Critics have often named Saul Bellow and Faulkner in the same laudatory, esteeming sentence. This juxtaposition is most correct in its comparison of the respective artistry of their short story craft. Bellow is a superior novelist and writer.

This is a superb collection of short stories. The Preface is finely and charmingly written by Janis Bellow, which allows us a brief, intimate glimpse of Bellow the writer.

This anthology includes: "The Bellarosa Connection," "Looking for Mr. Green," "Zetland," "Mosby's Memoirs," and "Something to Remember Me By," among others.

Long live the urban Jewish intelligentsia. I also highly recommend Bellow's novels, esp. Augie March, Humboldt's Gift, and Ravelstein.

Those who have enjoyed Saul Bellow's great novels over the years will rejoice at this excellent collection of his finest short stories. Spanning decades, they resonate with much joy and understanding of the human condition, vividly portrayed by Bellow's graceful, erudite prose. Most of the tales are set in Chicago, describing the lives of an intriguing assortment of Midwestern characters, ranging from con men to businessmen. It's hard for me to choose one story as a personal favorite, though the last tale, "Something To Remember Me By", is a hilarious look at Prohibition Era Chicago, replete with speakeasies and references to mobster Al Capone. Without question, Saul Bellow remains one of North America's greatest literary treasures. After reading "Mr. Sammler's Planet", "Seize the Day", "Herzog", "Henderson the Rain King", or the rest of his great literary works, you'll surely want to read "Saul Bellow: Collected Stories".

I am fourteen years old and have been reading avidly since I was ten. I go to the bookstore everyday and I came across this Collection of Stories on the Staff Recommendation shelf.I had no clue who Saul Bellow was, but the cover looked very intriguing, due to my infatuation with oldies cars and Black and White photography. So I had the book held and the next day I came back with my allowance and bought it.On my way home, I had a haircut. Two people in the barbershop said something vague about the author. I didn't take too much notice. When I finally arrived home, I showed my parents the book, and the applauded, explaining that all on my own I had picked out one of the best American authors this century has known. That night I went to bed early and sped through the first two stories; 'By the St. Lawrence' and 'A Silver Dish'. They were both some of the best mixtures of the English language that I have ever read.
I am a writer and so I am very serious when I say that this book is one of the best examples of written art ever painted. If I could, I would give it six-stars!

Reader's of Bellow's fiction, with its occasionally essayistic elements, will not be surprised by his interest in the history of ideas. This essay collection covers some of that interest during Bellow's 40 years or so of writing fiction, along with biographical and autobiographical sketches, interviews, and speeches such as his Nobel Lecture.

What are Bellow's philosophical interests? Often he returns to the difficulties and responsibilities of the writer in the modern world. He is particularly occupied by how art, which his fiction aspires to be, acts as a momentary stay against various contemporary discontents and distractions. "For some liberation (perhaps pseudoliberation) is the higher aim. Or the shattering of icons. Or restlessness without limits." For his part Bellow agrees with Joseph Conrad, another novelists who set high standards for his work, and who stated: "Art attempts to find in the universe, in matter as well as in the facts of life, what is fundamental, enduring, essential." These fundamentals are also sometimes referred to as "eternal verities" and the "permanent things."

Bellow contrasts what he is trying to achieve with what intellectuals, particularly in the academic world, are trying to achieve. He scorns the repeated attempts by professors and critics to politicize literature. For Bellow "activist" art is impossible because art by definition "leads to contemplative states, to wonderful and sacred states of the soul." In short, to a temporary surcease of "busyness." The passages in Bellow's novels that some readers have difficulty with -- the introspection, musing, and shuffling back and forth -- are philosophical, not political. One might contrast Bellow's philosophizing with John Irving's editorializing, such as the passage in Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany about the Iran-Contra hearings, in which Irving pontificates at great length on an irrelevant topic in what was otherwise a fine novel.

By contrast, moreover, I find the following statement by Bellow to be a measure of humility, from a man who has lived enough to earn it: "The world owes (the novelist) nothing, and he has no business to be indignant with it on behalf of the novel."

