Info over het boek
The Assistant, is geschreven door Bernard Malamud. De uitgever is Chatto & Windus, maar dit boek komt uit de reeks Blackbirds, en dat is van Wolters-Noordhoff BV Groningen. Het jaar van uitgave van het boek dat ik gelezen heb is 1979. Het boek The Assistant heeft 226 bladzijden, waarvan de eerste 217 over het verhaal gaat, en de laatste 9 over de auteur en het boek (nawoord).
Mening vooraf
Ik heb dit boek gekozen, omdat niet alleen de titel me wel aansprak maar ook de tekst die achterop het boek stond. Ik heb het boek laten zien aan meneer de Leeuw, en volgens hem was dit een goed boek. De film heb ik niet gezien, ik weet ook niet of er een film van is. Ik weet niet precies wat ik van het boek moet verwachten. Op de voorkant staat “The Assistant”, maar daar kun je natuurlijk allerlei kanten mee op. Op de achterkant staat dan al wat meer. Een overvaller die zijn slachtoffer na de tijd gaat helpen, ik verwacht dat het wel een leuk boek is en dat er ook wel wat actie in voorkomt. Ik ben benieuwd!
De Inhoud
Er zijn niet echt duidelijke hoofdstukken in het boek, ik probeer het boek wel op te delen en het ook een beetje in delen samen te vatten.
Morris Bober, a Jew who survived the Second World War, decides to start a new life in New York. He buys a grocery shop with his wife Ida. His shop is everything he has, so he tries everything to make it a successful shop. But unfortunately businesses are not going very well. But Morris is a strong one, he never complains. Morris is not a lucky guy, things get really bad when his shop is robbed by Frank Alpine and Ward Minogue. They have stolen his last bit of money! See page 28: “I will give you your last chance. Where have you got it hid?’ ‘I am a poor man.’ He spoke through cracked lips. The one in the dirty handkerchief raised his gun. The other, staring into the mirror, waved frantically, his black eyes bulging, but Morris saw the blow descend and felt sick of himself, of soured expectations, endless frustration, the years gone up in smoke, he could not begin to count how many. He had hoped for much in America and got little. And because of him Helen and Ida had less. He had defrauded them, he and the bloodsucking store. He fell without a cry. The end fitted the day. It was his luck, others had better.” Of course Morris is upset and he has no idea who did it. Frank Alpine, one of the robbers, felt guilty about what he had done. So he came to Morris’s store and asked him to become Morris’s assistant. Morris started to think, and he realizes that this is a chance to give himself more free time. So Morris decided to hire him. Ida is the only one who thinks that Frank is a strange guy, she don’t really trust him.
After Frank came to the shop to help, the results of the shop are getting a bit better. Helen, the daughter of Morris and Ida, has given all her salary to her dad. But when Frank came in to help the family in the shop, he told Helen it’s better to keep her own salary to start studying. Helen had to think about it, though she thought this is a good idea, so she started to save money. Frank hasn’t much money so started to steal money out of the cashier. No one suspected Frank from doing it. After a few weeks Frank fell in love with Helen. He went many times to the library to see her. See page 86: “A few days after Christmas, on the night of a full moon, Frank, dressed in his new clothes, hurried to the library, about a dozen blocks from the grocery. The library was an enlarged store, well lit, with bulging shelves of books that smelled warm on winter nights. In the rear there were a few large reading tables. It was a pleasant place to come to out of the cold. His guess was good, soon Helen arrived. She wore a red woolen scarf on her head, one end thrown over her shoulder. He was at a table reading. She noticed him as she closed the door behind her; he knew it.” Helen thinks Franks is really attractive, so she fell in love with him to. Almost no one agreed their relationship because Helen is Jewish and Frank isn't. Though they stay seeing each other, almost every time in the library. Helen won’t go further than a relationship with only kissing, she loves Frank, but sometimes she don’t knows it for sure. Frank is disappointed, he will go further then only a casual relationship. And that night suddenly something strange happens. One night Helen is waiting for Frank in the park. But Frank doesn’t show up, Ward Minogue shows up! He starts annoying and bothering Helen. She tries to stop him, but it doesn’t make any sense. See page 150: “Helen felt his body shuddering against her. I am disgraced, she thought, yet felt curiously freed of his stinking presence, as if he had dissolved into a can of filth and she had kicked it away. Her legs buckled and she slid to the ground. I’ve fainted, went through her mind, although she felt she was still fighting him. Dimly she realized that a struggle was going on near her. She heard the noise of a blow, an Ward Minogue cried out in great pain and staggered away. Frank, she thought with tremulous joy. Helen felt herself gently lifted and knew she was in his arms.” Ward, the dirty