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Dubin's Lives

A Novel

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Dubin's Lives

By: Bernard Malamud
Narrated by: Victor Bevine
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About this listen

With a new introduction by Thomas Mallon, Dubin's Lives (1979) is a compassionate and wry commedia, a book praised by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in The New York Times as Malamud's "best novel since The Assistant. Possibly, it is the best he has written of all."

The protagonist is one of Malamud's finest characters: prize-winning biographer William Dubin, who learns from lives, or thinks he does - those he writes, those he shares, the life he lives. Now, in his later middle age, he seeks his own secret self, and the obsession of biography is supplanted by the obsession of love - love for a woman half is age, who has sought an understanding of her life through his books.

Dubin's Lives is a rich, subtle book, as well as a moving tale of love and marriage.

©1977, 1979 Bernard Malamud (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Jewish Literary Fiction Fiction
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Don't read it under 40


I am particularly fond of this novel, I read it for the third time. And the very first time in audio.
William Dubin, a 56-year-old American Jewish biografer struggles with his midlife crisis, his marriage, his years. He’s a complex personality, sometimes even too complex, and seemingly all the others are so, which gives the story a very strong spine int he dialogues. I imagine my 25-year-old self reading it with deadly boredom: as time goes by, I enjoy it more and more, discovering the profound wisdom in every paragraph. Malamud is for me the best American author ever born, I fin din his works everything I need to keep on living. This one is not one of his most tipical writings, I would say not recomendable for beginners. However, purchase it if you dare. An uncomparably brilliant and agitating, even if slow book.

Worth knowing: there is a last appendix int he very end of the printed edition. I don’t know why the publisher decided on not inserting itt o the audio version. I copy here anyway, because I think it adds something very thought-provoquing to the novel:


Works by William B. Dubin

SHORT LIVES
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
MARK TWAIN
H. D. THOREAU
THE PASSION OF D. H. LAWRENCE: A LIFE
THE ART OF BIOGRAPHY
ANNA FREUD (WITH MAUD D. PERRERA)

The narrator has the rare gift not trying to imitate womanly tones. Quite normal and very enjoyable. Thanks, Victor, thanks, Audible!

I am particularly fond of this novel. V
I am particularly fond of this novel, I read it for the third time. And the very first time in audio.
William Dubin, a 56-year-old American Jewish biografer struggles with his midlife crisis, his marriage, his years. He’s a complex personality, sometimes even too complex, and seemingly all the others are so, which gives the story a very strong spine int he dialogues. I imagine my 25-year-old self reading it with deadly boredom: as time goes by, I enjoy it more and more, discovering the profound wisdom in every paragraph. Malamud is for me th ebest American author ever born, I fin din his works everything I need to keep on living. This one is not one of his most tipical writings, I would say not recomendable for beginners. However, purchase it if you dare. An uncomparably brilliant and agitating, even if slow book.

Worth knowing: there is a last appendix int he very end of the printed edition. I don’t know why the publisher decided on not inserting itt o the audio version. I copy here anyway, because I think it adds something very thought-provoquing to the novel:


Works by William B. Dubin

SHORT LIVES
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
MARK TWAIN
H. D. THOREAU
THE PASSION OF D. H. LAWRENCE: A LIFE
THE ART OF BIOGRAPHY
ANNA FREUD (WITH MAUD D. PERRERA)

The narrator has the rare gift not trying to imitate womanly tones. Quite normal and very enjoyable. Thanks, Victor, thanks, Audible!

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