One might add, via Henry James that art, by definition, must be produced by a fine mind. Bellow's fine mind is quite evident here, searching, defining, delineating, reflecting, and eulogizing. Readers of Bellow's fiction will find their understanding deepened by these rare glimpses into the philosophical and biographical foundations of his work.

It All Adds Up, a collection of essays, written with Saul Bellow's great human insight, literary qualities and dry wit. Of course for everybody whom have read Herzog, Humboldt's Gift, The Adventures of Augie March and Henderson the Rain King should just run and get hold of a copy of this book, but honestly: anyone enjoying quality literature and are curious on life, art, politics and about how one of America's greatest authors share of his reflections and anecdotes, will probably enjoy this book. The only collection of essays I can think of, that come near this, is Hermann Hesse's My Belief. It is just such a pleasure to know, that in addition to Bellow's novels, there exist a book like It All Adds Up.

This Book is about a king who lives in a castle. He has a baker called Adrian.The King always eats eggs. Adrian makes the king chicken eggs,goose eggs,duck eggs.Then he shouts More More More! The Next day he read in his Newspaper that a dodos egg was spotted on an island.So he told Adrian to prepare the boat.To get to The island.

This is a beautiful reading experience, not without the usual display that Bellows is so masterful in communicating, through gentle suggestion. Banal horrors which a person incorporates into his being and his identity in the methodical manner of a person savoring a meal of shoes come out and glare from the characters like an unmistakable body-odor. If you like this book, then start reading Martin Amis, by all means.

This book contains interviews spanning from 1953 to 1994, usually precipitated after the release of a novel, but topics range from the state of literature, to his own quest for understanding. For some of these, Bellow had a chance to review and edit the completed transcript, and the words are well crafted. There is some biographic info included (e.g., Dr. Goldenweiser assured him he wasn't cut out for science. His papers had "to much style"), but generally Bellow avoids the trapping of "cultural furniture", and it's gossip-like quality. The best of these conversations focus on ideas and novels. Many of the books contain autobiographical characteristics that comes out in the writing, as Bellow says, "My faults of character emerge in my writing". But when talking about Sammler, he warns that a character has his own logic. "I do not choose such a person for the purpose of expressing my own religious views". The two most biographical pieces are contained in "It all adds up", his book of non-fiction. The index is nicely done, and allows for easily finding material about a particular novel.

Bellow remains optimistic about the role of art in society "Maybe civilization is dying, but it still exists, and meanwhile we have our choice: we can either rain more blows on it, or try to redeem it". Although "What you call optimism may be nothing more that an mismanaged, misunderstood, vitality". There are interesting antidotes about Chicago, his beloved city, for example, when Mayor Daley presented Bellow a check, a reporter asked if he had read Herzog, Daley responded "I've looking into it". There is a fun piece with Gloria Steinman who spends a day in Chicago with him. During one interview he talks of writing a non-fiction book on Chicago, but that evolved into the "Dean's December. One of my favorite quotes is "I'm happy when the revisions are big. I'm not speaking of stylistic revisions, but revisions in my own understanding. ... .Exceptional things must be attempted if the game is to be worth the candle". Other interviews are now available online.

This book provides a fascinating insight into the mind of Saul Bellow (Herzog, Henderson the Rain King, etc.). In conversation, like in his much-celebrated tomes, he manages to articulate truths we only subconsciously suspected. His insights into the Holocaust ("no art after the Holocaust) are especially fascinating. This also provides a wonderful introduction for those unfamiliar with Mr. Bellow.

Bellow's first novel is a finely written, tightly constructed little gem of American alienation. The main character has received his call-up papers for WW II, and is now waiting in a hotel room - dangling - as the weeks go by and he is still not called up. He begins to think about himself and those around him in a new light - being out of circulation, in enforced idleness, causing him to think about himself and others really for the first time. His detachment grows and he becomes stranger and stranger - or is it the others, his family, friends, work mates, passers by, who are getting stranger. One day in a cafeteria he goes really bonkers upon seeing an old political acquaintence from his youthful days in a radical party, who is now ignoring him. This leads to an explosive, almost surreal scene in which the dangling man is screaming about his "right to be answered" - which of course is a salesman's motto, the cold-caller's motto, while other people's supreme right is, of course, the right to personal privacy. This interesting question, that goes to the heart of what we are as Americans, is only one of the many interesting ideas thrown up by the young Bellow in this short book. If you like *Seize the Day,* you'll probably like this one, too. Bellow's shorter novels (I include *The Victim* in here, too) are among the best examples of American alienation ever written.

