Herzog (Penguin Classics)

Happy with the purchase.

Saul Bellow's classic- in my opinion- is Herzog. When Bellow gets it right, the writing sizzles. He stays always fresh. Even if you don't like his attitude towards women, you have to remember he is as hard on his male characters also. Bellow deserves a place in the canon.

A great novel, an immense reading pleasure, full of insight and wisdom about the ways of the world.

Herzog is a book about a middle aged man and his reflections on life. He's had 2 failed marriages. He's a somewhat itinerant academic. He thinks about philosophy and history and literature. He tries to make sense of things. Tries. There's not a whole lot of plot. It meanders. Lots of him recollecting things, going off on mental tangents, to the point where most of the time I can't tell where he is or what time of day it is. He talks to friends, lawyers, his daughter. He writes letters that he never sends to intellectuals, world leaders and anyone he's in mind of. He ponders (a lot). Occasionally he looks around his environment - the train to the beach, a cab, graffiti, the store, etc. Cons - it's rambling. I tried reading it a few times before I finally got through it. I kept waiting for something to start happening. I had to get past that expectation. Stuff does happen, but it's buried under an exceptional amount of discursion. Much of what happens is just in Moses Herzog's head. Pros - Rambling could also be considered, more charitably, as non-linear. Moses overthinks things, but this is something many people, if not all, can relate to. There is some good description. You get a certain feel for what life is like from the eyes of a particular individual. That is something I especially like from a book. In sum - I'm glad I read it, for the most part, but I wouldn't say it left me wanting more. My guess is that a lot of people can't get past the first chapter or two but that those that do really click with it. So the rating of the book is skewed that way. (Though maybe this is true for all books.)

This book deserves (and has got) more substantial reviews than the one I'm about to write. You go along the trials and tribulations of Moses E. Herzog, following his raging thoughts, musings and cries. He writes letters to the whole world and pretty much quarrels with everybody in an attempt to cure the source of his pain and understand Reality, for which he has a grim affection. The text is a beautiful mess of flashbacks, rants and slow-paced action. Highly recommended.

Love this book with such poignant drama around human relationships. SB is the master of seeing thru to the core of normal human desires. Last time i read this was before i had kids so the scenes with his little daughter are that much more gripping now. Great book.

I like this a lot more, understand much mord, than when it was required reading for me 35 years ago, so I'd recommend it, just not so much to young co!lege kids.

This 1961book is still relevant. It may not appeal to everyone, but the tory of a philosophy teacher having a nerous breakdown and trying to recover by writing letters to people in power but never mailing them I sad and funny at the same times. His descriptions of Chicago, where I lived, are interesting in terms of the changes of the prsesseent . So many issues sthat poor Moses SHerzog raises still exist today. I enjoyed it very much.

My favourite novel of all time I think - mmm, there is Beckett's Trilogy. Very funny, pacy even. Don't be put off by the bonkers nature of much that Herzog writes just savour things like: [The opening line] If I am out of my mind, it’s all right with me, thought Moses Herzog. ... he walked on a wooden leg, gracefully bending and straightening like a gondolier. You have to fight for your life. That’s the chief condition on which you hold it. In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably the most dangerous people seek the power. We must be what we are. That is necessity... and Herzog momentarily joined the objective world in looking down on himself. He too could smile at Herzog and despise him. But there still remained the fact. I am Herzog. I have to be that man. There is no one else to do it. And many, many more of these. A true, smack-down masterpiece, in my view. Relax. It's not a treatise and much of it is borderline insane. Let it flow over you.

Interesting work, if you're into experimental fiction and anti-novel.

I bought this book hoping, believing, that it would help the reader through the intellectual maze that is Herzog's mind. For those of you who have not yet got round to reading this extraordinary book, I have to explain that Herzog, the narrator, writes letters in his mind to people, most of them long dead and most of them philosophers. There's the rub because, if like me you don't know much about philosophy, you will often miss Herzog's point and, possibly, some of his best humour. Penguin classics usually provide the reader with wonderful explanatory notes and no less wonderful introductions by academics. Well, for some reason that I cannot begin to understand, it seems that "modern classics" do not deserve this special treatment. The skimpy introduction to Herzog by Philip Roth is anything but clarifying. The problem is that this not easily accessible classic is not available ( to my knowledge ) in any critical edition. Could anyone out there tell me why ?

Saul Bellow is one of the biggest inspirations for one of my favorite writers- Salman Rushdie and it was acting on one of the latter's opinions that I actually tried out Bellow with this fantastic novel... It is complex, labyrinthine and often twisted and loopy but the flashbacks to Herzog's past and present as well as his speculation on the near future and the troubles of the time are the stuff of classics. A failure from all sides, Herzog is trying to move on but not before he dispatches his typically cynical, angry, desperate and always astute views on the people in his life, as well as the theories of existence, freedom and the political fads and fashions of the era. Belllow's sharp, precise and satirical writing style adds an air of warmth and poignancy to Herzog's acerbic commentary. Herzog is a self-despising, self-depreciating character who still wins our sympathy because deep inside, we find the reflections of our own apprehensions and misgivings in his voice. Bellow also crams the book with a cast of unforgettable characters- from aging uncles and aunts to fiery friends, and the women themselves are all memorable- from Herzog's devilish yet utterly remarkable ex-wife Madeleine to the seductive yet affectionate and warm Ramona, who might be one of the most genuinely alluring women in the world of American fiction. Superb book, recommend it to everyone and buy it from the one and only Amazon...it delivers the book right on time..