Herzog is a novel by Saul Bellow. This book won the
National Book Award for fiction in 1965, becoming a best-seller.
Moses Herzog, a scholar, aged 47, undergoes an
emotional, moral and intellectual crisis. From his summer home in the Berkshire Mountains, he writes letters to friends, relatives, his psychiatrist, politicians, philosophers, the public, and even to God.
Flashbacks provide the reader with information about his relations with his family, his two ex-wives, Daisy (he has a son Marco, by her) and Madeleine, his Japanese mistress Sono, and his current lover, Ramona.
Herzog travels to Chicago, intent on avenging himself on his ex-wife Madeleine and her lover, Valentine Gersbach, but his plans backfire in humiliation after he gets involved in a car accident and arrested for possessing a gun without a permit.
Herzog rejects his brother's suggestion that he checks in to a mental hospital. Instead, he arranges for his dilapidated summer place be put to rights again, plans for a visit from his son Marco, and prepares for a dinner with Ramona. He is relatively at peace, at least, for the time being.