Saul Bellow writes another humdinger. This book was actually among (or even) his first, and you can easily see why it immediate sent his star soaring. This is a tale about a man who, as the title suggests, is dangling: He's dangling between civilian and military life (it takes place during WWII). He's also dangling between the socialism -- so fashionable among urban thinkers of the late 30s and war years -- and the more practical American capitalism that he seems to know he will have to embrace. Good one.

It's a perplexing thing: Reviews for later Bellow books (Adventures/Augie March, Mr. Sammler's Planet) definitely reflect a certain (Hell, let's say ponderous) prejudice against Mr. Bellow's often philosophically charged, book-reference studded prose. The reviewers for this book, I see, are at least giving Bellow's difficult but rewarding style a shot...even if, as his first book, it should provide the abstract, the gel for future Bellow fabrications. Different readers...

This short book is depressing, I'll say. The portrait of Joseph as he waits to be called by the draft in murky Chicago, as he becomes estranged from his wife and family and friends (he even assaults his niece), all the while relating his troubles to various authors' exemplary works (Goethe was mentioned by other reviewers); all this bound together under the umbrella of the atrabilious and taut war years (rationing, so on) does not make for the kind of reading one hopes to find in every bookshelf in Heaven (my apologies, agnostics and atheists). But, as is true of most great literature (was Arrowsmith, after all, a very happy book...except for the end), the sad aspects shouldn't be given a second thought. Just enjoy the incredible craftsmanship here. You'll thank the Five Star crowd.

Had this book been written by someone less well-regarded than Saul Bellow, I would have said that it was pretty good, enjoyable and ambitious if occasionally flat-footed. But, knowing Bellow's reputation, I was disappointed by it.I had expected something subtle and finely crafted. Instead I found the character of Henderson uninteresting and underdeveloped --- Bellow asserts Henderson's need for something more in life rather stridently but never really shows it; the prose very good but nothing to write home about; and the novel's treatment of its theme pedestrian. And for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, I felt the novel to be dated --- very much a book of 40 years ago and not one that can speak clearly to today's readers.I haven't read anything else by Bellow. I'm still curious about what Herzog and the Adventures of Augie March are like; that is, I'm still curious about the basis of Bellow's reputation. But after Henderson the Rain King I'm not enthusiastic about investing time in them.

Although I did not loathe this book, neither did I love it. The prose is fair, even brilliant at times, but the main character is ...well, a jerk. It is very hard to watch a jerk go through what is supposed to be a spiritual awakening, when, in the end, he just seems like... a sentimental jerk.

There is alot of talk from Bellows about Henderson's capacity for deep feelings: great joy, great sorrow...a capacity in his soul for greatness. But where is it? True, we can't get into Henderson's mind, but Henderson seems more a sentimental fool than a lost romantic...sort of a strange mixture of King Lear and his fool. The intriguing people in the book and the secondary characters who surround Henderson. Henderson himself is capricious, overbearing, and well...stupid. I'm hesitant to read more of Bellow's books after this one. Great ideas...slightly pathetic execution.

For those who want to get into the work of Saul Bellow, this is perhaps one of his most accessible novels. It's about a rich and eccentric man who travels to Africa and encounters a tribal chief who own lions. The tribal chief is brilliant and teaches Henderson some valuable lessons. The encounters with the lion were real and vivid and moving. Henderson is vintage Bellow and is relatively easy to read: it has less of a scholarly bent than several of Bellow's other novels like Ravelstein, Herzog and Humboldt's Gift, all of which take the reader into a very high intellectual plane. This novel is existential: it's Bellow not so much him versus the intellectual premises of ancient scholars but is rather Bellow versus the raw power of the forces of life itself. I admire greatly this literary work which displays all of Bellow's virtuosity with the power that the reality of his experience brings into this story. I highly recommend this novel for anyone wanting to gain access into Bellow without having first to take a course in the philosophy of ancient scholars. This is Bellow at his most accessible and most powerful. I strongly encourage you to savor this great and highly original novel.

