own. The book has quotes and interesting personal tidbits about the above named and others such as Montaigne, Carlyle, Mahler and Schubert. I like the peppering of quotes. I like how Dubin sought to understand himself by understanding how others have thought. He personalizes others’ life philosophies.

What drew me most to the book is its perfect mirroring of how New Englanders in the late 60s and early 70s viewed the world. Nixon, Watergate, and the Vietnam War set the background, as well as free love, flower power, Zen and an innocence and naivety in the belief that with a little protest problems will be solved and all will get better. Reading the book now, four decades after its publication in 1977, one is struck by both what has changed and what remains the same.

The writing mirrors East Coast mannerisms and dialog. Dubin lives with his wife in a rural community in upper New York State near the Vermont border. With his lover, who by the way is half his age, there are frequent trips to the Big City and occasionally abroad too. The son, a Vietnam deserter, is off to Sweden and Russia. The daughter is in Los Angeles and into Zen.

In its ability to so well capture a past time and place, one can today classify this as a book of historical fiction. Of course, when Malamud wrote it he was writing of contemporary times. I felt at home, but for others of later generations, it provides a learning experience.

Malamud describes nature—flowers, birds. seasons and storms--beautifully and accurately. He quite simply writes well. He captures guilt, through characters’ hearing of voices and steps-- here the writing borders on the Gothic. He draws sex in ways some may view as too erotic, but not to one of the Hippie generation. Thinking through the why of people’s behavior is much of what this book is about.

The book should have been better edited and thus shorter. Despite this, I liked it a lot.

If you are looking for a book that draws people who learn their lessons and improve, the book is probably not for you. If you are born in the forties or fifties or are curious about the Hippie generation, appreciate good writing and can deal with people who fumble, seek understanding but still fail, give the book a try.

I listened to an audiobook narrated by Victor Bevine. I felt the narration started off stilted. By the end I liked it a lot. I have given the narration four stars.



****************
The Assistant 4 stars
Dubin's Lives 4 stars
The Fixer 4 stars
A New Life 3 stars
My Father Is a Book 2 stars
The Tenants TBR
Bernard Malamud: A Writer's Life TBR

Very interesting and smart book. Curiously what sometimes bothers me in other books (too many descriptions, redundancy and unjustified length) didn't bother me in this one. Although I am convinced it will try the will of most readers.

Raramente abbandono i libri. La vivo come una colpa da parte mia. Un libro brutto, preferisco leggerlo fino alla fine e poi maledire l'autore e la sua discendenza nei secoli.
Ci sono però casi in cui vengo miracolosamente risparmiato dall'umiliazione di leggere un libro brutto. Succede raramente.
Una volta mi hanno rubato lo zaino con un libro (che trovavo noiosissimo) di Borges. Nello zaino c'era anche il portafogli, ma questi sono dettagli. Questa volta, invece, il libro è proprio sparito di suo. Sono chiaramente segnali divini, e li chiamerò Acts of God, come gli americani, per dargli la giusta importanza.
E quindi questa non può essere una recensione, perché il libro non l'ho finito, e io per regola non posso recensire libri non finiti. La definirei piuttosto un'ode alla saggezza divina, che mi ha letto nel profondo del cuore e mi ha risparmiato travasi di bile.
Il libro è perso da qualche parte, forse in provincia di Grosseto, forse su un treno della linea tirrenica, forse è in mare. A chi lo trova, il libro è vostro, buona lettura. Il mio cuore è in pace.

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Rileggendo quello che ho scritto, non mi sembra di essere stato giusto con questo libro. Do l'impressione che sia brutto, inutile e noioso, mentre a me è sembrato solo troppo lungo e difficile da leggere.
Brutto non è, anzi, ci sono dei passaggi davvero belli. Come questo sotto, che a volte rileggo, e di cui ogni volta mi stupisco, perché è in grado di descrivere un mondo intero in poche, precisissime parole. Parla dei figli che crescono, un tema che raramente mi lascia indifferente.
One day their childhood, and your enjoyment of it, was over. They take off as strangers, not confessing who they presently are. You tried to stay close, in touch, but they were other selves in other places. You could never recover the clear sight of yourself in their eyes.

This is an extremely well written book about a somewhat depressing subject; ie "male mid-life crisis. It involves a 55 year old biographer who is experiencing writers block. He is doing a biography of D. H. Lawrence and just can't get inside his subject. He has a very unsuccessful affair with a much younger woman. After taking her to Venice he finds her on the floor with a gondolier. He returns to his home in New England and finds himself growing away from his wife and is not happy with his relationship with his grown daughter and step son. Thereafter he begins to isolate himself from his wife.
While I very much admire Malamut's writing this book is not really a very pleasant read. Life can't be all that dark

No stars, if possible.

