Novel
The Fixer
Bernard Malamud · 1966
Synopsis
Kiev, 1911. Yakov Bok, a Jewish handyman from a shtetl, whose wife Raisl has left him, goes to the city. One evening he rescues Nikolai Lebedev, drunk in the snow, who wears the badge of the Black Hundreds; under a false Russian name, he gets from him the job of supervising a brickworks in the Lukianovka district, which is closed to Jews. A boy, Zhenia Golov, is found stabbed in a nearby cave. Yakov is arrested. The examining magistrate Bibikov interrogates him, the prosecutor offers him the border if he confesses, and a fellow prisoner is assigned to make him talk.
Context
The novel starts from the case that the author's father used to tell him about, after he had considered Dreyfus and Sacco and Vanzetti; he said he had taken over certain ordeals, not the man. The novel was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1966. Beilis's descendants later accused him of having borrowed from their forebear's memoirs. John Frankenheimer made it into a film in 1968, with Alan Bates, nominated for an Oscar.
Who it is for
A novel of medium length, most of which takes place in prison; the abuse is described at length. Translated into French as early as 1967.
Prizes and reception
Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1967; long regarded as its author's best book.
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