Oates* Joyce Carol.

TLS, No. 5464-5, December 2007, pp. 10-11.

Philip Davis' pioneering biography, "Bernard Malamud: A Writer's Life", presents gem-like aphorisms, insights and observations on virtually every page. It is rare that a biographer succeeds in evoking, with a novelist's skill, such compassion for his flawed, human subject; in Davis, Malamud was granted an ideal biographer. (Quotes from original text)

Gustavo Sáchez Canales.

Mundo Eslavo, Vol. 5, 2006, pp. 55-62.

Taejeong Song.

Studies in Modern Fiction, Vol. 12, No. 1, Summer 2005, pp. 133-151.

Edward A. Abramson.

Yiddish/Modern Jewish Studies, Vol. 13, No. 4, 2004, pp. 79-92.

John Griffith.

Explicator, Vol. 31, 1972, pp. Item 1.

Bernard Malamud incorporates numerous parallels between Frank Alpine, hero of his novel The Assistant, and St. Francis of Assisi. He mentions Francis three times explicitly and a fourth all-but-explicitly, in Frank's bird-feeding tableau. The name Frank Alpine refers to 'Francis' and to the mountainous terrain of Assisi; even the title of the novel may be an intentional reference to Francis' native town. More important, Frank Alpine's career resembles Francis' in several significant aspects: both dream of becoming notorious soldiers of fortune, both, at the age of 25, commit reckless robbery-Francis from his father, Frank from Morris Bober, who will be his adopted father. Both go underground as a result, and there resolve to rectify their wicked pasts with a devoted service. Both develop cults of mistress-worships: Francis for 'his Lady Poverty' and the Virgin Mary, Frank for Helen, who has features of both Francis' mistresses. Through such parallels, Malamud gives to events which in themselves seem dreary and even sordid a glow of spiritual triumph which is a reflection of the aureole of St. Francis.