I have not yet read all of his novels but I really liked his works.He had a very hard life in amny ways including bringing up three tiny childre alone and he proves that smoking and drning do not always kill you in middle age!
This is an extract from “Humboldt’s Gift” in a book review on GoodReads Saul Bellow
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/637022168
Humboldt’s Gift
by Saul Bellow, Jeffrey Eugenides (Introduction)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/637022168
“Some think that sloth, one of the capital sins, means ordinary laziness,” I began. “Sticking in the mud. Sleeping at the switch. But sloth has to cover a great deal of despair. Sloth is really a busy condition, hyperactive. This activity drives off the wonderful rest or balance without which there can be no poetry or art or thought — none of the highest human functions. These slothful sinners are not able to acquiesce in their own being, as some philosophers say. They labor because rest terrifies them. The old philosophy distinguished between knowledge achieved by effort (ratio) and knowledge received (intellectus) by the listening soul that can hear the essence of things and comes to understand the marvelous. But this calls for unusual strength of soul. The more so since society claims more and more of your inner self and infects you with its restlessness. It trains you in distraction, colonizes consciousness as fast as consciousness advances. The true poise, that of contemplation or imagination, sits right on the border of sleep and dreaming. Now, Naomi, as I was lying stretched out in America, determined to resist its material interests and hoping for redemption by art, I fell into a deep snooze that lasted for year.
Sometimes we want to read the new novels from the Review in our weekend paper but for a few years I have taken great pleasure in reading books which I have already read once or even twice. I reread some of Nicholas Freeling’s novels this winter.I noticed some parts which I had not absorbed before. These were especially with the landscapes he creates.In fact he has a very painterly way of writing .A watercolorist’s way,perhaps.In that he reminds me,oddly, of Virginia Woolff.
He was a writer who changed the nature of the detective story.I read him for his depictions of relationships, people,different countries. My favorites are the Castang series which were never filmed… a great pity but who could play this man realistically? I suppose I have similar values to Freeling which always helps. He clearly loves women which is rare, in my view
Margaret Drabble when young
When I moved from books to Philosophy I was not expecting a lot of readers but I have had far more than I thought and so I have continued again after I thought I’d stop.So as I have thought before,people do like serious reading and thinking about thinking.
I shall try to put on more about books too.I am reading the latest Margaret Drabble this week,The pure gold baby.It seems very light reading after Heidegger and co.Which is nice..
I would like to discover an introduction to modern literary crticism as i find it hard to get into.I am unsure if it needs to be so difficult….
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http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/sep/17/fiction.features
Lurie is one of my favorite authors.I recommend,The War Between the Tates for a start
In the USA and in the UK we find fewer people are studying the humanities.Here it is because of the economic climate.. people wish to study “useful” subjects.Literature won’t get you a job,perhaps.It only enables you to live better.Already in schools the study of Greek and Latin has almost gone.
Economics still gets students………. odd considering that economists did not forecast the recession but were up to their necks in mathematical models.Economicis not a science and cannot be.I believe it’s a branch of philosophy in a broad sense.
I admit I did not study what we called “The Arts” at University but most of my friends did.But I read poetry.I liked Auden greatly.I read all the great novels.I read Doris Lessing and Iris Murdoch.I read Evelyn Waugh/I even read Nabokov…. what a writer!And I read Shakespeare Plays.
But with the much higher fees,recession and other worries,fewer students will spend three years studying the humanities.Plumbing or Carpentry are better options
I am thinking of writing some new plays.
A Fit Plumber’s Nightly Schemes
Witches astir.
Ham to let.
Sing Fear.
Make up for the Mind
A Midsummer Balls Up.
The Emptiest.
Please defreeze me,let me grow.
A man without limits
Much Ado about Hacking.
As you Recycle it.
Julius Seized the Emails.
Fool Us and Squeeze Us.
Twelfth Fright.
Hacked to Death.
The Blaming of the Guru,
Prospero Not.
http://www.debate.org/opinions/are-the-arts-too-elitist
http://theamericanscholar.org/the-decline-of-the-english-department/?key=55705194
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/07/12/specials/lurie-asked.html
I do like to know more about my favorite authors.Here Alison Lurie describes her childhood;her belief she was not pretty enough to marry and the praise she got for her childhoodcreations.This led in an obvious direction.Ironically,she married young and spent many years as a mother and academic wife before she ever published a book.but once started she was on her true path in life.She has an unmistakable voice of her own
Review of a novel by the wonderful Francine Prose about the collision of academia and the then newly fangled notions of sexual harassment
ShimonZ’s book likes in modern literature.. a useful collection of books here
A good introduction to her work from this prizewinning author and poet
More ideas for what to read this winter
How my heart sings 