Review: Herzog

Saul Bellow, Herzog (Penguin Classics 2003)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6551.Herzog?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=9dGruMtrcW&rank=1

Moses Herzog is floored by the collapse of his second marriage; she’s leaving him for his erstwhile friend Valentine. For Madeleine, the announcement of their break-up is ‘one of the greatest moments of her life’; for him, he realises that he ‘has mismanaged everything in his life, everything’. He seeks solace with other women—Wanda, Ramona, Zinka—avoids work on his book on Romanticism, and writes manic notes to himself and erudite ‘impertinent letters’—which never get sent—to all and sundry.
I remember someone from my feminist days describing Bellow as ‘misogynistic’, and for that reason I avoided for years picking this book from my bookshelf. Reading it myself, I can agree that he has little empathy with his female characters, and Herzog has little remorse for his philandering. Nevertheless, the depiction of his characters, both female and male, is immensely deep, rich and funny.
During an event-filled five days, he descends into madness, becoming ever more philosophical and verbose. He ends up at his erstwhile marital home in the countryside, realising that, like the old place, he just needs a bit of fixing up.
Bellow won the Nobel prize in 1976 for works such as this National Book Award for Fiction and Prix International winner. Herzog doesn’t really follow a linear plotline, instead, mostly consisting of the ramblings inside the protagonist’s head—but, what a protagonist! His mental process as he prepares for a date goes on for twenty whole pages. For this reason, I found it a bit hard to read, though worth it for its virtuosity.