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| Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! |
I'm conflicted. "Angel Levine" is a well-crafted 'contemporary' re-telling of the biblical parable of Job within a Jewish context, yet it relies on explicit racism and stereotypes--more specifically, its portrayal of African Americans. Or as the author casually refers to them: Negroes.
Similar to Job, the protagonist Manischevitz also undergoes a crisis of faith. He believes God is unjust and is being wrongfully punished. Granted, life has not always been kind to poor old Manischevitz. His son was killed it the war (presumably WW2), his daughter ran away with some putz, his wife is on her deathbed, his business burned to ground, he has health issues, he lives in a tiny drab apartment and can't seem to find steady employment due to antisemitism.
Yikes, that's rough.
Both Manischevitz and Job question their faith in God due to their suffering. They each grapple with the idea of divine justice and are visited by an angel that helps restore their faith. In the case of Manischevitz, he is quite shocked to find a Negro man in his kitchen claiming to be an angel sent by God to help him. Black Jews do exist, like Sammy Davis Jr. Turns out that when Levine isn't performing his angel duties, he has a part-time gig as a pimp in Harlem. Just another typical negro vocation.
Malamud sprinkles in some magical realism, employs more anti-black racism, including derogatory jive talk and ends the story with Manischevitz's spiritual awakening just like in the book of Job. Thus, while this story may have some merit as a literary work, the racial representation is problematic.
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