"Seize the Day" is a sad little novel about a man, lost in the wilderness of his life, whose struggle "toward the consummation of his heart's ultimate need" can succeed only when he surrenders his composure to his deepest emotions, that secret place in all of us from which we beckon our tears. The one day in which the entire novel takes place completely encapsulates his past, present, and future into the portrait of a man mired in his environment.

The man is 44-year-old Tommy Wilhelm who, like some of Bellow's other fictional protagonists Augie March, Eugene Henderson, and Moses Herzog, is a little piece of the chaos of twentieth-century urban America distilled into a single confused character. Wilhelm is a native New Yorker (although it's obvious his author is not), a failed actor, and an unemployed former sales executive. He is separated from his wife, who is always selfishly demanding from him money that he doesn't have, and his two sons. His only financial support now is from his father, a successful physician who is annoyed by his son's lack of discipline but nevertheless brags about his past accomplishments to anyone who will listen.

Wilhelm has a friend named Dr. Tamkin who professes to be a psychologist, has many various interests but dubious talents, and persuades him to invest his last dollar in lard commodities. Tamkin, a world traveler, has told Wilhelm that he "had attended some of the Egyptian royal family as a psychiatrist," a statement that evokes an image of the biblical Joseph prophesying for the Pharaoh seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine; but Tamkin's optimistic expectation for lard is all profit, no loss. His philosophy is that the future is not worth the worry; live for the "here-and-now": seize the day. He is undoubtedly a charlatan, but in Wilhelm's eyes he means well.

One of the novel's themes is atonement, which is signified by the reference to Yom Kippur. Wilhelm is not very religious and has not planned to attend a synagogue, but he recognizes the importance of saying Yiskor for his dead mother; his sincere but idle threat to the unknown hoodlums who vandalized the bench next to her grave will not suffice to honor her memory. Ironically, the place where he ultimately atones is the funeral of a man who is evidently not Jewish (open casket, presence of flowers) -- and he weeps with the knowledge that death is all we achieve from life. Seize the day, indeed.

This little treasure lacks clear conflict and struggle between characters, instead focusing upon one man's slow and pathetic drowning in life. Beautiful language and symbolism, as well as a look into 1950's New York culture.

This book is a lovely piece of painful truth. As I go through each of Bellow's novels one thing that stands out progressively is the assured confidence that grows and grows each time we cross through similar terrain. This is not to say that he repeats himself--certainly not as the on-going philosophy matures through both personal life experience and a further understanding of human nature. Seize the day is, as usual, extremely well-written but with this short novel I believe that Bellow began crossing into that phase of maturity that makes an author ever-lasting and forces his vision upon the world at large. It is no wonder that when Bellow won his Nobel Prize twenty years after the publication of this book that it was singled out for special notice. Basically your middle-class everyman is portrayed (with, of course, the particularities related to Bellow himself to give the human reactions more sincerity) at one of those mid-life boiling points when the decisions made will effect everything that comes later. You read along with a similar urgancy, rooting yet never hoping, aware that many of Tommy Wilhem's mistakes are similar to your own and breathlessly hoping to find an answer to your own questions.

Four books into Mr. Bellow's career I am now convinced that all the high-handed praise is, for once, truly justified. This guy is one of the true American wonders, one of the gods of our literature.

