Reviews

Herzog by Philip Roth, Saul Bellow

gwstoryqueen32's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

sahil's review against another edition

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challenging funny inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

nephiw's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

mateoismo's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

cami19's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

annepw's review against another edition

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4.0

"Herzog" is a revelation. From the first page I was texting all my bookish friends imploring them to read it. It's not flawless in the way, say, "Lolita" is but Bellow is a magnificent, almost schizophrenic writer here, and his fragmented, ineffectual main character is rivetingly damaged. Everyone is Herzog, a little bit. This book is devastating and essential.

rc90041's review against another edition

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4.0

Bellow seems to be one of those writers mentioned a lot by a lot of other writers, sometimes mentioned as a Nobel Prize winner, but read by basically no one these days. And I can see why he'd be a hard sell today: He's kind of like a proto-Roth, just even less concerned with anything beyond the male mind, but closer to the Old World, the War, and the penury of early days in the Americas, slipping into Yiddish like an old habit, and more self-consciously bookish.

It took me a while to get into this book, but about halfway through I started to really enjoy it. That said, it is a bit unnecessarily windy and self-indulgent: It's basically about a failed professor getting divorced for the second time, dealing with that, having a mental breakdown, writing letters that he never sends to Eisenhower, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Hitler, et al. And that's about it. Herzog goes different places and remembers things and writes these letters and ruminates about what he's done with his life. But it's occasionally hilarious.

The writing really did feel like it came from a different, less hurried era, where the writer could assume some portion of a reading audience would have the patience to bear with unsorted observations and thoughts about Freud, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, descriptions of Chicago, various trips around the East Coast for no apparent purpose, etc. I don't know that readers today would generally have the patience for this kind of slower, more self-indulgent prose--putting aside some of Bellow's somewhat dated takes on race, sex, gender, etc.

An interesting archaeological study, really, in seeing how this ur-Roth/Updike influenced a younger generation.

murphyc1's review against another edition

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4.0

I found it to be a bit of slog at times, but Herzog (the novel and its eponymous protagonist) might well represent the most convincing evocation of a living--and thinking-- human being that I have ever encountered in fiction. It is a wondrous thing, to find oneself so deeply inbedded within another person's consciousness. That is the gift of an experience that Saul Bellow offers readers with his National Book Award-winning novel, Herzog.

kdavisreich's review against another edition

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2.0

My reviews always reflect my enjoyment of a book, and aren't meant to be statements about their quality as a piece of art. This book is obviously better than two stars. But I had a hard time engaging with it. There was much more going on than I was appreciating, for sure, and I tended to space out during the letters. It might have been partly the audio format, although the narration was pretty good.

loonyboi's review against another edition

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3.0

Not bad, but I think I would have enjoyed this a bit more if I hadn't read Martin Amis' [b:Money|18825|Money|Martin Amis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367084993l/18825._SY75_.jpg|85999], clearly heavily influenced by it, first. Generally I liked this though. Some good writing, although some sections felt unnecessary, particularly the ending, which dragged on far longer than it needed to.