Yozip

In this short story, we explore the world of Yozip Bloom, the "bumbling peddler" and reluctant hero at the heart of Bernard Malamud's unfinished final novel, The People.

He traded the gold for a fresh horse and rode into a town near Pocatello. He didn't seek trouble, but trouble found his wide-brimmed hat. When two local toughs tried to force him into a mocking "Jew's dance," Yozip didn't reach for a gun. Instead, he used the heavy, calloused hands of a carpenter to deliver a lightning-fast left hook that left both men in the dirt. In this short story, we explore the world

For five years, Yozip had wandered the American West, a man suspended between worlds. He was a Russian Jewish immigrant who had traded the shtetls of Europe for the vast, unforgiving silence of the frontier. He was a pacifist in a land of pistols, a vegetarian among hunters, and a man still waiting for the papers that would officially make him an American. When two local toughs tried to force him

The sun hung low over the Washington Territory, casting long, skeletal shadows across the dust. Yozip Bloom, a man whose beard seemed to hold more dust than hair, pulled hard on the reins of his decrepit wagon. His horse, Ishmael, gave a weary snort that sounded suspiciously like a sigh. He was a Russian Jewish immigrant who had