- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Classics; Revised edition (Sep 26 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0143039873
- ISBN-13: 978-0143039877
- Product Dimensions: 19.9 x 12.8 x 1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 141 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#313,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #58 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > African > Central & South African
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
Expecting to be inducted into the army, Joseph has given up his job and carefully prepared for his departure to the battlefront. When a series of mix-ups delays his induction, he finds himself facing a year of idleness. Bellow's first novel documents Joseph's psychological reaction to his inactivity while war rages around him and his uneasy insights into the nature of freedom and choice.
About the Author
Saul Bellow's dazzling career as a novelist has been marked with numerous literary prizes, including the 1976 Nobel Prize, and the Gold Medal for the Novel. His other books include The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, More Die of Heartbreak, Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories, Mr Sammler's Planet, Seize The Day and The Victim. Saul Bellow died in 2005.
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First Sentence
THERE was a time when people were in the habit of addressing themselves frequently and felt no shame at making a record of their inward transactions. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
THERE was a time when people were in the habit of addressing themselves frequently and felt no shame at making a record of their inward transactions. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
"The Right to be Answered!" - Fine Novel of Alienation,
By A Customer
This review is from: 20th Century Dangling Man (Paperback)
Bellow's first novel is a finely written, tightly constructed little gem of American alienation. The main character has received his call-up papers for WW II, and is now waiting in a hotel room - dangling - as the weeks go by and he is still not called up. He begins to think about himself and those around him in a new light - being out of circulation, in enforced idleness, causing him to think about himself and others really for the first time. His detachment grows and he becomes stranger and stranger - or is it the others, his family, friends, work mates, passers by, who are getting stranger. One day in a cafeteria he goes really bonkers upon seeing an old political acquaintence from his youthful days in a radical party, who is now ignoring him. This leads to an explosive, almost surreal scene in which the dangling man is screaming about his "right to be answered" - which of course is a salesman's motto, the cold-caller's motto, while other people's supreme right is, of course, the right to personal privacy. This interesting question, that goes to the heart of what we are as Americans, is only one of the many interesting ideas thrown up by the young Bellow in this short book. If you like *Seize the Day,* you'll probably like this one, too. Bellow's shorter novels (I include *The Victim* in here, too) are among the best examples of American alienation ever written.
4.0 out of 5 stars
fresh like new paint,
By A Customer
This review is from: 20th Century Dangling Man (Paperback)
i think dangling man is a real triumph, a novel of amazing conviction. Yes it can get a little pompous with its goethe quotes (in german) and yes it does sag a little. It is not Bellow's best, but for a first novel it is extraordinary.And at 150 pages it is readable over a weekend. Phillip Toynbee in 1963, described it as "magnificient if only because it intentions are so precise and its fulfilment of them so complete." read it
5.0 out of 5 stars
a wonderfully honest novel,
By asphlex "asphlex" (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: 20th Century Dangling Man (Paperback)
Yeah, I know it's a work of fiction, I know the people are made up, the events are all varied figments of Mr. Bellow's imagination. Certainly these things never quite happened in exactly this way, but I still think this book is about the way Saul Bellow felt at the time of his own draft board frustrations. When someone as skillful and gifted as Mr. Bellow sets down to slide out a crystalline picture of the truth, the world should take notice. It's rather comforting to know that a wider than expected portion has.
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