"The Cost of Living" and "The Loan" are early studies for characters and situations Malamud later developed in his novel, The Assistant (1957), the story of a poor grocery owner and his family. While he was writing "The Last Mohican," Malamud already had the idea for the series of stories that became Pictures of Fidelman (1969), which some critics have described as actually a picaresque novel. Sobel's devotion to Miriam in "The First Seven Years" looks forward to Frank Alpine's love for Morris Bober's daughter in The Assistant, although Frank is not Jewish and his relationship with Helen is more difficult and complicated. Most of Malamud's novels, however, represent fresh beginnings — new challenges rather distantly removed from the subjects or settings of the stories, their central humanist concerns notwithstanding.