Dispatches and Details From a Life in Literature
By MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times, Published: November 8, 2010
LETTERS By Saul Bellow
Edited by Benjamin Taylor. Illustrated. 571 pages. Viking. $35.
"Herzog, the title character of Saul Bellow’s 1964 novel, is famously a writer of letters he never sends, letters to friends, rivals, relatives and strangers; letters that satisfy his craving “to explain, to have it out, to justify, to put in perspective, to clarify, to make amends.” The letters are, by turns, cranky, coruscating, clever and cerebral: the outpourings of a man overflowing with ideas and grievances, and reeling from the complications of his life and the stubborn mystifications of the world around him.
The real-life letters of Herzog’s creator turn out to be just as arresting, seizing the reader by the lapels and refusing to let go. Although Bellow (1915-2005) repeatedly apologizes in this collection for being a lousy correspondent — suffering from some sort of “disagreeable reticence” — he is a gifted and emotionally voluble letter writer, convinced that sharing his experiences and thoughts with friends provides an escape hatch from the “miserliness” of “private consciousness.” ..."
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A Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of 2008.
"A bittersweet and redemptive love story, richly decorated and recounted with the deepest insight and compassion for the workings of the human heart.” –The Los Angeles Times
“Among the most original novels I have read in recent years.”—Philip Roth