guy tried to rape Helen, but just at the right time Frank appeared! Ward didn’t saw him coming and got a punch, he cried and fled. Frank tries to comforts Helen, and when she has stopped crying Frank rapes her! Helen don’t know how to think about it. She is very upset and disappointed about Frank. She don’t want to know him anymore. And then finally Frank decides to tell Morris that he was one of the robbers who played an important role in the robbery. Frank was one of the guys who has been stealing money out of the cashier. Morris is not only very upset, but also very mad about this. This he can’t forgive Frank! But then suddenly someone in the store smell some gas. There is a gas leak! Everyone has to be warned! Morris is exactly on the right time saved by Frank. See page 158/159: ”Helen, there’s gas here, let me in. Helen,’ he cried. ‘Shove it,’ said Nick. Frank pushed his shoulder against the door. It was unlocked and he fell in. Nick quickly opened the kitchen window while Frank, in his bare feet, roamed through the house. Helen was not there but he found Morris in bed. The clerk, coughing, dragged the grocer out of bed and, carrying him to the living-room, laid him on the floor. Nick closed the stop-cock of the bedroom radiator and threw open every window. Frank got down on his knees, bent over Morris, clamped his hands to his sides and pumped. Tessie ran in in fright, and Nick shouted to her to call Ida. Ida came stumbling up the stairs, moaning. ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God.’ Seeing Morris lying on the floor, his underwear soaked, his face the colour of a cooked beet, flecks of foam in the corners of his mouth, she let out a piercing shriek.” The grocer almost choked and Frank saved him by opening the windows. Morris forgot to light a match to make the fireplace burn. Because Frank saves everyone, Morris decides to forgive him. Morris is very grateful for this, and they become friends again. A few days later, at night, the tipsy Ward Minogue tries to enter the already closed liquor-store from Karp to steal some bottles of alcoholic drinks. He dropped a few bottles and when he tried to light his cigarette he let the match fall into the alcohol. The whole liquor-store burnt down and Ward was dead. See page 192: “Mike papadopolous, whose bedroom was right above the front part of the liquor store, was awakened by the noise. After five minutes he figured something was wrong so he got up and dressed. Ward had, in the meantime, destroyed a whole shelf of bottles, when he felt a hunger to smoke. It took him two minutes to get a match struck and the light touching his butt. He tasted the smoke with pleasure as the flame briefly lit his face, then he shook the match and flipped it over his shoulder. It landed, still burning, in a puddle of alcohol. The fire flew up with a zoom. Ward, lit like a flaming tree, flailed at himself. Screaming, he ran through the back and tried to get out of the window but was caught between the bars and, exhausted, died.” Karp has lost his liquor shop, so he wants a new one. He went to Morris and ask him if he could buy the shop. This is the moment where he had waited for! He accepts the deal and sell his store. It seems to become a happy end, but a few weeks after the fire Morris dies in a hospital. Frank feels sorry for all what he had done. So he changes his life and becomes Jewish specially for Helen. Helen respects that, but she couldn’t forgive him. The night when she was raped by Frank she will never forget. There is no more love between them.
Mening Achteraf
Ik vond het een leuk boek, er zit een mooi verhaal in, het omgaan met de rassenleer. Dus het houd je zeker wel bezig. Ik vond het alleen wel, ook omdat het het eerste Engelstalige boek is die ik lees, een beetje aan de dikke kant. Ik had het boek ook niet zomaar uit, ik heb er wel een tijdje over gedaan. De interessantste scène vond ik het moment dat Helen in het park op Frank zat te wachten, en dat toen Ward ineens opdook en hij Helen probeerde te verkrachten. Ik vond het nogal ‘verrassend’ dat toen Frank kwam opdagen om haar te helpen, juist hij Helen plotseling verkrachtte. Dat had ik niet verwacht, ondanks hoe Frank ook achter haar aan zat. Het boeiendste karakter vind ik toch wel Frank Alpine, hij komt het meest in het boek voor, en hij heeft een apart karakter. Het is in het begin een crimineel, maar heeft toch een klein hartje. Hij heeft spijt van zijn daden en probeert het goed te maken. Toch word hij weer verleidt en steelt weer geld uit de kassa. Uiteindelijk heeft hij zoveel spijt van zijn daden dat hij Joods besluit te worden, en een goed leven wil leiden. De verwachtingen die ik had zijn wel aardig uitgekomen, al dacht ik in het begin dat het niet zo zou zijn. In het begin vond ik het niet echt ‘aandachttrekkend’, maar na een tijdje werd het al spannender. Ik vind het boek eigenlijk best wel een aanrader, je moet even door het begin komen, maar als je eenmaal goed in het boek zit is het best leuk om te lezen. Er zit ook een goed verhaal in en het geeft goed weer hoe men vroeger met Joden omgingen, of hoe zij eigenlijk gediscrimineerd werden.
