"The Mourners" comes from Malamud's National Book Award-winning collection, The Magic Barrel, aboutpoor immigrant Jews-grocers, tailors, janitors, cobblers-whose sufferingtranscends the particular to become universal. Set in a cheap rooming housewhose landlord and janitor join forces to evict a poor and aged Jewish tenant,the story ends with Gruber, the landlord, morally transformed by the sight ofhis tenant's misery. As compassion replaces cruelty, the two men mourntogether. In Malamud's reading, the sudden descent of grace on the adversariesemerges with poignant force.
