Blades, John. "Mellow
Bellow." Chicago Tribune
31 May 1987: sec. 14: 1, 3.
Calls this a
witty, congenial tragicomedy of Eros, with its musings on the
exquisite pain of love. Far from being misogynistic, the novel
reflects that men have lost the battle and must beat a hasty
retreat from predatory females. Complains about the traditional
Bellow digressions but concludes that who else other than Bellow
can talk of Locke and Hobbes in the same breath he mentions
telephone sex.
Considers
MDH as
evidence of the influence of Balzac on American Letters. Asserts
that this Bellow "put-down" of American society reads like Allan
Bloom's Olympian critique in The Closing of the American Mind.
Notes Bellow's use of the theme of sexual materialism, and
comments "as if sex and women were the causes of America's
malaise." Concludes, "More recently he has begun to sound not
only genteel but, you should excuse the expression, positively
gentile."
Brookhiser, Richard. American
Spectator Sept. 1987:
43–44.
Details the story
of the novel, its characters, the farcical nature of its humor,
and its intellectual acrobatics. Criticizes the clumsy, muffled,
"tin ear" voice of Kenneth, which he claims is no longer novel
enough to pass as a refreshing ideolect. It makes all the
characters sound alike?like Bellow. Discusses also the
interminable nature of the plot, dilettantism, misogyny, family
values, and the rather modest achievement of this novel.
Butovsky, M. Choice Oct. 1987: 305.
Details the
contents of the novel, and then argues that its central thematic
concern is the confounding of human relationships in modern life
caused by visions of existence which compete for the soul of the
protagonist.
Clemons, Walter. "A Comedy of Marriage and Manipulation."
Newsweek 8
June 1987: 79, 82.
Details the plot
and hails the novel as a return to the comic exuberance of
Bellow's most enjoyable fiction. Claims that other characters
eventually upstage Kenneth and Benn, the foreground innocents,
and that the whole production is quite cunningly planned.
Costello, Gerald H. "Only Love Can Break Your Heart."
U.S. Catholic Nov. 1987: 48–51.
Comments on
Bellow's unique free association paragraphs with their numerous
meaningful digressions and allusions. Details the contents of the
novel and most of its major thematic preoccupations. Sees the
major story having to do with the difficulties involved in trying
to translate magical powers from botany into love.
Cunliffe, Marcus. "Saul
Bellow's Family Affairs." Washington Post Book World 7 June 1987: 1, 11.
Describes the plot
and characters and goes on to comment on what splendid creations
Vilitzer and Fishl are. Calls Benn's innocence frequently muddled
and naive, and the text as being full of typical Bellow
digressions. Concedes, however, that it still builds toward a
carefully developed momentum and "hustling lyricism."
In the context of
a discussion on writers and their depiction of cities,
discusses MDH as a novel focusing directly on the relationship
of city to money. Describes the ruination of Benn Crader through
greed after a saintly lifetime of mystical communion with the
plant kingdom. Offers a brief critique of the materialism of the
Layamons and the many symbolic references to Chicago.
Davenport, Guy. "The Folly Wise Men Commit." Bloomsbury Review Jan.–Feb. 1988: 9–10.
Calls MDH a novel about
romantic love, sexual love, spiritual love?grand soap opera!?and
the folly wise men commit in pursuing such illusions. Describes
Benn Crader and complains that his superior qualities are never
dramatized in the novel. Concludes that the heartbreak
experienced is ultimately an invigorating emotional experience
leading to a richer life, although Bellow would not agree.
Covers the details
of the narrative and then focuses on the Trachtenberg monologues,
which he considers an insufficient device to save Benn Crader
from self-pity, and Bellow from the same. Comments on the
coincidences of Bellow's fourth divorce and the publication of
this novel blaming women. Instead of seeing Benn depart for the
tundra heartbroken, we see him "accepting the germ of cynicism?a
much slower and more hideously modern way of death."
Feeney, Mark. "No
Ordinary Authorial Voice But a Bellow." Boston Globe 31
May 1987: B14–B15.
