Book #188 of 2025: Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow A dense and meandering novel, full of witty observations and [pseudo-]intellectual digressions but light on any actual story. This 1976 Pulitzer Prize winner is apparently author Saul Bellow’s most autobiographical work, detailing his fixation on an influential older writer who ended up dying penniless and alone …
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Book #278 of 2021: To Jerusalem and Back by Saul Bellow This is an odd and somewhat disjointed little title, as much a travelogue of Jewish-American author Saul Bellow’s 1975 visit to Israel as a literature review of what other thinkers have had to say about that nation and the global status of contemporary Judaism. …
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Book #62 of 2019: The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow If not a Great American Novel, this winner of the 1954 National Book Award for Fiction at least feels like an attempt at a Great American Picaresque, following a charming young Jewish ruffian around Depression-era Chicago and his subsequent wanderings away from responsibility. …
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Book #19 of 2017: The Victim by Saul Bellow When an antisemitic acquaintance accuses Asa Leventhal of ruining his life, the New York City Jew brushes off the accusation to focus on a recent family tragedy. But the gentiles in his life are quick to take his accuser’s side, to the point where Leventhal begins …
Book #148 of 2016: Seize the Day by Saul Bellow “You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.” So laments Tommy Wilhelm in this tightly-focused character study of a New York City Jew longing for a fresh start but unable to find his way there. …
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