In Chapter I of “The Novel, Who Needs It?,” Joseph Epstein includes this snippet of dialogue from Bernard Malamud’s novel “The Assistant”:
He asked her what books she was reading.
“’The Idiot,’ do you know it?”
“No. What’s it about?”
“It’s a novel.”
“I’d rather read the truth,” he said.
“It is the truth.”
“The truth she is referring to,” Epstein then writes, “is the truth of the imagination.”
“Woman Reading a Book,” 17th century, by Gerard ter Borch. Oil on canvas. National Museum in Warsaw. (Public Domain)
The 86-year-old Epstein has devoted much of his life to writing and to teaching literature. He is the author of 31 books, most of them non-fiction, and served for more than 20 years as editor for The American Scholar. He is celebrated in particular for his mastery of the essay, many of which have reflected his literary interests….