Saul Bellow - high-minded joker?

[John Carvill]

>I love every Bellow I've read. Finished Augie March recently, and it's 
>as good as it's supposed to be. Herzog is another favourite: superb 
>portrait of a man's problems with all types of relationship

I finally read Augie March just a few weeks ago. That was the Bellow book I always meant to try, but I came by a copy of Herzog first so that was the first one I read. I enjoyed the start of it, and loved the concept of the main character writing letters in his head - as somebody said, why hadn't anybody thought of that before? - but after a while I started to become disenchanted, despite the obvious virtuosity. The book felt like an enormously powerful car which was constantly revving up but never going anywhere. Finally, towards the end, the pace picked up a bit. Yes, I know that's not exactly the consensus view on Herzog, but there you go.

And there was a lot about Bellow the man (as understood from years of articles, interviews, etc.) that didn't appeal to me: the racist and sexist comments, the hauteur (combined with the sizable shoulder chip), and of course for someone of my generation, becoming politically aware in the 1980s, Bellow's love-in with Allan Bloom.

Despite all this, I took 'Humboldt's Gift' with me on a trip to Sarajevo last Xmas, having read a compelling recommendation of it somewhere (where exactly I cannot now recall), and hugely enjoyed it. I thought it was a masterpiece, and very funny. The scene with Cantabile in the bathhouse toilets is a classic.


>I know a lot of people think that Ravelstein is boring, but I found it a >very touching novel. 

I must admit I enjoyed Ravelstein too, though it's hard to separate 'Abe' from Mr Bloom, who was the hypocrite's hypocrite. Definitely not boring though.


>He was one of the greatest of the 20th century. 

Definitely. Augie March I would recommend to anyone, I far preferred it to Herzog, a great dense sprawling morass, thronged with memorable characters.  Maybe towards the end I began to feel he'd over-egged it, it started to ramble a little, everything between the Mexican scenes and the lifeboat segment I could have done without. Actually, some of the Mexican scenes reminded me vaguely Pynchon's 'V'. But the character of the girl Augie meets in Mexico (Stella?) and ends up with, was the least interesting female character in the book. Overall, I found the opening chapters the most memorable, the closing chapters the least.

Cheers

JC

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