Winner of the
Nobel Prize,
Saul Bellow is an accomplished writer who managed to amaze the
critics with the reality of his characters and of the world they move in.
Herzog is a critically acclaimed novel that deals with the
anxieties of a mature man at a life crossroads. The novel is complete in narrative technique and use of language, thus making Herzog, his unwilling character, the voice of a civilization.
Professor
Moses Herzog is a crazed man in search of answers about his failed life as a husband, father, friend, lover and brother as well. He runs away form New York and retreats in the Berkshires, in his house, that he once shared with his wife and child and there, remembering all, writes
letters to every person to have ever crossed his path. He is surrounded by words, by
memories and sensations, and
memories become characters and characters become the life he once had. He loved Madeleine, an
eccentric woman, who cannot understand him nor his need for a life in the countryside. He married her, had a child with her and was
miserable with her. She runs away with Valentine, Herzog’s friend and confidante, taking with her their only child. Thus she takes everything Herzog ever had or needed.
Surely the voice of narrative cannot comprise the complexity of what this character is feeling. His madness becomes an exterior disease that envelops everything. Revenge and compassion, hate and passion rise up to occupy so much space that everything else seems unimportant. He is a dreamer, placed in opposition with Will and Helen, his brother and sister, down to earth beings who fail to understand Moses and his
bohemian behavior. He is a good companion to his daughter rather than a father, for he has not learned responsibility.
The three
central female characters give a face to what
womanhood is to Moses. They hurt him (Madeleine), they patronize him (sister Helen) and they mend him (Ramona). He depends on their presence. This presence is the engine of the entire novel.
With its impressive epic and spectacular use of language, this novel is a
feast for literature lovers everywhere.