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Rating: 
Summary: An essay in the form of a novel
Review: "The Fixer" is the story of a Jewish handyman who comes up against power which is hostile. As a work of literature the book is a failure. It is written with the artistry of a rather bright high school senior. It has little to no character development. But that is not really the point of the book. This is a political essay tortured into a novel and written by a Jew for a Jewish readership. The essay has two points, one spelled out by the author at the end in the manner of any good essay, that the Jew cannot be non-political. The second point of the essay is made using a bit more subtlety; it is part of the story, and not explicitly stated. The hostile power is represented by an authorty figure who makes a point of the handyman's being Jewish and who deprecates him while at the same time praising a wealthy Jewish merchant. The point is that the power, through wealth, of the other Jew sets him and his rights apart and above the handyman. The underlying and universal point of this juxtaposition, which Malamud intentionally makes, is that rights always grow out of power; those who have no power have no rights as a condition of nature as fundamental as gravity.
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Summary: Man's Ability to Endure, If Not Triumph
Review: Author Malamud has created a character, Yakov Bok, who embodies the definition of endurance. Living the in the early part of the twentieth century under Czarist rule, Yakov is imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Because Yakov is a Jew, his plight is not just about the crime but about the state of persecution which existed in the Russian state. Malamud writes convincingly of what life must have been like in a Russian prison, living for years at a time in solitary confinement, not even being tried for the crime until the state can manufacture enough evidence to convict an innocent man. Bok is a three dimension character, full of faults yet also able to stand up for a principle. In some ways, the prose is painful as Malamud does a masterful job of describing the suffering of not only Bok, but of those others who try to help him.
My only complaint (and the reason it did not get 5 stars) was the ending which was so abrupt that I actually checked to make sure that the copy I had did not have any ripped out pages. I didn't need a complete wrap up but felt that at least some hint of the future for Bok was needed. I am sure that Malamud felt that his ending allowed the reader to write their own, but I would have liked at least a better conclusion. Overall, however, I would still rank this book as a must read. I have studied a lot of Russian history but this viewpoint is usually from those of wealth and power. Reading about the trials if the everyday Russian Jew was fascinating.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic Novel of Anti-Semitism WIll Resonate With All!
Review: Bernard Malamud's Pulitzer Prize winning novel of a poor Ukrainian Jew imprisoned for a murder he did not commit in Tsarist Russia, is one of the great Jewish interest novels ever written. But like all great works of literature, Malamud's hero, Jacob Bok, moves beyond the parochial and into the realm of the universal. In short, although the novel is about the Jewish experience in the anti-Semitic world of pre-Soviet Russia, the hero's predicament will resonate with readers of all backgrounds. Jacob Bok is a classic yiddish character who will be familiar to anyone versed in the works of Isaac Baashev Singer or Shalom Aleichem. He is a miserable young man of the shtetl, without faith in God and desperately poor his barren wife has run off with another man and left Bok with nothing. Bok is a "fixer.", a tradesman who today would be known as a handyman. Poorly educated, the fixer is an intelligent man with a bent for philosophy. He calls himself a free thinker and is inspired by the works of Spinoza. With only his tools and a pathetic horse he sets off for Kiev, hoping for a better life. Instead, a series of mistakes and bad circumstances lands him in jail, accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy. The remainder of the book chronicle's Bok's experience in the Kafkaeque world of Tsarist justice. For a poor unknown Jew, there is no justice and Bok's suffering is harrowing. But what makes this novel great is not the narrative of unjust suffering but the inner workings of Bok's mind as he attempts to reconcile his lost Jewish faith, his notions of justice and the words of Jesus to which he is exposed with the catastrophe of his situation. Bok changes, from a man who conceals his Jewishness to work for an anti-Semite to a man who, despite his lack of faith, refuses to either confess to a crime he did not commit or to implicate other Jews in the blood libel. There is no melodramatic ending and, indeed the book is quite ambiguous. But what Malamud makes clear is that Bok's ultimate physical fate is irrelevant. By making a stand against injustice, Bok has won his humanity. And by insisting that he be brought to trial and refusing to be just another anonymous cog in the Tsar's vast machine of repression, Bok re-asserts his humanity and his individuality. Malamud is no existentialist. Bok continually asks why such bad luck should happen to him. He gets no answer because there is no answer. This is the existential dilemma. But Malamud rejects the existentialist answer, that man exists in the absence of any universal justice. As Bok realizes, freedom is not only physical but intellectual as well. At no time does Bok compromise his humanity. He struggles with insanity from the loneliness of his predicament. But ultimately he succeeds. A man can live or die with his head held high. He can remain a man until the end, whatever the cost. This is something Jews came to realize throughout their history and is a large part of the reason the Jewish faith has survived for four thousand years. But it is a lesson for all of mankind as well.
