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. For more information, visit www.jannamalamudsmith.com
Praise
“[Smith] tenderly fills in the missing pieces of a man who exists as much on the page as he does in her memory.” —Vogue
“At once loving and lovely, a book worthy of the man.” —Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
“Moving, unostentatiously eloquent… Analytical without being acrimonious, honest without wallowing in self-preening exposure, this is a wise, generous book full of insights…” —Christian Science Monitor
“My Father Is a Book does what the best reminiscences of artists do: It leads us back to the work.” —Boston Globe
“This beautifully written book should do much to rekindle interest in Malamud’s work.” —Newsday
“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.” —Los Angeles Times
“Deserving… generous-spirited… compelling.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“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
“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
“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
“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
“This book is a must for anyone interested in the work of Bernard Malamud, or, indeed, the writer’s life.” —Mary Gordon, author of The Liar’s Wife
