Saul Bellow's Herzog (1964) | Book Review and Analysis

[@donaldkelly3983]

Herzog is the best of Bellow's novels I've read so far. I know people who can't read him, saying writers like John D. MacDonald and his Travis McGee crime novels are preferable. I took the Pepsi Challenge, first reading The Quick Red Fox by MacDonald and then Augie March. MacDonald is a more efficient storyteller, he wrote lean, page turning prose. Bellow rambles, but I enjoy his rambling. MacDonald and Bellow are writers with different purposes. MacDonald's hero is racing to solve a crime, so the writing needs to be lean. Bellow's protagonists are philosophers, trying to embrace America like Walt Whitman's poetry, so they meander.

[@JorgesCorner]

Thank you so much for your comments, Donald! 😃 Purpose is the key here, yes. I enjoy the rambling too, though I have to be in the mood for it, but I consider Herzog to be an excellent novel. Thanks for letting me know about John D. MacDonald! I looked him up, and The Quick Red Fox sounds great. Have a wonderful day, my friend!

[@richardburt1679]

Hi Jorge I agree with you that Bellow's books do have rather disagreeable characters and are often overlong.Of the great American novelists of his generation I prefer Roth and Updike who really did deserve a Nobel Prize.Seize the Day is precisely where I began with his work and it is probably his most approachable book.Of the later work there are two very good novellas I can recommend,The Bellarossa Connection and A Theft. Have a great Easter weekend.

[@JorgesCorner]

Hello, Richard! 😃 You're not going to believe this, but I haven't read Roth yet, and only a handful of short stories by Updike (even though I have the Library of America collection of his stories). I will check out the novellas you recommend. I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend too, my friend! Thank you so much!

[@keepyourfingercrossedbreak2680]

Is there anybody who is like me, I am really sympathetic to Herzog and rather have a dislike towards Mandelein(sorry if i typed her name wrong and sorry if my English is flawed). Anyway thank u for your analysis!

[@JorgesCorner]

Your English is great, my friend! 😃 Thank you so much for watching, commenting, and sharing your perspective. Have a fantastic day, and happy reading!

[@danthompson152]

maybe Citrine, Herzog, Henderson all all avatars of Saul but they contain multitudes and nuances that make me keep reading Bellow (more than Phil Roth...) and while admittedly his women do not always come alive in such detail, I find most of his secondary characters (brother in Seize the Day, Humboldt himself and the petty gangster in that one, etc) more than mouthpieces or straw men for the philosophizing

[@JorgesCorner]

I totally agree with you, Dan! 😃 I like the philosophical depth of Bellow's novels and how readable they are; a rare combination. Roth is one of my many literary blind spots, so I should do something about that one of these days. Thank you so much for watching and commenting, my friend, and have a fantastic day!

[@NargisIftikhar-k1v]

Okay

[@JorgesCorner]

Thank you for watching, my friend! 😃 Have an excellent day!

[@NargisIftikhar-k1v]

@@JorgesCorner very Nice of you

[@thenakedbooktuber-gg4uw]

Regarding Bellow being too philosophical and with only a very slight plot: Hey, what about Death In Venice, right? Before Bellow, there was Mann for me. I LOVE books like this, and my own writing is deeply influenced by them. Could be wrong here, but I think Goethe said that the highest form of fiction is the form with little or no plot. Great podcast, Jorge.

[@JorgesCorner]

Thank you so much for watching and commenting, Richard! 😃 I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. Mann is a great point of comparison here, yes! There are so many "plotless" novels I have enjoyed (just as I have enjoyed many novels that tell a good story). Have an excellent day, my friend!

[@Richardwestwood-dp5wr]

Hi Richard, I enjoy reading philosophical novels like Hesse's Journey to the East, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha; Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist and his Master, Rameau's Nephew; Voltaire's Candid etc. Check out Holderlin's Hyperion and some novellas by Goethe. Good luck with that.

[@matthewl5919]

My first recommendation post-Herzog would definitely be Humboldt's Gift. Love those two books so much. Augie March is good, but an earlier, more immature work with somewhat laborious prose in my opinion.

[@JorgesCorner]

Thank you so much for the recommendation, Matthew! 😃 Humboldt's Gift is the one that I find most intriguing. About Augie March what I find attractive is the connection with the picaresque novel, but then there's the question of its length, so I'll leave that for later. Have a fantastic day, my friend!

[@danthompson152]

m favorite short work by him Dangling Man one of my first great finds in my own journey reading all the Nobel winners

[@JorgesCorner]

I've heard great things about Dangling Man, but I still need to check it out. Thank you so much for the recommendation, Dan! 😃

[@Paromita_M]

Very interesting discussion. Haven't read anything by Bellow yet, I thought his works were a bit too depressing from the few synopses. Maybe I am wrong. 😁 I am currently rereading Middlemarch by George Eliot, enjoying it a lot. Happy reading.

[@JorgesCorner]

Thank you so much, Paromita! 😃 I know exactly what you mean regarding the synopses. Something similar happened to me with Juan Carlos Onetti, but I decided to give him a chance and now I'm a huge fan. Oh my gosh, Middlemarch!! What a masterpiece. It has been called the best novel ever written in the English language. I don't like statements like that, but what can I say? It's a valid argument. Have an amazing day, my friend, and happy reading!