Comments on Bellow's voice as "a
marvel, one of our cultures most joyous ornaments. Buzzing,
chunky, muscular, yet never less than fleet, it takes a magpie
approach to words, combining street smarts, Ph.D name-dropping,
all-night energy, Chicago bluster, stand-up comedy and faint
echoes of the shtetl to produce prose capable of inducing, in
equal parts, inebriation and gratitude" (B 15).
Begins with a
discursive treatment on Bellow's earlier novels and proceeds
toward a description of MDH as full of
Dickensian character types, dialogues, awesome intellectual
poetic, philosophical and comic medleys, and a distinctively
Jewish–American milieu. Considers the book vintage Bellow
with its romp through culture high and low, not to mention its
disquisitions on the vagaries of love. Complains that the only
voice one hears in this novel is Bellow's and that after a while
it begins to grate. Despite the fact that Bellow argues for both
the embattled realms?male and female?the tone is sneakingly
misogynistic. Concludes: "Bellow is secretly grumpy on the
subject of women but determined to be a gentleman about
it."
Gaddis, William. "An Instinct for the Dangerous Wife."
New York Times Book Review 24 May 1987: 1, 16.
Describes Bellow's
remarkable language, characteristic themes, penchant for the
con-man, con-game and promoter. Comments that in this novel "no
image has been left unexplored by a mind not only at constant
work but standing outside itself mercilessly examining the
workings, tracking the leading issues of our times and the
composite man in an age of hybrids."
Gray, Paul. "Victims of Contemporary Life." Time 15 June 1987:
71.
Considers that
despite its cheerless title, this novel is a consistently funny
variation on the theme of intellectual haplessness. It crackles
with intelligence and wit.
Argues that there
is nothing new in MDH, but admits that the novel does not have stale or
worn-out feel to it. Bellow is at his very best?energetic,
voluble, always intelligent, often angry, but above all, comic.
Kenneth is one of the most brilliant of Bellow's talking
heads?almost Nabakovian in his narcissism and self-deceit. If
love is the crisis of MDH, then
sermonizing is its curse. Concludes that the ending is more
tortoise-like than apocalyptic.
Hooper, Brad. "Upfront: Advance Reviews." Booklist 15 May
!987: 1385.
Calls the book a
rare source of pleasure and wisdom despite its focus on
angst?sexual, marital and familial.
James, Geoffrey.
"Afflictions of the Heart." Maclean's 22 June
1987: 50.
Details the
contents of the novel and concludes: "While nothing much happens
in this novel, the author's voice? sane, ethical, utterly lacking
in self-righteousness?shines throughout."
Johnson, Greg. "Comic Explorations of Humanity,
Heartbreak." Atlanta
Journal/Atlanta Constitution 21 June
1987: 10J.
Briefly details
the story and thematic issues in the novel.
Josipovici, Gabriel. "Rev. of More Die of Heartbreak." Salmagundi 76–77 (1987–88): 236–42.
Wonders if
in MDH Bellow has hit a problematic late period and run
out of things to say, or even lost his edge. Claims he has
substituted the rhetoric of anxiety for the real thing. Suggests
the book is built on an old Jamesian cliche about decadent
aesthetic Europe and an innocent, brash but alive America.
Considers Bellow to be exhibiting his knowledge of the cultural
history of nostalgie de la
boue at tedious length. Claims the
major characters refuse to come alive, while the one-liners are
ruined by repetition. Concludes that despite this Bellow will
have the last laugh on his critics.
Kazin, Alfred. "Trachtenberg the Brain King." New York Review of Books 16 July 1987: 3–4.
Describes the
contents of the novel in considerable detail and comments that
though Bellow has always been a "crisis thinker" his recent work
represents a notable spiritualizing. Complains that the problem
in the book is not Kenneth's views, but the fact that he is
always "sticking them" to the reader. Believes Bellow clearly
does not know what to do with his own overwhelming authorial
presence. Notes also that Bellow's spirit of religiosity reflects
not so much confidence in Deity as disgust with His creatures.
