Word: dubin
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...DUBIN'S LIVES by Bernard Malamud Farrar, Straus & Giroux 362 pages...
...Dubin's Lives, Malamud's seventh novel and first book in nearly six years, follows the uncompromising trail of his previous fiction and makes the journey memorable once again. William Dubin is a successful biographer in his mid-50s. Isolated by choice on nine acres of land in upstate New York, Dubin begins a new book, mindful of the vicarious nature of his craft: "One writes lives he can't live." The subject in this case is D.H. Lawrence, whose yawps about sex and blood consciousness seem designed to unhinge middle-aged intellectuals. Dubin proves no exception...
What follows is much more than simply another anatomy of a January-June mismatch. In Malamud's world, acts have consequences, mindless pleasures lead to reflective pain. Things start badly. Dubin takes Fanny on a quick trip to Yenice, hoping to feed on her vitality and youth, and gets the callow treatment he deserves. Stung, he returns home and holes up for a long, bitter winter of dis content: "He fought winter as if it were the true enemy: if he tore into it the freeze would vanish, his ills be gone, his life, his work, fall into place...
...Dubin's descent is painful to watch but thoroughly absorbing, for his struggle assumes heroic dimensions. He is smart enough to bear the responsibility for his anguish and strong enough to fight...
...Subjectivity sickens me," he tells him self. "I fear myself fearing." Unexpectedly, Fanny reappears, offering what looks like genuine love. Dubin accepts, but with fewer illusions. His problem will remain because it is his inescapable condition: he is a man facing 60 who can take from life more easily than he can give...