How to get into Saul Bellow?
>>8216430
My intro to Bellow was Herzog which is considered his tour de force i suppose. It was decent enough and i'm glad I read it -- if only to have an opinion on Bellow. Whether it will stand the test of time I don't know. At one point, Augie March was considered the next Great American Novel. That claim doesn't stand up to scrutiny in 2016.
My advise is to start with herzog -- if you like it then work backwards to Augie march. Like everything else he wrote, it's effuse in jewish neuroticism...
>>8217337
Bellow is in eclipse for reasons other than the quality of his work.
OP read Seize the Day. It's a novella. If you don't like it you can move on desu
>>8217337
I just finished Herzog last month and rather enjoyed it, despite (or perhaps because of) the slow, introspective disquiet that the book essentially is. Should I just jump straight into The Adventures of Augie March, or are there a couple of other books I should read along the way. I was recently recommended Humboldt's gift by someone who's taste I don't entirely trust, and it'd be nice to get a second opinion.
>>8216430
Humbolt's gift was great. Nice nuerotic disintegrating narrative. Angie March I really wanted to like but is so crushingly boring, I only made it in about 150 pages. I'll try again in the future. Harold Bloom hates this guy btw. Anybody know why?
>He’s an enormous pleasure but he does not make things difficult enough for himself or for us. Like many others, I would commend him for the almost Dickensian exuberance of his minor male characters who have carried every one of his books. The central protagonist, always being some version of himself, even in Henderson, is invariably an absurd failure, and the women, as we all know, are absurdities; they are third-rate pipe dreams. The narrative line is of no particular interest. His secular opinions are worthy of Allan Bloom, who seems to derive from them. And I’m not an admirer of the “other Bloom,” as is well known. In general, Bellow seems to me an immensely wasted talent though he certainly would not appreciate my saying so
>>8217399
>>8217610
That doesnt even seem like hate, more like disappointment.
>>8216430
Herzog. I read it one week in winter, some time ago. Was a comfy read aside from the cripple cuckery, paranoia, paedophilia and self depreciation -oy, to be caught with a loaded weapon!!
I'll reread it again some day.
>>8217686
>>8217616
From an interview with The Daily Beast:
On what American novelists would survive in contemporary literary culture - Bloom: "I would not include Saul Bellow, who I didn't like as a person or a writer."
So you dislike all of Saul Bellow? Bloom: "All."
What's the big, I say, I say, what's the big idea?
>>8217723
Huh. Didn't realise Bloom hated him so much. Martin Amis slips and slides as he falls in love, he just can't get enough (of Saul Bellow's published works)
