We can separate aspects of Malamud's technique into three groups: genre, style, and symbolism. Inasmuch as it is a work of fantasy, God's Grace is unique among Malamud's novels (although not the short stories). Dispensing in a dramatic fashion with the conventions of verisimility, the author creates a rich and quasi-mythical story full of miracles and populated with talking animals and a supernatural being. "I write fantasy," he told Leslie and Joyce Field, "because when I do I am imaginative and funny and having a lot of fun."

Perhaps out of literary snobbery, some critics questioned this choice of genre, likely expecting from the author another melancholy tale of wrenching contemporary realism such as TheAssistant (1957). They wondered aloud why an established, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author would stoop to a lowbrow genre to write one of his most profound works. The fact is that fantasy, especially...