The Assistant

The Assistant
by Bernard Malamud
read: 2020
Time 100 Novels, Guardian 1000 Novels

The key scene in The Assistant, to me, takes place towards the end of the book when Morris Bober, desperate for stable income as his grocery spirals towards insolvency, comes groveling to his former business partner Charlie Sobeloff, who had cheated him in their prior dealings. Morris works a day as a cashier, at the end of which Charlie checks his register.

"You're short a dollar, Morris," Charlie said with a little chuckle, "but we will let it go."

"No," the grocer heard himself say. "I am short a dollar, so I will pay a dollar."

He pays Charlie, quits on the spot and walks "with dignity" out the door.

Just a few pages earlier, Morris had described himself as having "the will of a victim, no will to speak of." He shows that mentality throughout the novel, blaming bad luck and his wife making him quit pharmacy school, among other things, for his lack of success. Even here, Morris isn't quite a deliberate actor: the "heard himself say" construct is telling.

But at the same time, there is a choice here. Charlie invites him to let the small discrepancy slide, and Morris has every moral right to cheat his former partner after being swindled in the past. But instead he chooses honesty and making things right. While paying his small debt is presented as almost involuntary, his integrity and dignity are Morris' alone.

Morris is made to suffer repeatedly for his honesty, continually cheated by others while refusing to cheat in turn. No one understands his choices, either, not his wife (presented somewhat one-dimensionally as a nag) or his daughter, who laments his uncompromising nature even at Morris' funeral. Frank Alpine, the titular assistant, has spent his whole existence lying and cheating, making him the least likely person to understand Morris' integrity. And yet, ultimately it is Frank who follows Morris' path. Adhering to the grocer's strict principles of honesty, even at great personal cost, becomes Frank's way of breaking free of his cycle of rambling and crime.