However, there does remain Bellow's feel for lowlife. Expresses
mistrust of Benn's motives for rushing off after lichens and
concludes that in the end this is a book fired by misogyny.
Koenig, Rhoda. "A Couple of Guys Sitting around Talking."
New York 8
June 1987: 72.
Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. "Books of the Times." New York Times 21
May 1987: C29.
Details what he
considers a story rich in possibilities and then complains that
the narrator, Kenneth, "turns a fable potentially as simple as
'The Fisherman's Wife' into a meditation as complex and abstract
as 'Love in the Western World.' "Finally concludes that since so
many of Kenneth's ideas coincide with Bellow's, this must be
Bellow making fun of himself. Concedes, however, that though one
may grow tired of Bellow's explanatory bind, one must admire the
vision. Calls this novel morose but not sour. Discusses plot and
character, and then comments that this book is unforgettably
intelligent despite its brutal comedy.
Claims authorial
bias is a problem for Bellow and that his fiction sides openly
with certain characters against others. Provides a brief account
of the biases of MDH.
Meyers, Jeffrey. "The
Marriage Hearse." National
Review 17 July 1987:
49–50.
Describes the
novel as subtlely structured around a series of oppositions which
reflect his witty, brilliant minds.
Michaels, Leonard. Rev.
of More Die of
Heartbreak. Los Angeles Times The Book Review 14 June 1987: 1, 12.
Michaels,
Leonard. Los Angeles Times: The
Book Review 14 June 1987: 1,
12.
Calls the novel an
anatomy of love in the postmodern age, "a loquacious, brilliant,
entertaining book mixing long flights of ideas with comic scenes
that say a lot about the entanglements of serious men and
calculating, ditsy, depraved, disgusting and piteously needy
women." Accuses Bellow of an almost merciless ability to see
through the flesh to the spirit and leave little that is
admirable behind. Notes ironically that Benn finally applies his
ability to see in the harmless observation of lichens, while
removed from the world of hapless encounter and sexual
misery.
Michaud, Charles.
Library Journal July 1987: 92.
Details contents
of the novel, its characters and themes.
Nordell, Roderick. "Risks of Living in Freedom." Christian Science Monitor Book Review
3 July 1987: B1, BS.
Sees this novel as
a serio-comic analysis of a sex-saturated society in which
thought has even gone bad to the point of freezing the human
heart. Calls the novel jaunty, buoyant, and yet not nearly so
bracingsince it ends with Benn heading for ice and polar
night.
Pinsker, Sanford. "The Headache of Explanation." Midstream Oct.
1987: 56–58.
Argues that
in MDH we find indications that Bellow remains "our" most
accomplished American writer. Claims that here, instead of big
projects, we have overriding questions to answer: namely, what do
women want and why have a special class of women selected for
special, heartbreaking attention? Calls the book an extended
exercise in secret-sharing. Criticizes Bellow for a certain
failure to show rather than tell, and argues that he is too
pleased with his striking beginning to carry the book forward.
Concludes that had there been more of Fishl's comic antics and
less of Trachtenberg's droning voice, MDH would have
been a better book.
Potok, Chaim. "Bellow and the Love Scene." Tikkun Sept./Oct.
1987: 75–77.
Rafferty, Terrence. "Hearts and Minds." New Yorker 20 July
1987: 89–91.
Calls this novel a
test of family feeling since it is more like an impossibly long
letter from a relative not much has happened to in the years
since we last heard from him. Calls the novel restless,
eccentric, discursive, and phenomenally boring. Objects to all of
Kenneth's "academic gabble" and intellectual futility. Decides
that the book finally dies from overkill even though it does
express all the qualities of Bellow that have claimed our
attention over the years?deviousness, transparency, powerful
will, emotional delicacy, European family values, and New World
irreverence.
Rev. of More Die of
Heartbreak. Jim Kobak's Kirkus Review 1 May 1987: 658.