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Summary: One of the best books of all time!
Review: Do not hesitate, read this one. This is a true classic, read it pass it on, and enjoy! Malamud at his best!
Rating:
Summary: great period piece, truly great
Review: I read this novel 30 years ago and wondered what it would be like to read again. Well, it was just as good as when I was in high school, perhaps even better now that I know history better. This book opened an entire world to me of historical novels and stuck so vividly in my mind that it has been a basic pole of comparison ever since. The setting, of course, is in the waning days of Imperial Russia around a murder trial of a good man that is based purely on anti-semitism. It is still one of the best - great personalities, vivid historical evocations, and extreme subtlty all rolled into one. The artistry of this novel and its luminous prose ranks it up there with Yourcenar's finest works of historical fiction - the quality is that good. Recommended for the parent hoping to introduce a child to the wonders of history as well as to the adult in search of a great learning experience.
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Summary: suffering and endurance
Review: In this heartbreaking story a simple handyman finds himself a victim of circumstances combined with vulgar anti-semitism. Set in Kiev in the early 20th century , the novel is both an indictment of racism and a testament to human endurance. Yakov Bok , the fixer is accused of a horrible crime and many seemingly innocuous events are twisted by his accusers to fit their need to persecute a jew for political purposes. As Bok's mental and physical condition deteriorates the language subtly changes to capture his state of mind. Bernard Malamud utilizes this literary device to great effect. We feel Bok's despair and his occassional glimpses of a hope that refuses to die out completely despite the evident hopelessness of his circumstances.
This is a wonderful and important contribution to 20th century literature.
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Summary: a universal story
Review: Most of the other reviewers take this book at face value as a story about Russian anti-Semitism in the tsarist era. I think they are missing the point. This is a story about the feeling of complete helplessness experienced when one realizes that all the institutions that are supposed to be there to protect and defend the citizen - courts, defense attorneys, etc. - are in fact doing exactly the opposite. In other words, it is about the feeling that there is no recourse to the law, that one is on one's own in a hostile world. Malamud certainly had not only tsarist Russia in mind, but also the experiences of Jews and dissidents in the Soviet Union, as well as those of black Americans faced not only with lynch mobs but also the hostility (active or passive) of the public institutions that should have protected them from those mobs. This message is a universal one about what happens when the respect of public officials for civil liberties and human dignity breaks down (a message particularly worth remembering in the context of the so-called USA PATRIOT legislation). But perhaps more importantly it is great literature (and certainly not an essay tortured into the form of a novel, as one reviewer wrote). The open-ended form of the novel that some reviewers found irritating is in fact a great innovation which testifies to the artistry of the author, and a device which Malamud was particularly fond of and used often in other books.
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Summary: A Story of Fortitude
Review: Yet another case of man's inhumanity to fellow beings. The story is a fiction, but could very well be a true one. Yakov Bok is a remarkable character who hung on to dear life, even in instances where the average person would have just given up. Bibikov brought some beam of hope into Bok's life, only to be taken too soon - an example of hope being shattered in the most desperate of situations. Familiar? The story was well written and is easy to relate to. It's a fiction that is consistant with historical facts. It is highly reminiscent of Nazi Germany and the experiences of Jews in general all over the world. Most admirable, however, was the relationship between Bok and Shmuel (his father-in-law). This book is a must-read!
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