About Janna Malamud Smith
Janna Malamud Smith is the author of An Absorbing Errand: How Artists and Craftsmen Make Their Way to Mastery; A Potent Spell: Mother Love and the Power of Fear; and Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life. Her titles have been New York Times Notable Books and A Potent Spell was a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. She has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Threepenny Review, among other publications. A practicing psychotherapist, she lives with her husband and two children in Massachusetts.
Praise
Praise for
My Father Is a Book"Janna Malamud Smith penetrates to the soul of a great writer's life and family. . .Malamud is alive in this memoir and in his daughter's stirring gift." —James Carroll
"This book is a must for anyone interested in the work of Bernard Malamud, or, indeed, the writer's life." —Mary Gordon
"Courageous. . . intimate. . . Smith is a passionate and uncompromising truth–teller, and it is by telling the truth that she has honored her father and mother as well as her readers." —Jonathan Kirsch,
L.A. Times"Keen and nuanced. . . A profound portrait of a loving father, a writer whose struggles with his own frailties fueled enduring works of literature." —
Publishers Weekly (Starred review)
"
My Father Is a Book does what the best reminiscences of artists do: It leads us back to the work." —Edith Pearlman,
The Boston Globe"At once loving and lovely, a book worthy of the man." —Jonathan Yardley,
The Washington Post"This beautifully written book should do much to rekindle interest in Malamud's work." —Heller McAlpin,
Newsday"Deserving. . . generous–spirited. . . compelling." —Steve Weinberg,
San Francisco Chronicle"[Smith] tenderly fills in the missing pieces of a man who exists as much on the page as he does in her memory." —
Vogue"Excellent. . .[a traditional] biography would be hard–pressed to match the emotional complexity and intensity that make this memoir hum with energy." —
Cleveland Plain Dealer"Moving, unostentatiously eloquent... Analytical without being acrimonious, honest without wallowing in self–preening exposure, this is a wise, generous book full of insights..." —Merle Rubin,
Christian Science Monitor"Candid yet sensitive. . . exquisitely captures the particular psychic pleasure and confusion' of being the daughter of novelist/short–story writer Bernard Malamud. . . The author amply demonstrates that she has inherited her father's unblinking moral scrutiny and sympathy for the yearning heart." —
Kirkus Reviews"Smith's own superior writing in My Father Is a Book beautifully evokes her father's spirit and life, proving that talent runs in the family." —
Rocky Mountain News