1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
He is so good that even when he is not so good it can be interesting, Jan 8 2011
By Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Novels 1970-1982: Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift, The Dean's December (Hardcover)
Bellow is in my opinion the great American writer of the second- half of the twentieth century. His page is alive and he can make a description of the most common object into a brilliant metaphorical adventure. He is a great creator of character. And of course there is the special Bellow idiom which is such a mixture of high and low, Yiddish and American English , the brilliant, the quirky, the startlingly original, the ideas which come overcooked in feelings .
Of the three works in this volume I found one 'Dean's December' to be among the dullest of Bellow's works. 'Sammler's Planet'is too downhearted and pessimistic to rank among his best works. There is tremendous brilliance in 'Humboldt's gift' but it too cannot match 'Herzog' in its overall coherence and integrity. However reading Bellow has always been for me a very special experience. Out of nowhere he can hit you suddenly with a phrase or metaphor which lingers in the mind.
Again these are not the greatest Bellow works. My own candidates for that honor are 'Herzog' 'Seize the Day'. But these works will give their reader many ideas and many new and brilliant perceptions and understanding. And as with Bellow almost always they will at some point bring out the capacity for laughter and exuberance of even the dullest of readers.