Wow, what a misfire from old impotent Malamud!

la vita di dubin, biografo di mezza età, che si intreccia con le vite dei personaggi di cui scrive e con quelle di sua moglie e della sua giovanissima amante fanny. buffo e tragico, nello svelare le contraddizioni e le miserie di ognuno di noi; più leggo i libri di malamud e più amo questo autore.

Malamud was an exceptional writer. So exceptional, it seems, that he was able to craft a novel about marriage and infidelity for an exhausting 386 pages and still keep my interest for the majority of the ride. Though, I must say, this is the fifth book I've read of his (I've also read The Natural, The Fixer, The Assistant, and The Tenants), and also my least favorite, mostly because of its redundancy. No lie, this book could have been trimmed by at least 100 less pages. At least!

And while yes, I know this book is about much more than love and marriage - Dubin is a biographer, so the title is a bit of a play on words -it just didn't do it for me. Something was just missing, and it was pretty glaring. It may have been the protagonist, since I felt no sympathy for him whatsoever. He was a bit of a scumbag.

Besides marriage and cheating, this book also has a heavy focus on masculinity and the idea of aging. But honestly, the concepts in this book are long and drawn out, and even with the beautiful prose that Malamud provides, it's hard to look at the book in its entirety and put it on the same level as, say, The Fixer or The Assistant. It's definitely worth a read, but not if it's the first book you're going to read of Malamud's. That should be The Fixer.

Un uomo di mezza età, scrittore di necrologi di personalità letterarie, affermatosi poi come biografo, vive una tranquilla esistenza in un piccolo centro agricolo dello stato di New York. William Dubin sarebbe rimasto scapolo se un giorno alla sua scrivania non fosse giunta una lettera di una giovane vedova con figlio, in cerca - tramite la testata - di una possibile frequentazione maschile a scopo di matrimonio. Così William si sposa, sposa Kitty ancora legata al fantasma del suo Nathaniel, mentre lui, William, nel frattempo matura un certo successo con le sue biografie; pubblica “Vite brevi” compendio di tragiche e premature dipartite oltre che di illuminanti esistenze, ha all’attivo una bella biografia su Lincoln e di recente ha riscosso un congruo successo con quella di Thoreau.
William Dubin si prospetta fin dalle prime pagine come un personaggio imperdibile, è incontenibile nello snocciolare aneddoti sulle vite altrui, per ogni occasione è lì ad associare un’illustre esistenza. Schubert morto a trentuno anni , Cechov malato di tubercolosi , D.H Lawrence condannato dalla stessa patologia. E quest’ultimo, lo scrittore scandaloso de “L’amante di Lady Chatterley”, è l’oggetto del suo ultimo studio, di lui scriverà una biografia grandiosa. In realtà mentre ormai è più vicino ai sessanta che ai cinquanta, diventato padre anche di Maud , ma allontanatisi entrambi i figli ormai grandi, attraversa una crisi esistenziale che va a coincidere con il suo essere fedifrago, il suo rapporto con la moglie diventa opprimente e tedioso mentre spunta come un bel fiore la giovanissima Fanny.
Ho letto con interesse le prime duecento pagine, protesa all’incompletezza di un uomo incapace di godere e di vivere la propria esistenza, saturo però delle vite altrui, di quegli uomini che in campo letterario avevano lasciato un segno. William vive ricostruendo i vissuti celebri mentre si perde correndo nella campagna, inseguendo una dieta, tentando di vivere il suo matrimonio, ripercorrendo però in maniera compulsiva le vite altrui. Anche la moglie, ben caratterizzata quanto lui, ha aumentato la curiosità col procedere della lettura che nel frattempo si è involuta nelle oltre cinquecento pagine in modo spesso triste e ripetitivo senza slanci narrativi interessanti nell’incedere ciclico delle stagioni. Nemmeno l’abilità, devo dire per me sorprendente rispetto all’idea più casta che mi ero fatta dell’autore, di rappresentare la sessualità all’interno del matrimonio e soprattutto fuori, ha mantenuto desta la mia attenzione pertanto ho faticato a portare a termine il romanzo trovandolo infine inconcludente e irrisolto come lo stesso Dubin, anche se efficace, riuscito e potente personaggio.

A married man has an affair with a younger woman.