From the author of The Natural comes a classic short story about a young rabbinical student and his fateful encounter with an enigmatic matchmaker. A co-production with the National Jewish Theater.
Recorded before a live audience at Chicago's Guest Quarters Suite Hotel in July 1992.
Adapted and Directed by Arnold Aprill
Producing Director Susan Albert Loewenberg
Shelley Berman as Salzman
David Cromer as Leo Finkle
Marge Kotlisky as Mrs. Salzman
Naama Potok as Lily Hirschorn
Malcolm Rothman as The Narrator
Jensen Wheeler as Stella
Radio Producer: Robert Neuhaus
Recording Engineer: Larry Rock
These four recordings of twentieth-century American authors interpreting their own works were highly praised when first released in the 1960s. Today the cultural and historical value of these recordings makes them an essential part of our literary heritage.
Nelson Algren reads from his most famous novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, about the decline and fall of a drug dealer and card sharp. Bernard Malamud's devastating selection from The Magic Barrel portrays poor, embittered old Jews who achieve a moment of grace after fierce antagonism. In John Updike's story from Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories, a seminary student working as a lifeguard draws a witty and lyrical contrast between saving souls and bodies. And James Jones' account of a World War II battle in Japan in The Thin Red Line shows young soldiers at their most heroic and perilous moments.
"The Mourners" comes from Malamud's National Book Award-winning collection, The Magic Barrel, about poor immigrant Jews-grocers, tailors, janitors, cobblers-whose suffering transcends the particular to become universal. Set in a cheap rooming house whose landlord and janitor join forces to evict a poor and aged Jewish tenant, the story ends with Gruber, the landlord, morally transformed by the sight of his tenant's misery. As compassion replaces cruelty, the two men mourn together. In Malamud's reading, the sudden descent of grace on the adversaries emerges with poignant force.
These recordings of twentieth-century American authors interpreting their own works were highly praised when first released in the 1960s. Today the cultural and historical value of these recordings makes them an essential part of our literary heritage.
In this collection, James Baldwin reads from Giovanni's Room and Another Country, exploring the challenges of being black and gay in mid-twentieth century America. William Styron reads about a disabled child finding brief moments of joy in Lie Down in Darkness, his novel about a troubled Southern family. James Jones reads the most famous passage from his celebrated World War II novel, From Here to Eternity. And Philip Roth does a hilarious comic turn in a bizarre scene from his early novel, Letting Go.
Additionally, Nelson Algren reads from his most famous novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, about the decline and fall of a drug dealer and card sharp. Bernard Malamud's devastating selection from The Magic Barrel portrays poor, embittered old Jews who achieve a moment of grace after fierce antagonism. In John Updike's story from Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories, a seminary student working as a lifeguard draws a witty and lyrical contrast between saving souls and bodies. And James Jones' account of a World War II battle in Japan in The Thin Red Line shows young soldiers at their most heroic and perilous moments.
Nelson Algren reads from his most famous novel, The Man With the Golden Arm, about the decline and fall of a drug dealer and card sharp. Bernard Malamud’s devastating selection from The Magic Barrel portrays poor, embittered old Jews who achieve a moment of grace after fierce antagonism. In John Updike’s story from Pigeon Feathers, a seminary student working as a lifeguard draws a witty and lyrical contrast between saving souls and bodies. And James Jones’s account of World War II battle in Japan in The Thin Red Line shows young soldiers at their most heroic and perilous moments.
In Bernard Malamud’s short story, two old Jews, a landlord and tenant battling over a cheap apartment, are transformed from arch-enemies into companions in grief, as their common sorrows suddenly transcend their bitter antagonism.
***This title is presented as a reading***
