I read the novels in this wonderful LIBRARY OF AMERICA volume as they were published, but it’s nice to have them in one handy volume. Saul Bellow: Novels 1970-1982 includes some of Bellow’s best novels: Mr. Sammler’s Planet, Humboldt’s Gift, and The Dean’s December. I’m constantly surprised at the number of people I encounter who haven’t read Saul Bellow. Trust me, that Nobel Prize for Literature that he won in 1976 was well deserved. And, sadly, Bellow doesn’t appear on college reading lists, either. I’m mystified by the academic neglect of one of our greatest novelists. If you haven’t read these fine novels, you’re in for a treat. You can find the LIBRARY OF AMERICA volumes discounted substantially in bookstores and online. GRADE: A
George, I know I’m going to stir up a hornets nest by saying this, but I think one of the reasons that Bellow and Mailer and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Roth, don’t feature on many college reading lists is their treatment of women–both on the written page and in their personal lives. I’m not saying that I don’t read them–I’ve enjoyed novels by all three (my favorite by Bellow is HENDERSON THE RAIN KING), but there’s no getting around the fact that women frequently appear as ciphers, not as fully-realized characters, in their books.
/Ducks!
I completely agree with you, Deb. Women do not come off well in Roth’s books especially. Bellow concentrates mostly on male characters. The early Mailer used women in stereotypical ways, but in THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG, Mailer’s portrait of Nicole is the best rendition so far of a female character written by a male American writer in my humble opinion.
Bellow was on the reading list when I entered grad school. AUGIE MARCH. Later he seems to have dropped off. I’ve read two of those novels in the LoA volume.
Yes, AUGIE MARCH was a fixture on college reading lists, but about 20 years ago it dropped off, Bill. Now “multi-culturalism” rules college reading lists.
Deb, there was an interesting article (I think it was yesterday’s NY Times) addressing just that point with regard to Roth.
I hate to admit it, but I’ve never read Bellow though I’ve always meant to. But then, there are a lot of authors I could say that about.
If I had the space and money I’d have the whole Library of America series. Or at least large parts of it, like the Henry James short stories and non fiction.
I love those LIBRARY OF AMERICA volumes, Jeff. I have most of them. But, you’re right: they take up a lot of space. I wonder if they’ll be available as ebooks someday…
Bellow was Phil’s favorite. Toward the end, his work seemed to dry and pedantic but those early ones….And I just finished reading that article in the NYT, too, Jeff. I liked the first three or four a lot but then, not so much. Herzog, Augie, Henderson.
I’ve read most of Bellow’s novels, Patti. You and Phil are right: the early books represent his strongest works. There was a tailing off at the end of his career.
Once again I’ve looked around to the shelves to find them bare, but I know I have more than a dozen of the Library of America volumes, probably closer to two dozen. This is not among them. I’ll order all three, though when I’ll read them I don’t know. The only one I have read is HERZOG and it’s been so long ago I don’t remember much of it, so I can’t respond to Deb’s comment, other than to trot out the old “novels are the product of their time”.
For me, it’s always the writing that matters, and whether the author captures my attention in a way that makes me want to pick up the book and keep reading.
The LIBRARY OF AMERICA volumes can be found on sale in online and in some bookstores, Rick. I bought the LIBRARY OF AMERICA volumes at BORDERS with their 40% off coupons.
I’ve never read any of those guys.
You’ll have plenty of time during your retirement to get caught up on your reading, Bob.
I thought I’d posted a link to the NY Times article about Philip Roth, which was interesting, but it didn’t seem to take.
One more try.
George, I agree with you on EXECUTIONER’S SONG, Mailer’s best book.
My library has most of the Library of America volumes, so I’ve read many of them that way. The latest was the Philip K. Dick.
I had all those Philip K. Dick original paperbacks, Jeff. SUNY at Buffalo has them now. But I like owning the LIBRARY OF AMERICA volumes of PKD. I like Mailer’s ARMIES OF THE NIGHT and A FIRE ON THE MOON, too. But THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG is Mailer’s masterpiece.
The Executioner’s Song is brilliant. Maybe because it wasn’t based on his own life so much of many of the others. No wife to shoot, no war to win.
It’s ironic that Mailer accepted the contract for THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG because he needed money, Patti. All those alimony payments produced a masterpiece.
On second thought, I read some short fiction in Playboy decades ago by one of those writers, I think. You’d know who if I told you the premise.
I read PLAYBOY for the articles, Bob.
Well, the pictures these days tend to be pretty damned plastic and tamer than when I was young enough to be swept up by them. Meanwhile, I think that Bellow, like Avram Davidson, actually requires that one know some things about the world and human history, and this is as much anathema to too many academics as it might be to their students. Of the three (Roth, Mailer, Bellow), I’d certainly say that in my experience that Bellow comes off as the least misogynist. Recently, I was recommending, through the extension of Barry Malzberg’s favorable comparison to Mailer’s work on the matter, Algis Budrys’s essay on how sf, for better or worse, has helped shape our perceptions of major events and societal change, with the example of the riots and other events after MLK’s assasination. Barry’s right…Budrys gets to the heart of the matter more movingly and less self-aggrandizingly, not that beating Mailer in the latter is ever too tough. I shall have to read THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG, having given up on Mailer mainly due to the likes of “The White Negro”…and other expressions of asininity.
Mailer wrote a lot of crap, Todd. But THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG is his masterpiece.