Bernard Malamud: A Writer’s Life by Philip Davis Oxford University Press £18.99, 388 pages

The life of Bernard Malamud, author of The Natural, does not naturally lend itself to biography. Governed by obsessive routine, his career lacked the substance abuse, literary feuds or media controversies that often colour a writer’s biography. Malamud’s publisher, Roger Straus, described the idea of a biography as “ridiculous”, joking that if “Saul Bellow was filet mignon, Malamud was hamburger”.

This review appeared in the Financial Times over the weekend. Use this link to read the full review.