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1.Closing of the American Mind by: Allan Bloom 1987-04
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If one were to come to Alan Bloom's THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND today, that reader would surely view it through the prism of other and more focused books on the decline of America's colleges and universities. More current writers on the same topic like Dinesh D'Souza and Roger Kimball have taken the lead blazed by Bloom and have improved on it not so much by pointing to the achievements of classic philosophers but more by explaining in more accessible prose what has caused the decline of our schools of higher education. Other reviewers have well noted the more technical aspects of Bloom's basic thrust that the rise of relativism has led relentlessly to a diminution of the very ability of language to have any universally fixed referents. When the collective humanities departments of ... Read More

2.The Adventures of Augie March (Penguin Classics) by: Saul Bellow October 03, 2006
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What can I say other than this novel is a true 20th Century American classic. The use of language is incomparable.

3.Herzog (Penguin Classics) by: Saul Bellow February 25, 2003
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I am about halfway through this, which I'm slogging through for my reading group. I would never have chosen such a one, it being a book that is thought to be "enlightening." However one must admit that Saul Bellow, as an author, has a way with words and descriptions. Herzog is an unlikeable character, neurotic, selfish, without much to recommend him. And he is the only one! I am a writer myself and have more respect for the reader than to bore him silly with a mono-character book. The descriptions are good and I certainly have read books, under pressure, I admit, that are worse. It is definitely not a light read. I'm sorry that this is damning with faint praise, but so be it!

4.Henderson the Rain King by: Saul Bellow April 28, 2009
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The grade reflects my enjoyment rather than the underlying value of this book, which is reputedly a major work by a Nobelist that may well say important things about nineteen-fifties America naively throwing its weight around in the developing world. But I find the title character, a fiftyish millionaire, to be a boor and a blowhard, despite his odd scraps of knowledge and unexpected areas of competence. Yes, he could be a fine comic character if you happen to like him (and you should know after a chapter or so), but I personally resent spending that amount of time with his discursive reflections. And the African country to which he journeys (taking half the book to get there) is as artificial a construct as the locale of Rider Haggard's SHE, so that the improbably eloquent English-speaking King Dahfu who engages Henderson in long ... Read More

5.The Revolt of the Masses by: Jose Ortega Y Gasset 1985
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Having been outvoted on any major issue that I would like to address, I feel that I have been the victim of mass man as a political phenomenon as much as anyone has. The book ends with a real question, but to keep the book short, no effort is made to solve the problem which remains to plague thinkers after all these years. Ending up with this wisdom is about like finding something by Nietzsche about an animal crawling off by itself to be alone when it dies.

6.Seize the Day (Penguin Classics) by: Saul Bellow May 27, 2003
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While this book is technically a "novella", it packs a lot of punch for its 114 pages. If you're looking for a light, fun read, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. The plot is almost incidental to the internal dialogue. After all, nothing much really happens. We're introduced to "Tommy Wilhelm" as he buys his morning newspaper. Then he goes to breakfast with his father. Then he meets an aquaintance and and they go to the stock market. Then he helps an old man find a cigar store. Exciting stuff, right? Well, yes it is actually--because of what's going on underneath. Our man, Wilhelm, is facing financail ruin and a crushing, emotional crisis, and nobody can really help. Moreover, he can't even pinpoint what the crisis is about. Somehow, things just didn't turn out right. So he's adrift, without an anchor. His father ... Read More

7.Humboldt's Gift (Penguin Classics) by: Saul Bellow October 28, 2008
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Bellow brings forth another of his ragged souled protagonists. Intellectual dreamers, lost in the turbulence of the American 20th Century. Charlie Citrine is a historian of ideas, obsessed with literature, poetry and ideas and the legacy of his poet friend, the legendary Von Humboldt. As a cruel reminder of how America can break its most sensitive artists (witness the tragic David Foster Wallace), Humboldt is a warning backdrop to the whole novel. A feted success in his day, he winds up in mental turmoil chewing on pretzels in a New York flophouse while Citrine flies overhead in a helicopter, flush with the success of a Broadway play. Citrine struggles with this particularly American dilemma - to use his mind for material success, knowing in his heart it doesn't achieve the beauty and spiritual fulfilment he craves in his ... Read More

8.Mr. Sammler's Planet (Penguin Classics) by: Saul Bellow January 06, 2004
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I started reading this book when I was 18 and picked it up again a couple weeks ago. It is just as well as at 55 I can much better appreciate it than I could have at 18. The book shines when it condenses into two or three sentences women, the diaper revolutionaries and especially for me the pan of psychoanalysis. Many of these things I have arrived at myself over the years and it was wonderfully heartening to hear them in this book. There were parts of the books where Bellow launches into deep complex philosophisizing that are frankly opaque and tiresome...I finally started to skip over some of them. Also the part about the Hindu scientist just seemed to show Bellow didn't know much about Hindus and 3rd world countries. Lal was an unbelievable character--French literature and all. Read More

9.Saul Bellow: Novels 1956-1964: Seize the Day, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog (Library of America) by: Saul Bellow January 11, 2007
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Another great collection of Bellow's works. Hope the Library of America comes out with the next volume sooner than a year.

10.Collected Stories by: Saul Bellow October 29, 2002
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Most of these stories are vintage Bellow continuing his themes, particularly difficult relatives or just plain screwing up with family. Poignant and funny and plenty of what lies in between.

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