Title: Novels, 1956-1964 /
Authors: Bellow, Saul
Publisher: Library of America : Distributed to the trade in the United States by Penguin Putnam,
Year: 2007
Subjects: Middle-aged men Fiction.; Americans Travel Africa Fiction.; College teachers Fiction.; Fathers and sons Juvenile fiction; Sales personnel United States Fiction.; Americans Africa Fiction; Eccentrics and eccentricities Fiction; Millionaires Fiction; Middle-aged men United States Fiction.; Jewish men United States Fiction.; Literature; Africa Fiction
Abstract: "Passionate, insightful, often funny, and exhibiting a linguistic richness few writers have equaled, the novels of Saul Bellow are among the defining achievements of postwar American literature. Novels 1956 1964 opens with Seize the Day, a tightly wrought novella that, unfolding over the course of a single devastating day, explores the desperate predicament of the failed actor and salesman Tommy Wilhelm. The austere psychological portraiture of Seize the Day is followed by an altogether different book, Henderson the Rain King, the ebullient tale of the irresistible eccentric Eugene Henderson, best characterized by his primal mantra "I want! I want!" Beneath the novel's comic surface lies an affecting parable of one man's quest to know himself and come to terms with morality; like Don Quixote, Henderson is, as Bellow later described him, "an absurd seeker of high qualities."" "Henderson's irrepressible vitality is matched by that of Moses Herzog, the eponymous hero of Bellow's best-selling 1964 novel. His wife having abandoned him for his best friend, Herzog is on the verge of mental collapse and has embarked on a furious letter-writing campaign as an outlet for his all-consuming rage. Bellow's bravura performance in Herzog launched a new phase of his career, as literary acclaim was now joined by a receptive mass audience in America."--Jacket.
Contents: Seize the day -- Henderson the rain king -- Herzog.