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Product Description
Herzog is alone, now that Madeleine has left him for his best friend. Solitary, in a crumbling house which he shares with rats, he is buffeted by a whirlwind of mental activity. People rumoured that his mind had collapsed. But was it true? Locked for days in the custody of his rambling memories, Herzog scrawls frantic letters which he never mails. His mind buzzes with conundrums and polemics, writing in a spectacular intellectual labyrinth. Is he crazy, or is he a genius?..
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.
Malcolm Bradbury was a novelist, critic, television dramatist and Emeritus Professor of American Studies at the University of East Anglia. He was author of many novels, among them: The History Man (1975), which won the Royal Society of Literature Heinemann Prize and was adapted as a famous television series; Rates of Exchange (1983), which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Modern British Novel (1993) and Dangerous Pilgrimages (1995). Malcolm Bradbury was awarded the CBE in 1991 and died in 2000.
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First Sentence
IF I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
IF I am out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
51 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Moses Herzog is a Jewish academic living in New York in the early Sixties. Following the disastrous break-up of his second marriage, he begins writing letters - first, to practically everybody he has ever met, and then to a varity of public and cultural figures living and dead. It doesn't take the reader long to realise that Herzog is having something of a crisis: his behaviour is erratic and his mind distracted as he remembers in vivid detail key scenes in his life. Perhaps we can make allowances, though - he is trying to make sense of what it means to be alive in the Western world in the second half of the twentieth century, after all. The book is not exactly big on plot, but a certain suspense does build as to whether he's going to get through it with his mind and body intact. The novel is also very well written, and at times dazzlingly so. As a character, Herzog is brilliantly realised - unquestionably an intellectual, he is entirely believable as betrayed husband, doting father, rebellious son, hesitant lover and more besides. The book is a modern classic which captures its time, and still has a lot to say to us about our lives as part of a society too advanced for easy comprehension.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This novel starts with a ferociously strong image, then moves us into the mind of Moses Herzog. Herzog is a failing professor with an unfaithful second wife, a treacherous best friend, unwritten books and theses which remind him of his failings. Also, in a bizarrely wonderful twist, we find that Herzog writes letters avidly, even compulsively. These are largely to dead people, either relatives or historical figures he has never met. Also mathematicians - he writes to Euclid and points out why his theories don't add up.
The novel also contains a profound and bitter sense of betrayal, Herzog's as his marriage fails and his child whisked from him, Bellow's as similar events in his life mirrored the plot.
This is Bellow's most autobiographical work, including his bizarre childhood and the way he sees an exiled, crushed class (and race) adjust to their new lives, while he with his fabulously realised child's eyes sees only the surface, but sees things an adult would consider sinister.
This book is either a masterpiece or so close it makes no difference. Check it out when you're prepared to be tantalised and confused.
The novel also contains a profound and bitter sense of betrayal, Herzog's as his marriage fails and his child whisked from him, Bellow's as similar events in his life mirrored the plot.
This is Bellow's most autobiographical work, including his bizarre childhood and the way he sees an exiled, crushed class (and race) adjust to their new lives, while he with his fabulously realised child's eyes sees only the surface, but sees things an adult would consider sinister.
This book is either a masterpiece or so close it makes no difference. Check it out when you're prepared to be tantalised and confused.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The inner-workings of the mind of an aged American intellectual? Possibly not the most enticing prospect for an enjoyable read, but Bellow's skill in capturing *humanity* in all its variations pulls this off magnificently. Herzog is reminiscent of one of those displaced characters Nabokov created - trapped in an age that doesn't quite accept him, or vice versa. This relationship is even more interesting against the backdrop of the brief fetish of intellectualism in the Kennedy era. However, the real attraction of this book is Bellow's superlative ability to capture the essence of Herzog's increasingly fractured mind, taking the reader on a ride into his own personal world.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not my favorite
Hertzog is a highly educated man that has reached middle age and is on the edge of a mental breakdown. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Willis
Herzog
This book was recommended to me by several different people on a thread I once started about intelligent writers. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Blackbeard
Beauty in a undeserving cover
I bought a new copy of this book. It is the best book I have read in my life and I have read my old copy a number of times. Read more
Published on 21 July 2009 by Klaas.
Superlative US novel about an academic's touch with madness
Stunning novel about a middle aged academic almost driven insane by various personal and ideological crises, but who eventually manages to find some peace after experiencing events... Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2008 by Daniel Bor
An excellent piece of classic American literature.
Of all the contemporary American authors, Saul Bellow ranks as one of the best. He has a wonderful control of the English language and a fine sense of humour. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2000
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