"Bringing people into the here-and-now," Saul Bellow wrote. "The real universe. That's the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real--the here-and-now. Seize the day."
Saul Bellow is famous as a Jewish-American writer, who created some of the greatest classics of the 20th century, including The Adventures of Augie March, Seize the Day and Herzog (the most important post-war American novel, according to Ian McEwan). He was a teacher, soldier, and writer--capturing modern America with his neurotic and unforgettable characters. Even through hardships and disappointments, characters like Augie March, Moses Herzog and Charlie Citrine leave us with a charming mix of sympathy, sadness and humor.
Bellow wrote in Seize the Day: "I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want. Faster, much faster than any man could make the tally."
Bellow won the Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt's Gifts. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for the human understanding and subtle analysis that are combined in his work."
Cover Art © Library of America.
Comments
Bellow is interesting as he depicts the plurality of modern American society and its conflicts in the 20th century.