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Title: Remains With Me
Review: This book was required reading in one of my college lit courses, and I vividly remember turning the pages, eager to see what would happen. I admired the economy of Malamud's writing style, especially since I had to read two very long novels by Saul Bellow for the same class. I thought all the characters in this book were sympathetic: the grocer, the thief/assistant, the daughter, the wife. Each had their own hopes, dreams, fears, desires, all of which crashed against one another in a tiny grocery store in Brooklyn.One thing about this book bothered me: that Malamud had Frank keep repeating the same mistakes over and over, and at times it seemed as if the author didn't know when and where the novel should end. Too many mini climaxes of action aren't as interesting as one major one. I was also bothered by the religious ending: It didn't seem to flow naturally from what came before.
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