PICTURES OF FIDELMAN by Bernard Malamud. 208 pages. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $5.95.
Another rueful Jewish hero! After Elkin and Roth and Bellow and Bruce Jay Friedman and Yahweh-knows-who! Will it never end? Apparently not. And what is most trying, this latest exemplar deserves special attention. For Bernard Malamud has invented a mixed-up little anti-hero all his own: the schlemiel-saint—eyes on heaven, feet on the banana peel. He has appeared in short stories (The Magic Barrel) and novels (A New Life, The Fixer). The Malamud man wobbles between laughter and tears. One minute...
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