Complains that in
this novel the socio-sexual ideas do not hold up well, lack
development, and finally produce a book which is too long and too
flat. Considers Kenneth?part authorial alter-ego, part figure of
fun?to be tedious in the long run. Concedes that there are chunks
of free, funny Bellovian rhetoric and sporadic narrative zing,
along with amused and appalled Balzacian vignettes "to compensate
readers for the longeurs
and overall puffiness."
Rev. of More Die of
Heartbreak. Publishers Weekly 8 May 1987: 61.
Sees this novel as
an eloquent expression of the significant issues of modern life.
Commends it for its mordant and trenchant comments. Calls it a
remarkable commentary on the "ordeal of desire" Bellow sees as
the central challenge of contemporary life.
Complains
reviewers of MDH were so busy demonstrating their erudition that no
mention was made of the disquieting vulgarity of the book.
Accuses Bellow of rolling around in the mess of modern life and
Ed McBain of rummaging through life's dirty underwear until he
arrives at the vulgar despair one might expect from an old man
sitting on the porch step. Concludes, however, that despite those
problems, MDH is a good read, and at its heart, a moving tale of
a man willing to live and die for love.
Sale, Roger. "Arts in
Review: American Novels, 1987." Massachusetts Review 29.1 (1988): 79–80.
A brief series of
comments on MDH as a "lighter-than-air machine" which deals with
misogyny, Chicago, and intellectual speculation, and provides
impish, extravagant, and serious sentences by turns.
Snider, Norman. "Dangling Man." Books in Canada Aug.–Sept. 1987: 16–17.
Considers Bellow's
mission that of genteel commentator on the thundering, savage
apocalypse of American life. MDH takes on the
same subject matter with its chronicling of the torments of
middle-class love and marriage American-style. Praises the nervy
colloquial style, notes the vampirish depiction of women, and the
perennial Bellow theme of knowledge divorced from life. Concludes
that the mistakes of a man of genius like Bellow are merely the
portals of discovery for the rest of us.
Sokolov, Raymond. "Trachtenberg's Complaint." Wall Street Journal 2 June 1987: 28.
Complains about
the lack of action in the novel and the incredibly hypnotic voice
of Kenneth Trachtenberg. Yet concedes that in this virtuoso
showoff performance we see his splendid sublimation of this
shaggy dog story, the Word made word. Concludes: "In a word, I
laughed."
Stackhouse, John G, Jr. "Book Reviews." Crux: A Quarterly Journal of Christian Thought
and Opinion. 24.2 (1988):
34–35.
Considers
MDH an
extensive treatment of the old themes of Love, Sex, and Death,
with a minimal plot and a male/male relationship which functions
as the still point around which the book revolves. Considers the
book a useful mirror for society's failings, a useful critique of
the pain of modern love, and unusually lucid. Decries the
intellectual stew of Russian mystics and other company, and
Bellow's refusal to provide answers. Concludes that the book
ought to deeply stir Christians and draw deeply enough of
Christian love to improve our own relationships and to bare more
urgently the message of Christian love to fellow sufferers who
are dying all around us.
Stewart, Ian. "The Pick of Christmas Reading." Illustrated London News Nov. 1987: 72.
Suggests this is a
book about the lemming-like human compulsion to head for disaster
in personal relationships, and the torment of twentieth-century
sexuality. Calls Bellow's analysis of the dislocation in
relations between men and women gratuitously embellished with
intellectual allusions, as well as a dazzling, speculatively
profound and exuberantly comic performance.
Stanger, James. "The Power of Vision: Blake's System and Bellow's
Project in Mr Sammler's
Planet;" Saul Bellow Journal 12.2 (1994): 17–36.
Blakes' texts play
a significant role in the formation of Bellow's texts. He has
produced a "system" which Bellow uses in his own
project–the idea of a constitutive vision of the
world. MSP is one of these projects or mythologies in which
Bellow attempts to account for modern man's vision of himself and
to posit the possibility of seeing it through the imagination, or
"unfallen" eyes. When Mr. Sammler sees the world he sees a fallen
world which is a creation of his own visioning as a modern man.
Like Urizen, whose speciality is seeing with his fallen eye, and
who is condemned by Los, Sammler, until the very end of the
novel, is in need of a new eye. He must experience an apocalypse
so that he can cease creating wastelands of reason with this
fallen eye.