The Assistant, is geschreven door Bernard Malamud. De uitgever is Chatto & Windus, maar dit boek komt uit de reeks Blackbirds, en dat is van Wolters-Noordhoff BV Groningen. Het jaar van uitgave van het boek dat ik gelezen heb is 1979. Het boek The Assistant heeft 226 bladzijden, waarvan de eerste 217 over het verhaal gaat, en de laatste 9 over de auteur en het boek (nawoord).
Mening vooraf
Ik heb dit boek gekozen, omdat niet alleen de titel me wel aansprak maar ook de tekst die achterop het boek stond. Ik heb het boek laten zien aan meneer de Leeuw, en volgens hem was dit een goed boek. De film heb ik niet gezien, ik weet ook niet of er een film van is. Ik weet niet precies wat ik van het boek moet verwachten. Op de voorkant staat “The Assistant”, maar daar kun je natuurlijk allerlei kanten mee op. Op de achterkant staat dan al wat meer. Een overvaller die zijn slachtoffer na de tijd gaat helpen, ik verwacht dat het wel een leuk boek is en dat er ook wel wat actie in voorkomt. Ik ben benieuwd!
Er zijn niet echt duidelijke hoofdstukken in het boek, ik probeer het boek wel op te delen en het ook een beetje in delen samen te vatten.
Morris Bober, a Jew who survived the Second World War, decides to start a new life in New York. He buys a grocery shop with his wife Ida. His shop is everything he has, so he tries everything to make it a successful shop. But unfortunately businesses are not going very well. But Morris is a strong one, he never complains. Morris is not a lucky guy, things get really bad when his shop is robbed by Frank Alpine and Ward Minogue. They have stolen his last bit of money! See page 28: “I will give you your last chance. Where have you got it hid?’ ‘I am a poor man.’ He spoke through cracked lips. The one in the dirty handkerchief raised his gun. The other, staring into the mirror, waved frantically, his black eyes bulging, but Morris saw the blow descend and felt sick of himself, of soured expectations, endless frustration, the years gone up in smoke, he could not begin to count how many. He had hoped for much in America and got little. And because of him Helen and Ida had less. He had defrauded them, he and the bloodsucking store. He fell without a cry. The end fitted the day. It was his luck, others had better.” Of course Morris is upset and he has no idea who did it. Frank Alpine, one of the robbers, felt guilty about what he had done. So he came to Morris’s store and asked him to become Morris’s assistant. Morris started to think, and he realizes that this is a chance to give himself more free time. So Morris decided to hire him. Ida is the only one who thinks that Frank is a strange guy, she don’t really trust him.
After Frank came to the shop to help, the results of the shop are getting a bit better. Helen, the daughter of Morris and Ida, has given all her salary to her dad. But when Frank came in to help the family in the shop, he told Helen it’s better to keep her own salary to start studying. Helen had to think about it, though she thought this is a good idea, so she started to save money. Frank hasn’t much money so started to steal money out of the cashier. No one suspected Frank from doing it. After a few weeks Frank fell in love with Helen. He went many times to the library to see her. See page 86: “A few days after Christmas, on the night of a full moon, Frank, dressed in his new clothes, hurried to the library, about a dozen blocks from the grocery. The library was an enlarged store, well lit, with bulging shelves of books that smelled warm on winter nights. In the rear there were a few large reading tables. It was a pleasant place to come to out of the cold. His guess was good, soon Helen arrived. She wore a red woolen scarf on her head, one end thrown over her shoulder. He was at a table reading. She noticed him as she closed the door behind her; he knew it.” Helen thinks Franks is really attractive, so she fell in love with him to. Almost no one agreed their relationship because Helen is Jewish and Frank isn't. Though they stay seeing each other, almost every time in the library. Helen won’t go further than a relationship with only kissing, she loves Frank, but sometimes she don’t knows it for sure. Frank is disappointed, he will go further then only a casual relationship. And that night suddenly something strange happens. One night Helen is waiting for Frank in the park. But Frank doesn’t show up, Ward Minogue shows up! He starts annoying and bothering Helen. She tries to stop him, but it doesn’t make any sense. See page 150: “Helen felt his body shuddering against her. I am disgraced, she thought, yet felt curiously freed of his stinking presence, as if he had dissolved into a can of filth and she had kicked it away. Her legs buckled and she slid to the ground. I’ve fainted, went through her mind, although she felt she was still fighting him. Dimly she realized that a struggle was going on near her. She heard the noise of a blow, an Ward Minogue cried out in great pain and staggered away. Frank, she thought with tremulous joy. Helen felt herself gently lifted and knew she was in his arms.” Ward, the dirty guy tried to rape Helen, but