Where A New Life stands among Malamud's works

As I near the end of Bernard Malamud's A New Life, in the Library of America edition Novels and Stories of the 1960s, I can see why it's not a reputation-maker - it's a book that's kind of small and conventional in scope; it shows at the outset some of Malamud's great sense of comedy, creating a character who's the prototypical Jewish schlemiel, a type that Roth and later Woody Allen would develop to perfection, but the novel overall doesn't quite reach to the level of its own ambitions: It's strong as a comic send-up, the stranger comes to town, the Jewish intellectual totally at sea in his new environment, a laid-back Western college for budding scientists and engineers, lots of comic possibilities there, could even be the pilot for a series (at least on some obscure cable network) - but over its course the novel shifts from the comic ground on which Malamud is at home to a romantic-melodramatic ground - the protagonist Sy Levin morphs from schlemiel into Lothario, and here the plot shakens. Not only is it kind of hard to see this guy whom we met when he taught his first seminar with his fly opened as a lady-killer, but of course that could be just part of the romance - he's different, and therefore appealing to those who see him as an exotic. But the long passages in the last chapters, as Levin wrestles with his love for the wife of a colleague - they split, but she throws herself back in his arms, they embrace, begin to plan a life together post-divorce - it all feels a little forced and over the top - the charm of the initial chapters isn't gone but it's attenuated. I'll see soon how the novel turns out - romantic-comic, tragic, or ironic? - but it seems that as Malamud pushed his talent into new areas he lost a bit of his bearings. I admire a writer who tries pushes the edges of his talent, and Malamud clearly went on to write many more fine pieces of fiction. A New Life was his attempt to stake out new ground, as the title suggests - it's not just about the character Levin but about Malamud himself - but he gets ambushed on the way. It's a peculiar and atypical landmark along the path of his career. It stands up well to time - perhaps because academics never change, his portrait of college life could almost be contemporary - and the central character is quite memorable, but the novel loses its way - and I think those (few?) who read Malamud today find it hard to place this work among his top achievements.