Strawson, G. "Professor Crader's Satellite." Times Literary Supplement 23–29 Oct. 1987: 1157–58.
Indicates that
this is a difficult and rich book reflective of the typical
Bellow panorama of unreliable son, ruthless big city bosses,
intrafamilial financial swindle, finagling big shot doctor, and
beautiful daughter. Describes Kenneth's conversations as internal
rhapsodies, and calls his search for his soul a process which
renders him a creep. His tone finally becomes slack, busy,
irritating, flaky, buttonholing, loaded with weakness and
self-assertion, full of incontinent associations and forced
images.
Tanner, Stephen L. Rev. of More
Die of Heartbreak. Saul Bellow Journal 7.1 (1988): 70–76.
Discusses the
"family traits" in MDH
that link it to other novels. Comments in
particular on the novel's weakness for big issues, emphasis on
European philosophy, popular slang, preoccupation with the
transcendent, eloquent images, and sense of religion. Discusses
plot, characters, recurring motifs, the comic quest, irony, and
narrative technique. Concludes that Bellow, through eloquence and
imagery, brings us a sense of "relating" that is more
entertainingly and provocatively presented than that of any other
American novelist.
Wethington, Dirk.
"Re/Establishing Boundaries in Bellow: Postmodernism and
Mr. Sammler's Planet." Saul Bellow
Journal 13.2 (1995):
3–18.
Suggests
that MSP, though linear and modernist in form, can be
conceived of in two parts: one in which the business of
progressing through narrative events and dialogue is carried out,
and a second that functions as something of an academic diary, in
which the protagonist of the novel reacts to the shift from
modernism to postmodernism. Consistent with Frederic Jameson's
suggestion that postmodernism is nothing more than another step
in the march of capitalism. MSP reflects this
unique paradigm shift and Mr. Sammler's realization that he is
indeed a product of the modern tradition. Concludes that Bellow
deconstructs this dilemma by suggesting that at certain times,
despite our pretensions and pretending, we are only human and
must ultimately share certain worlds and planets.
Whitehead, J. W. Rev. More Die of
Heartbreak. Christian Scholar's Review 18.2 (1988): 194–96.
Kenneth
Trachtenberg suffers from terminal pretentiousness and lacks the
compelling voice of a Charlie Citrine or a Humboldt. Hence the
narrative is something of a miracle. The novel eventually loses
focus because of the overly fine-tuned, theological sensibility
of Benn Crader. Provides elaborate descriptions of Kenneth and
Ben. Kenneth finally articulates for Bellow the genius of faith.
Uncle Benn becomes the new model for humanity, a "phoenix who
runs after arsonists."
Wieseltier, Leon. "Soul
and Form." New Republic
31 Aug. 1987: 36–38.
Sees the point of
the book to be the difference between Benn Crader as
metaphysician, and Kenneth Trachtenberg as intellectual.
Complains that for most of the book Crader is pictured in all his
purity and then he is left to the lions. Concludes that this is
really a sorry tale of male self-pity. The book is marred
ultimately by Bellow's suggestion that the sheer intelligence of
his two protagonists is evidence that their failure in love
cannot be their own fault. Neither does the ending work because
it is a flight from the novel itself.
Wildman, Eugene.
Chicago Aug.
1987: 72.
Provides a summary
of the themes struck in the novel and calls it a romp through
high culture and low. Concludes of the novels real thrust: "It is
not just materialism. We need love the way plants need sunlight.
Although devoid of consciousness, they perform their functions
smoothly and easily. We, on the other hand, supposedly superior,
drowning in overburdened consciousness, suffering complex upon
complex, manage only to stick it to ourselves."
Wilson, Robert. "Saul Bellow's Lessons on Love and Botany."
USA Today 5 June 1987: 6D.
Describes the contents of the novel and
complains that Kenneth's voice with its compulsive chatter
finally gets on one's nerves. This is not the best of narrators
nor the best of Bellow's comic novels.
