The Tenants
The Tenants may refer to:
See also
The Tenants (novel)
The Tenants is the sixth novel of Bernard Malamud, published in 1971.
Background
Malamud began the initial composition of the novel in 1969 and completed it in 1971. Its plot concerns a rivalry between two writers—one of them a Jew and the other an African-American— who are the last two persons remaining in a soon to be condemned apartment building. Before Malamud began writing this novel, he'd already "published two short stories treating relationships between blacks and Jews": "Angel Levine" (1955) and "Black Is My Favorite Color" (1963). After he'd completed the novel, Malamud himself described The Tenants as a "tight, tense book, closer to the quality of short fiction."
When Malamud was asked, during an interview, what "set off" the writing of his novel, he replied: "Jews and blacks, the period of the troubles in New York City; the teachers strike, the rise of black activism, the mix-up of cause and effect. I thought I’d say a word." Malamud's biographer explains the genesis of the novel this way:
The Tenants (2005 film)
The Tenants is a 2005 film drama starring Dylan McDermott and Snoop Dogg, based on the 1971 novel The Tenants by Bernard Malamud.
Plot
In an abandoned tenement, an African-American militant writer and a Jewish novelist develop a friendship while struggling to complete their novels, but inner tension rises between the two.