just at the right time Frank appeared! Ward didn’t saw him coming and got a punch, he cried and fled. Frank tries to comforts Helen, and when she has stopped crying Frank rapes her! Helen don’t know how to think about it. She is very upset and disappointed about Frank. She don’t want to know him anymore. And then finally Frank decides to tell Morris that he was one of the robbers who played an important role in the robbery. Frank was one of the guys who has been stealing money out of the cashier. Morris is not only very upset, but also very mad about this. This he can’t forgive Frank! But then suddenly someone in the store smell some gas. There is a gas leak! Everyone has to be warned! Morris is exactly on the right time saved by Frank. See page 158/159: ”Helen, there’s gas here, let me in. Helen,’ he cried. ‘Shove it,’ said Nick. Frank pushed his shoulder against the door. It was unlocked and he fell in. Nick quickly opened the kitchen window while Frank, in his bare feet, roamed through the house. Helen was not there but he found Morris in bed. The clerk, coughing, dragged the grocer out of bed and, carrying him to the living-room, laid him on the floor. Nick closed the stop-cock of the bedroom radiator and threw open every window. Frank got down on his knees, bent over Morris, clamped his hands to his sides and pumped. Tessie ran in in fright, and Nick shouted to her to call Ida. Ida came stumbling up the stairs, moaning. ‘Oh, my God, oh, my God.’ Seeing Morris lying on the floor, his underwear soaked, his face the colour of a cooked beet, flecks of foam in the corners of his mouth, she let out a piercing shriek.” The grocer almost choked and Frank saved him by opening the windows. Morris forgot to light a match to make the fireplace burn. Because Frank saves everyone, Morris decides to forgive him. Morris is very grateful for this, and they become friends again. A few days later, at night, the tipsy Ward Minogue tries to enter the already closed liquor-store from Karp to steal some bottles of alcoholic drinks. He dropped a few bottles and when he tried to light his cigarette he let the match fall into the alcohol. The whole liquor-store burnt down and Ward was dead. See page 192: “Mike papadopolous, whose bedroom was right above the front part of the liquor store, was awakened by the noise. After five minutes he figured something was wrong so he got up and dressed. Ward had, in the meantime, destroyed a whole shelf of bottles, when he felt a hunger to smoke. It took him two minutes to get a match struck and the light touching his butt. He tasted the smoke with pleasure as the flame briefly lit his face, then he shook the match and flipped it over his shoulder. It landed, still burning, in a puddle of alcohol. The fire flew up with a zoom. Ward, lit like a flaming tree, flailed at himself. Screaming, he ran through the back and tried to get out of the window but was caught between the bars and, exhausted, died.” Karp has lost his liquor shop, so he wants a new one. He went to Morris and ask him if he could buy the shop. This is the moment where he had waited for! He accepts the deal and sell his store. It seems to become a happy end, but a few weeks after the fire Morris dies in a hospital. Frank feels sorry for all what he had done. So he changes his life and becomes Jewish specially for Helen. Helen respects that, but she couldn’t forgive him. The night when she was raped by Frank she will never forget. There is no more love between them.
Mening Achteraf
Ik vond het een leuk boek, er zit een mooi verhaal in, het omgaan met de rassenleer. Dus het houd je zeker wel bezig. Ik vond het alleen wel, ook omdat het het eerste Engelstalige boek is die ik lees, een beetje aan de dikke kant. Ik had het boek ook niet zomaar uit, ik heb er wel een tijdje over gedaan. De interessantste scène vond ik het moment dat Helen in het park op Frank zat te wachten, en dat toen Ward ineens opdook en hij Helen probeerde te verkrachten. Ik vond het nogal ‘verrassend’ dat toen Frank kwam opdagen om haar te helpen, juist hij Helen plotseling verkrachtte. Dat had ik niet verwacht, ondanks hoe Frank ook achter haar aan zat. Het boeiendste karakter vind ik toch wel Frank Alpine, hij komt het meest in het boek voor, en hij heeft een apart karakter. Het is in het begin een crimineel, maar heeft toch een klein hartje. Hij heeft spijt van zijn daden en probeert het goed te maken. Toch word hij weer verleidt en steelt weer geld uit de kassa. Uiteindelijk heeft hij zoveel spijt van zijn daden dat hij Joods besluit te worden, en een goed leven wil leiden. De verwachtingen die ik had zijn wel aardig uitgekomen, al dacht ik in het begin dat het niet zo zou zijn. In het begin vond ik het niet echt ‘aandachttrekkend’, maar na een tijdje werd het al spannender. Ik vind het boek eigenlijk best wel een aanrader, je moet even door het begin komen, maar als je eenmaal goed in het boek zit is het best leuk om te lezen. Er zit ook een goed verhaal in en het geeft goed weer hoe men vroeger met Joden omgingen, of hoe zij eigenlijk gediscrimineerd werden.
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