Considered one of the most important Jewish writers of the twentieth century, Bernard Malamud published eight novels and countless short stories during his career. Most of his works dealt with Jewish characters and themes, including anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia, Jewish immigrants in New York City, and European ghettos. He is known for investigating love, religion, and unlikely cooperation between characters.
Malamud’s final novel, God’s Grace, brief and reflective, follows Calvin Cohn, a rabbi’s son and the sole human survivor of an apocalyptic flood sent from God to punish mankind for its inevitable evilness. The first living creature that Cohn encounters is Buz, a young chimp boy whom Cohn’s colleague had trained in language. Eventually, the two wash up on the shore of an island, where they encounter a small community of chimpanzees.
Buz quickly teaches his peers how to speak, and the bulk of the story deals with Cohn’s passionate attempt not just to establish personal bonds with the chimpanzees, but to teach them the tenets of human virtue. He adopts an ambitious goal very early on: to breed a new species of beings, not quite chimp but not quite human, who have shed the imperfections that led to humanity’s downfall. In the end, following a crescendo of upsetting events, Cohn’s vision collapses into the chaos and cruelty to which all animals, including humans, naturally succumb.
The story is told through a meditative voice, one that doesn’t only relay happenings, but also contemplates the greater meaning of even the most trivial occurrence. This is mostly done in reference to God, whose concept and character is invoked throughout as Cohn struggles to respect his Lord while coming to terms with His great destruction and mercilessness.
Cohn also wrestles with Buz over their concepts of God. Buz, who had been taught Christianity by his first human teacher, tells Cohn that “God is love.” Reacting strongly, Cohn replies, “God is not love. God is God.” Later in the book, when Cohn carves out ten new commandments for the chimp community, he even includes “God is not love” as the third commandment.
Cohn’s perception of God as a fearful figure lacking in mercy and compassion develops over the course of the book, resulting in Cohn’s diminishing humility. Additionally, Cohn’s somewhat humorous discovery that God can’t count (as evidenced by his mistake in allowing Cohn to survive) contributes to the erosion of his respect for Him, which parallels the breakdown of Cohn’s chimp community and implies some connection between his spirituality and his success in saving intelligent life.
The entire book calls into question God’s purpose, man’s relationship to God, and human nature. In the end, both Cohn and the reader face the same unanswered questions: why has Cohn’s chimpanzee community failed? Is it because of Cohn’s repetitively blasphemous thoughts? Or is it because intelligent life cannot ever maintain peaceful civilization?
Considering both Malamud’s Jewish tone and perspective and his transition to agnostic humanism later in life, it is evident that God’s Grace comes directly from the spiritual existence and confusion of one man. Despite this, its broad themes of human evil, powerlessness, and spirituality can resonate with any reader, Jewish or not. Through its tightly-woven plot, unlikely relationships, and sharply sketched characters (for whom the reader easily develops fondness despite the undeniable fact that they are not human), Malamud forces certain conclusions on the reader: perhaps we ought to give humanity’s future more consideration than we are currently giving it; and, blasphemous or not, God’s grace cannot always save.