The Assistant

Plot

With surprising lyricism and characteristic irony, the author writes of Frank, a young, Gentile nogoodnik, who comes to work for a Jewish ma-and-pa grocery in return for room and board. The family owners don't know that Frank was one of the thieves who previously robbed the place and clubbed Morris, the paterfamilias. For his part, Frank is at war with himself, ever vacillating between his good and brutal instincts.