《魔桶》是马拉默德的短篇著名代表作之一，被广泛列入文学教材，选家必选。作品描写犹太老头地沙兹曼，为了给他心爱的女儿物色丈夫，而挖空心思，以至不择手段，表现了他貌似狡猾而又心地善良的本质，同时，也刻划了沙兹曼的女儿和他中意的列奥的形象，在幽默与诙谐中给人以亲切之感。
伯纳德·马拉默德(Bernard Malamud，1914一1986)，从俄国移居美国的犹太籍作家。他毕业于纽约市学院和哥伦比亚大学后，就在大学任教，同时从事文学创作。他的作品大多反映犹太下层人民的困苦生活，他们的精神面貌，他们的喜乐悲欢和强韧性格;风格幽默而含蓄，色彩浓重而明朗，笔端饱含着同情小人物的人道主义精神。他的主要代表作长篇小说《伙计》，描写一个原先蔑视犹太人的流民弗兰克，目赌犹太人身受的痛苦和舍己为人的慈悲心肠，灵魂从而得到“净化”，以至于自己也成了 “犹太人”的故事，体现了作者所谓“人人都是犹太人”的理想。
Not long ago there lived in uptown New York, in a small, almost meager room, though crowded with books, Leo Finkle, a rabbinical student in the Yeshivah University. Finkle, after six years of study, was to be ordained in June and had been advised by an acquaintance that he might find it easier to win himself a congregation if he were married. Since he had no present prospects of marriage, after two tormented days of turning it over in his mind, he called in Pinye Salzman, a marriage broker whose two-line advertisement he had read in the Forward.
The matchmaker appeared one night out of the dark fourth-floor hallway of the graystone rooming house where Finkle lived, grasping a black, strapped portfolio that had been worn thin with use. Salzman, who had been long in the business, was of slight but dignified build, wearing an old hat, and an overcoat too short and tight for him. He smelled frankly of fish, which he loved to eat, and although he was missing a few teeth, his presence was not displeasing, because of an amiable manner curiously contrasted with mournful eyes. His voice, his lips, his wisp of beard, his bony fingers were animated, but give him a moment of repose and his mild blue eyes revealed a depth of sadness, a characteristic that put Leo a little at ease although the situation, for him, was inherently tense.
He at once informed Salzman why he had asked him to come, explaining that his home was in Cleveland, and that but for his parents, who had married comparatively late in life, he was alone in the world. He had for six years devoted himself almost entirely to his studies, as a result of which, understandably, he had found himself without time for a social life and the company of young women. Therefore he thought it the better part of trial and error 8211;of embarrassing fumbling 8211;to call in an experienced person to advise him on these matters. He remarked in passing that the function of the marriage broker was ancient and honorable, highly approved in the Jewish community, because it made practical the necessary without hindering joy. Moreover, his own parents had been brought together by a matchmaker. They had made, if not a financially profitable marriage 8211;since neither had possessed any worldly goods to speak of 8211;at least a successful one in the sense of their everlasting devotion to each other. Salzman listened in embarrassed surprise, sensing a sort of apology. Later, however, he experienced a glow of pride in his work, an emotion that had left him years ago, and he heartily approved of Finkle.