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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. Dangling Man is his journal, a wonderful account of his restless wanderings through Chicago's streets, his musings on the past, his 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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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Sometimes the author of a dazzling first novel is never again to scale such heights. There are others for whom their premier work was either a run-in for better things or whose writing continued to mature over the years. When Dangling Man was published it must have been clear that here was a great writer already, and one who went on to even finer achievements (The Adventures of Augie March, Herzog, Humboldt's Gift, etc.). It is an extraordinarily accomplished work and Saul Bellow was indeed to become one of North America's greatest writers.
A young man has quit his job in anticipation of being drafted quickly into the War but bureaucratic inertia or incompetence leaves him waiting for his papers alone in a room in Chicago in mid-winter where, financially supported by his wife, he writes his journals. His idleness forces him to reflect on life and, as he slides into highly critical self-analysis, he becomes increasingly frustrated and irascible with his friends and family. Eventually, the prospect of going to War begins to appeal to him, whereas before it had appalled him. The ambience is mid-century European existentialist (Camus, Buzatti) as he grapples with problems of loneliness, alienation and anxiety, but it is very much set in an American milieu and there is a real evocation of wartime Chicago. This book is beautifully written and manages to be both unsettling and enjoyable. In fact, it is hard to imagine finer writing.
A young man has quit his job in anticipation of being drafted quickly into the War but bureaucratic inertia or incompetence leaves him waiting for his papers alone in a room in Chicago in mid-winter where, financially supported by his wife, he writes his journals. His idleness forces him to reflect on life and, as he slides into highly critical self-analysis, he becomes increasingly frustrated and irascible with his friends and family. Eventually, the prospect of going to War begins to appeal to him, whereas before it had appalled him. The ambience is mid-century European existentialist (Camus, Buzatti) as he grapples with problems of loneliness, alienation and anxiety, but it is very much set in an American milieu and there is a real evocation of wartime Chicago. This book is beautifully written and manages to be both unsettling and enjoyable. In fact, it is hard to imagine finer writing.
Format:Paperback
This is more a meditation on life than a novel. The plot, what there is of it, involves Joseph, the narrator, doing very little while waiting to be called up by the army in WW2. Written in the form of a diary over the winter of 1942-43, Joseph wiles away the days in his apartment or on the streets of Chicago, talking to friends and thinking about his life. In many ways an existentialist novel, Bellow makes some interesting points, but I also found some of it quite dull.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
in the anglo-american dominated and policed world, few or perhaps no one seems to take notice of the history of communism in amerika. Yes, there used to be a communist party in amerika, founded in 1919. and yes of course, those bloodthirsty communist criminals, they believed in this criminal beliefs, like social justice, and a better world etc, so 2 red scares, the maccarthy commission and a lot of good work of our friends secret service, manage to break the party in pieces and eventually nearly outlaw it.
now this is what we call democracy! everybody is free to think and say what they want, complete uncensored freedom of speech apart from the things that are .. forbidden.. like communism in the usa..
sure, the process on paper is perfect: if tomorrow a vast majority of people woke up communist, next thing you know, they will move lenin and mao's mummies over to capitol hill; but this doesn't take into account how the will of people can be manipulated, how scare tactics can work on the minds of the majority of people, how the secret service and the military complex can be used to change the course of history, and so on.
anyway, dangling man is not about this stuff.. it's just that the main character, joseph, is a self declared ex member of the communist party, some time before mccharthy came of age.
dangling man is more about the agony of a generation, the depression generation of americans, who was going to take a blood bath in europe and thus thrust us into this magnificent times of nowadays.
the pressure of modern life, in a big city, while the war is on, finally has the best over one man, Joseph, who surrenders to everything, becomes incapable of the daily repetition of acts in a robot-like manner: wake up, go to work, earn money, spend money, go back home, with few exceptions for the weekends (when there has to be more spending and less earning).
Joseph decides to go to war, but even this attempt is delayed, because man makes his own life as miserable as it can be, and so there is red tape, there are problem. so joseph spends almost an year or a bit longer, living off his wife, reading the newspaper, with increasingly worn clothes; all the good qualities that "society" or "good manner" require, peel off him like skins decaying for lack of use.
the character will loose the extra weight of external skins that society requires us to wear and will go down to a core of a solitary man, desperate to be part of something, in agony for having lost that social belonging.
last words of the book are: "Long live regimentation!".
now this is what we call democracy! everybody is free to think and say what they want, complete uncensored freedom of speech apart from the things that are .. forbidden.. like communism in the usa..
sure, the process on paper is perfect: if tomorrow a vast majority of people woke up communist, next thing you know, they will move lenin and mao's mummies over to capitol hill; but this doesn't take into account how the will of people can be manipulated, how scare tactics can work on the minds of the majority of people, how the secret service and the military complex can be used to change the course of history, and so on.
anyway, dangling man is not about this stuff.. it's just that the main character, joseph, is a self declared ex member of the communist party, some time before mccharthy came of age.
dangling man is more about the agony of a generation, the depression generation of americans, who was going to take a blood bath in europe and thus thrust us into this magnificent times of nowadays.
the pressure of modern life, in a big city, while the war is on, finally has the best over one man, Joseph, who surrenders to everything, becomes incapable of the daily repetition of acts in a robot-like manner: wake up, go to work, earn money, spend money, go back home, with few exceptions for the weekends (when there has to be more spending and less earning).
Joseph decides to go to war, but even this attempt is delayed, because man makes his own life as miserable as it can be, and so there is red tape, there are problem. so joseph spends almost an year or a bit longer, living off his wife, reading the newspaper, with increasingly worn clothes; all the good qualities that "society" or "good manner" require, peel off him like skins decaying for lack of use.
the character will loose the extra weight of external skins that society requires us to wear and will go down to a core of a solitary man, desperate to be part of something, in agony for having lost that social belonging.
last words of the book are: "Long live regimentation!".
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