The Tenants

Rating:
Summary: Tenants of a Decaying World
Review: "The Tenants" tells the story of a writer labouring to complete a novel which he has been struggling over for the past 10 years. He is involved in this sublime act of producing his best work in a dilapidated building of which he is the sole tenant. He stays there much to the chagrin of it's troubled owner who is eager to demolish it. The situation gets worse as a black writer sneaks into the building and starts his literary pursuit.

The novel presents deftly how racial hatred overcomes the most civilized of beings. The white writer is apparently devoid of any racial considerations especially in contrast to Willie, whose entire being emanates hatred for non-black people. Still, we see the former being influenced by them without his knowledge. By falling in love with Irene he is in a way trying to possess a female member of his race who somehow looks out of place in the company of a black. His love is sincere, but he fails to defend it from being contaminated.

The novel portrays the tragedy of art. We see the superhuman efforts of the writer to transcend base passions on the wings of universal art meet with ultimate destruction in the hands of a society decaying physically, morally and conscientiously.

Malamud has written this novel in a crisp, short manner. The author uses symbolism very effectively to present the pitiable state of the environment where creativity struggles to lift its head. The deprecated and dirty building, the inflammated bladders of Irene, the tragedy-struck family of Lievenspiel, the black girl who could never experience orgasm, the foul mouthed Willie and his friends, all these clearly cut the shape of the frigid truths of an apparently successful and contented society. The book sees man and society and so do who read it.

Rating:
Summary: Short, gritty novel about rival novelists(1 black, 1 white)
Review: Set in a decaying Manhattan tenement waiting to be condemned, "The Tenants" tells the story of a white novelist desperately trying to finish his novel before the wrecking ball comes down on him. Things get complicated when an aspiring African-American writer moves in and a rivalry begins.