Allan Bloom's book is heavy going & requires effort to tackle. The preface and intro are heavy going, and are indicative of what's to come. Here we have a book that requires study & discussion - it is not meant to be a casual read. It is aimed at people interested in the state of education & the role it plays in Western society & specifically the USA. It's main contention is that the halcyon days of academic endeavour are over ; that the university & related institutions are losing the battle for the hearts & minds of the current generation of students. These students are still keen to learn, but they will learn on their own terms. Excluding technical abilities, they will never reach the heights of scholars of days gone by. Much reference is made to philosophy & literature's classic authors, such as Nietzsche & Plato, so a layman unfamiliar with these authors' works will not understand many points made throughout the book. Bloom goes to! great pains to give historical perspective to today's universities & learning culture. Topics include - the role of classic books in modern education, the importance of rock music to students & how history may judge this phenomenon, the relationships of students to each other, to television, to family, to society and to sex. The recurring theme though, through frequent reference to the great works of literature, is that of the importance of education in various societies. Bloom is let down, not in the main thrust of his argument, but in various asides, especially those pertaining to attitudes of students. He is not as hip to their values & thought-processes as perhaps he thinks he is. "These kids just do not have prejudices against anyone" is as out of touch a statement from a professor as you will find anywhere. What student is going to share personal prejudices with his uni professor ? A highlight for me was the analysis of the attempts to fully integ! rate black students into the student community since the 19! 60's. Bloom argues that while most religions & races mix seamlessly in our universities, black students are still emotionally segregated & that there is suspicion about the value of their passing grades. He observes that this is no longer the fault of true, lingering racism from the students, rather a choice made by the political motivations of the black community & lobby groups. "Affirmative action now institutionalises the worst aspects of separatism" At a tangent to direct discussion of educational standards, much time is devoted to attitudes, such as in relation to family & sexual matters, of students and society in general. The changing nature & importance of the family unit is lamented, not necessarily because the old ways & attitudes were better, but because nothing of substance has taken their place. "What substitute is there for the forms of relatedness that are dismantled in the name of the new justice ?" In this context, B! loom has nothing but contempt for the student radicalism of the sixties - the radicals took campuses by force and threat of force and sought to change the role of the university to suit political purposes. The middle third of the book shifts focus from educational issues to philosophical ones. Again, much reference is made great men of the past, in this case, the thinkers responsible for shaping collective Western thought with emphasis on the German influence. And again, if you're not familiar with names like Locke & Rousseau, you're going to struggle here to get the point. In his closing chapter, Bloom takes a serious dig at the way classic texts are now interpreted & studied. The Bible, for example, is no longer a book of revelation, it's merely an example of mythological text from another time, to be examined in terms of its place in history rather than for its intrinsic message. The humanities in general have lost their momentum & focus & will to live in ! the modern university, while the specialist courses and nat! ural sciences rule the roost. We mourn the irony that philosophy & the concept of liberal education founded the university, and is now being evicted by the other tenants. darren robinson powerplay@cheerful.com

I would highly recommend "Closing" to anyone who would be interested in taking a grand tour of Western intellectual thought. Professor Bloom expresses many important insights and observations in this book, not the least of which is the fact that many American college and university students today are not familiar with the ideas of classical Western thinkers such as Plato, Rousseau, and Nietzsche.

However, there is a profound irony in the fact that this book is lauded by many conservatives. In reality, many of the same "social conservatives" who decry the ignorance of today's student body in the Western classics are often the same "economic conservatives" who implicitly belittle a classical/liberal arts education by placing so much emphasis upon financial aspirations that students tend to shy away from a classical curriculum in favor of more "practical", careerist curricula. Students whose main goal in life is to make a buck are not going to be attracted to "irrelevant" courses in philosophy, history, classical literature, etc. As a result, I think it is fair to say that the current crisis in American education stems both from attacks by the Left (as Bloom points out in his book), and the economic Right.

A thoughtful and penetrating book, Prof. Bloom dissects Academia and finds the virus that has infected it in the form of relativism, multiculturalism and the other poisonous "isms" that plague the unfortunate mind of the American college student today. Only one thing can be said of a man of such learned insight: Genius!

I had no idea of the deficiency in my education until I read Bloom's revelation. As a student, I thought Cornel West, Henry Gates, and Noam Chomsky were the modern day Socrates, Plato, and Shakespeare. Of course, an erroneous thought. . . but as it turns out, they have replaced these great men of ideas. Thoughts of the good, virtue, and the quest for truth were sacrificed for social agenda, self-serving, liberal thoughts on so-called social justice and the imperative of racial discrimination to make up for racial discrimination! Bloom calls these things for what the are and makes the reader aware of the true crisis we are in. Perhaps no one, other than Irving Kristol, has had such a keen insight into the problems of our nation, particularly its' future.

If Prof. Bloom could read this now, I would just like to say thank you sir; thank you for turning a naive, social agenda swallowing American student into a neo-conservative thinking one. Your text has changed a life--by opening a mind.

