The Fixer by Bernard Malamud

Based on the historical imprisonment of Menahem Mendel Beilis, an innocent Jew whose 1913 trial in Tsarist Russia created an international uproar, Malamud's novel focuses more on the personal experience of Yakov Bok. Fed up with his life in the Pale of Settlement as an abandoned husband and unprofitable handyman (fixer), Bok ventures to Kiev to turn his fortunes around. From this point his life becomes like that of the biblical Job - passing for a Gentile, he is hired to supervise a brick factory, and is doing well until a Christian child is murdered, and he is blamed for the murder (and numerous other charges) in a revival of the Blood Libel against Jews. The majority of the book chronicles Bok's transformation in prison from an unforgiving, non-religious, apolitical man "of a little education" to a gradual political awakening and a rediscovery of his humanity. Bok's horrendous experiences of torture and mental abuse at the hands of his prisoners lead him to eventually forgive his unfaithful wife and to view his plight as that of all Jews in Russia, forcing him to refuse to take the Tsar's easy way out and condemn his fellows in the process. The book ends before the trial has begun, but closes with Bok having achieved peace in his political convictions and faith in the potential humanity of Jews and Christians alike.

Malamud employs a lyrical, folk-based prose in description of Bok's thoughts and words, mixed with Jewish proverbs, biblical allusions, and the simple, often profane everyday language of the common laborers, prison guards, and peasants who populate the novel. Bok maintains a world-weary sense of humor throughout, making the graphic descriptions of torture bearable, and giving way to terror or guilt only during the worst of his ordeals in prison. All in all, the book delivers a powerful message of the need to take action in the face of inhumanity, casting light on the uselessness of passive knowledge of iniquity. Explicit violence, language, and some sexual dialogue throughout.