''The Fixer'' is a novel by
Bernard Malamud
Bernard Malamud (April 26, 1914 – March 18, 1986) was an American novelist and short story writer. Along with Saul Bellow, Joseph Heller, and Philip Roth, he was one of the best known American Jewish authors of the 20th century. His baseba ...
published in 1966 by
Farrar, Straus & Giroux. It won the U.S.
National Book Award for Fiction
The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987 the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, but ...
(his second)
["National Book Awards – 1967"]
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
(With essay by Harold Augenbraum from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.)
and the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
.
["Fiction"]
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-03-30.
''The Fixer'' provides a fictionalized version of the Beilis case.
Menahem Mendel Beilis
Menahem Mendel Beilis (sometimes spelled Beiliss; yi, מנחם מענדל בייליס, russian: Менахем Мендель Бейлис; 1874 – 7 July 1934) was a Russian Jew accused of ritual murder in Kiev in the Russian Empire in a no ...
was a
Jew unjustly imprisoned in
Tsarist Russia Tsarist Russia may refer to:
* Grand Duchy of Moscow (1480–1547)
*Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721)
*Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of ...
. The "Beilis trial" of 1913 caused an international uproar and Beilis was acquitted by a jury.
The book was adapted into a 1968
film of the same name starring
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story '' Whistle Down the Wind'' to the " kitchen sink" dram ...
(Yakov Bok) who received an Oscar nomination.
Plagiarism controversy
Descendants of Mendel Beilis have long argued that in writing ''The Fixer'', Malamud plagiarized from the 1926 English edition of Beilis's memoir, ''The Story of My Sufferings''. One of Beilis's sons made such claims in correspondence to Malamud when ''The Fixer'' was first published. A 2011 edition of Beilis's memoir, co-edited by one of his grandsons, claims to identify 35 instances of plagiarism by Malamud.
Responding to the allegations of plagiarism made by Beilis's descendants, Malamud's biographer Philip Davis acknowledged "some close verbal parallels" between Beilis's memoir and Malamud's novel. Davis argued, however, "When it mattered most,
alamud'ssentences offered a different dimension and a deeper emotion."
Jewish Studies scholar Michael Tritt has characterized the relationship between Malamud's ''The Fixer'' and Beilis's ''The Story of My Sufferings'' as one of "indebtedness and innovation".
[Tritt, Michael. "Mendel Beilis's ''The Story of My Sufferings'' and Malamud's ''The Fixer'': A Study of Indebtedness and Innovation", ''Modern Jewish Studies'' 13, no. 4 (Summer, 2004), p. 70]
Censorship
The book was banned by the board of education of the
Island Trees Union Free School District
Island Trees Union Free School District is a school district in central Nassau County on Long Island, approximately 31 miles east of New York City. The district includes parts of the following hamlets; Levittown, Bethpage, Plainedge, and Seaf ...
in New York, which was the subject of a
U.S. Supreme Court case in 1982.
In popular culture
In
episode 7 Episode 7 may refer to:
* '' Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens'', a 2015 film
* Episode 7 (Humans series 1), 2015 episode
* "Episode 7" (''Twin Peaks''), 1990 episode
* "Episode 7" (''Tá ...
of
''Mad Men'' Season 5, the character
Don Draper is seen reading the novel in bed and recommending it to his wife Megan.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fixer, The
1966 American novels
Novels about antisemitism
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning works
Jews and Judaism in the Russian Empire
American novels adapted into films
Novels by Bernard Malamud
Novels set in Ukraine
Novels set in Kyiv
Novels set in Russia
National Book Award for Fiction winning works
Farrar, Straus and Giroux books
Novels involved in plagiarism controversies
Censored books