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avatherose's review against another edition
4.25
saul bellow is an incredible writer. herzog is an okay book.
sdibartola's review against another edition
4.0
Moses Elkanah Herzog is 47 years old and the son of immigrant Jewish parents from Russia. He’s a professor and author of a modestly successful academic book, “Romanticism and Christianity.” Lately however his life is falling apart. His manipulative second wife Madeleine has taken up with his best friend Valentine Gerspach, and he’s an absentee parent to his son Marco by first wife Daisy and to his daughter June by Madeleine.
“Herzog” the novel won the National Book Award when it was published in 1964. It is written primarily in the third person, but episodically reverts to first person narration. As he tries to make sense of his life, Herzog resorts to writing letters (often unfinished and always unsent) to various people – family and friends, associates and strangers, and famous people from history. We see only Herzog’s view – his complaints about the people in his life – but we don’t see what they think of him. Author Jeffrey Eugenides calls “Herzog” a “self-reflexive epistolary novel.” Herzog is trying to regain balance, and the letter writing seems to facilitate the healing process. It’s a way to work through the problems of his life and modern society. Some have called it a “novel of redemption,” but I’m not sure that’s the case. It renders a rather harsh judgment on the contemporary world of the 1960’s. In some respects, the novel reminds me of “A Serious Man,” the 2009 film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. In the movie, college professor Larry Gopnik finds his life unraveling as his wife Judith empties his bank account and seeks a divorce to move in with Sy Ableman, whose personality resembles that of Valentine Gersbach in the novel.
The women in Herzog’s life are variably portrayed. We don’t learn much at all about Daisy. Madeleine seems to be a psychopath (or at least a sociopath). The New York City shopkeeper Ramona is compassionately drawn. She’s just doing her best to make ends meet and find a meaningful relationship in middle age. Herzog doesn’t give her the consideration she seems to deserve. He’s too preoccupied with himself and his hatred of Madeleine.
In New York City, while waiting in the courthouse to meet his lawyer and discuss custody of June, Herzog stumbles upon a number of hearings that illustrate the ugliness of life. In one example, a young woman is on trial for the death of her 3-year-old son. He died from a ruptured liver after she threw him against the wall while her boyfriend watched from the bed where he was smoking a cigarette. The story makes Herzog physically sick. Referring to himself, he says: “this is the difficulty with people who spend their lives in humane studies and therefore imagine once cruelty has been described in books it is ended.” What is the emotional suffering of Herzog in comparison to this kind of horrific event? And what about global events of destruction and genocide like Hiroshima and the Holocaust? As Theodore Solotaroff says in his review “Napoleon Street and After,” “War and genocide have reduced the sacredness of the individual life.”
“Herzog” the novel won the National Book Award when it was published in 1964. It is written primarily in the third person, but episodically reverts to first person narration. As he tries to make sense of his life, Herzog resorts to writing letters (often unfinished and always unsent) to various people – family and friends, associates and strangers, and famous people from history. We see only Herzog’s view – his complaints about the people in his life – but we don’t see what they think of him. Author Jeffrey Eugenides calls “Herzog” a “self-reflexive epistolary novel.” Herzog is trying to regain balance, and the letter writing seems to facilitate the healing process. It’s a way to work through the problems of his life and modern society. Some have called it a “novel of redemption,” but I’m not sure that’s the case. It renders a rather harsh judgment on the contemporary world of the 1960’s. In some respects, the novel reminds me of “A Serious Man,” the 2009 film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. In the movie, college professor Larry Gopnik finds his life unraveling as his wife Judith empties his bank account and seeks a divorce to move in with Sy Ableman, whose personality resembles that of Valentine Gersbach in the novel.
The women in Herzog’s life are variably portrayed. We don’t learn much at all about Daisy. Madeleine seems to be a psychopath (or at least a sociopath). The New York City shopkeeper Ramona is compassionately drawn. She’s just doing her best to make ends meet and find a meaningful relationship in middle age. Herzog doesn’t give her the consideration she seems to deserve. He’s too preoccupied with himself and his hatred of Madeleine.
In New York City, while waiting in the courthouse to meet his lawyer and discuss custody of June, Herzog stumbles upon a number of hearings that illustrate the ugliness of life. In one example, a young woman is on trial for the death of her 3-year-old son. He died from a ruptured liver after she threw him against the wall while her boyfriend watched from the bed where he was smoking a cigarette. The story makes Herzog physically sick. Referring to himself, he says: “this is the difficulty with people who spend their lives in humane studies and therefore imagine once cruelty has been described in books it is ended.” What is the emotional suffering of Herzog in comparison to this kind of horrific event? And what about global events of destruction and genocide like Hiroshima and the Holocaust? As Theodore Solotaroff says in his review “Napoleon Street and After,” “War and genocide have reduced the sacredness of the individual life.”
npryan's review against another edition
4.25
This book started dizzily, so much so I considered it wasn't for me. But persevering by allowing the nature of the book to take its shape, I found an absolute gem of a read waiting. A phenomenal work, it makes one wonder at the sort of mind capable of putting something so insightful and intricate together.
big_dub_dostoevsky's review against another edition
4.5
Very smart, at times really funny and also poetic
dvaughan99's review against another edition
challenging
funny
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
kpdoessomereading's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
One of those books you appreciate more once finished and reflecting than in the moment of reading.
mountainreader's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
tross's review against another edition
You are inside the mind of an extremely boring misogynist with obsessive thoughts of impotent rage. Very repetitive. If I enjoyed this I'd just befriend some incels.
jeshiltner's review against another edition
All his books are basically the same, someone's a victim...
david_rhee's review against another edition
4.0
Herzog is a novel I would expect to dislike yet I like it. I always believed a novel couldn't be written in the way Bellow wrote Herzog. After closely observing the style of Dickens and Twain, I always told myself that in a novel concrete things must constantly be happening. But along comes this work and I am swept up in the meandering recollections of Moses Elkanah Herzog. They are filled to the brim with regrets, bitter grudges, and the oppressive weight of his own feelings of inferiority. He is lost in them, a sea of them, and in his confusion which is oddly focused and minutely calculated he seeks resolution by writing letters to everyone who has been involved in his life (none of these, as far as we can tell, are ever actually sent). Grievances, intellectual disagreements, or a release of anger by some wound suffered in the past...Moses can't let them go.
The memories are as clouds floating independently each in its own direction until somehow they align suddenly and propel Moses into a purposeful and inspired trip to make things right. A past remembrance, a present circumstance, a warmly loved soul, the building and burning pressure of regret and violent anger within oneself...things that would never coalesce into one single engine to move a battered survivor toward a clear end. I really felt for Moses even though he isn't exactly a guy with whom one would like to identify. Bellow's smooth prose is back from the vacation which is known to us as Henderson the Rain King and I could say no one is more glad than I was when reading this.
The memories are as clouds floating independently each in its own direction until somehow they align suddenly and propel Moses into a purposeful and inspired trip to make things right. A past remembrance, a present circumstance, a warmly loved soul, the building and burning pressure of regret and violent anger within oneself...things that would never coalesce into one single engine to move a battered survivor toward a clear end. I really felt for Moses even though he isn't exactly a guy with whom one would like to identify. Bellow's smooth prose is back from the vacation which is known to us as Henderson the Rain King and I could say no one is more glad than I was when reading this.