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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
What a mess of a novel! How terrible Chicago is in it! (Allegedly - wasn't everywhere pretty bad in the 1970s?) I got sick of it at points and almost put it down forever after 100ish pages, and yet I ended up finishing it. I don't think I achieved much by doing it, but if I've learnt one thing from this novel if I let people walk all over me for long enough I'll eventually become rich! Maybe that applies to inappropriate (for me) novels walking all over me too. Or I'll meet some nice woman while on jury duty who likes dashing hats and will let me touch her boobs if I take her to Milan.
I can't say I liked it, exactly, but it sure was a book I read and finished. It sure was.
I can't say I liked it, exactly, but it sure was a book I read and finished. It sure was.
This was a slog. Interesting characters and plot. Some good humor. But the main character, Charles Citrine goes on and on--whether in introspection or conversation. About art and sanity and "selling out" and boredom and fame and death, death, death! Charley is a neurotic writer in mid-life crisis. I thought at one point that Bellow went overboard on the deep-thoughts as a way to poke fun at the Pulitzer since both Charley and his friend, Humboldt have won Pulitzers. And then irony of irony Bellow gets one for this book. But reading a little about his works this is evidently his style.
I'd like to revisiting this book at a later date or make a plan to work through it slowly. The thoughts are complex and I want to take my time with it.