This book is probably the last word from one of the century's better writers, which is unfortunate. Bellow could have done much better than this. I am not the one to be making speculations, since Bellow is not one of my favorite authors, but I wonder if Ravelstein is supposed to be a portrait of his good friend, Alan Bloom, the "quintessential American professor of politics," with an admixture of fiction of course. The book is long and dry, but contains many great one-liners, as well as a description of Bellow's personal epistemology - or the "metaphysical lenses he was born with." Do yourself a favor. Don't buy this book. Just visit your local book store and turn to page 95 of the paper back edition. From there, scroll down to the second full paragraph, where it reads "My feeling was that you couldn't be known completely unless you found a way to communicate certain 'incommunicables' - your private metaphysics." Read the following three pages and you've got Bellow's entire metaphysics of raw perception as well as the only good section of the book. There, I just saved you ten bucks and a lot of time. Now do me a favor. Write a review that will save me some time.

'Ravelstein' is a rare literary experience shared with us by a Nobel Laureate. The main protagonist in this novel, Abe Ravelstein is a university teacher. "He was not one of those conservatives who idolize the free market. He had views of his own on political and moral matters." He has also written a best seller which has made him very rich, at least materially. "He attracted gifted students. His classes were always full up." Despite all these achievements, finally, the death reaches him. He died of AIDS.

Evidently, 'Ravelstein' is based on Allan Bloom who wrote in the late 80s the controversial 'The Closing of the American Mind'. "We live in a thought-world, and the thinking has gone very bad indeed.'' Wrote Saul Bellow, in his foreword to Allan Bloom's controversial book some 13 years ago.

It appears that 'Ravelstein' is rather fragmented frames of Bellow's memory of Alan Bloom. Some readers may find it difficult to understand the meaning of this book. I'm sure the Gay community will label it as an anti-gay novel. I am not sure whether that was Bellow's intention. Does he want us to get deeper insights into the darkness of human nature?

One of the most important question about Bellow's 'Ravelstein' is the role of a writer and his ability to pass or not to pass judgements on moral issues or the question of mortality. In this novel Bellow passes a judgement about Ravelstein's "sex habits" in fact, as he calls "reckless sex habits" which I'm sure will not be acceptable to the gay community around the world.

In the novel, Ravelstein questions, "With what, in this modern day democracy, will you meet the demands of your soul?" This is indeed a difficult question to answer. I believe the same may applies to the message Bellow wants his readers to get out of this important novel about an important theme.

In the novel Bellow writes: "It means that writers are supposed to make you laugh and cry. That's what mankind is looking for." This is what exactly Bellow has achieved in 'Ravelstein'.

It is worth reading a great American writer's new novel which is sad and also a witty portrait of an American academic who has been fighting against the vulgarity that has engulfed American life.

"There are things that people should know if they are to read books at all..." wrote Bellow in concluding his introduction to Allan Bloom's 'The Closing of the American Mind'. In my view, 'Ravelstein' is nothing but what Bellow wants his readers to know about some, perhaps dark aspect of American life.

By now, most of those who are thinking about reading this book already know that the character of Abe Ravelstein is based on Bellow's friend Allan Bloom, and, that Chick serves as a persona for Bellow himself. Chick's approach to Ravelstein is described as a "piecemeal method": the provision of an ever-expanding accumulation of interactions between and among the most important people in Ravelstein's life as well as their interactions with Ravelstein himself. We learn that Ravelstein asked Chick to write a biography of him in the form of a memoir. Chick concentrates on countless memories of his friend. He and Ravelstein take turns being the focal point of the narrative. There is very little physical action...but a great deal of intellectual and emotional activity, especially as Ravelstein's health deteriorates. (He is dying of AIDS.) If you share my high regard for Bellow's previous works, this is a "must read." Other reviewers have referred to Oates's Blonde as "pathography" and the same can be said of Ravelstein. At which point does it cease to be a biography (or memoir) and becomes a novel? I couldn't care less. This may not be Bellow's finest work but I would be hard-pressed to suggest another which has greater intellectual depth and richer emotional texture.