Rating: 
Summary: Superb! One of Bellow's best
Review: This was my introduction to Saul Bellow and I probably shouldn't have started with this one, because all the others probably pale in comparsion to this. They have to. Anyone this good would have to be some inhuman writing machine. Wow. Sammler is a human being like the rest of us tackling questions that we all have given passing thought to at least once in our lives. He may come to a firm conclusion about them, but he gives it his best shot, even as he deals with his family, including his dying nephew. The best part about this novel are the stream of consciousness narratives that show us the ebb and flow of Sammler's thoughts, where most of his thinking takes place. Here are the best scenes in the novel, and Bellow does it with ease, showing that he is influenced by Joyce but not mastered by him, taking his techinques and refining them to the next level. Anyone interested in reading about the sixties should try this book, or just anyone who has ever stood and watched something happen and wonder why they didn't do anything, and wonder why. So does Artur Sammler.
Rating: 
Summary: Mr. Bellow's Philosophy Masquerading as a Novel
Review: This was my second attempt at Bellow. I started with the very short and enjoyable "Seize the Day" and jumped into this. I have always been intimidated by Bellow and, if anything, this book proved that my fears were well-founded. Certainly, the long philosophical ramblings were not easy reading and I will admit that I didn't always follow them. But that's not what bothered me about the book. What bothered me was that the philosophical theories quite clearly belonged to Mr. Bellow and not Mr. Sammler. I understand that novels are essentially ways for the author to deliver his theories on a number of subjects. But character development is essential. You have to understand and know the character to decide whether to trust what the character is thinking and saying. But as you get deeper into some of these philosophical tangents, Mr. Sammler disappears and only Saul Bellow is left. Maybe Saul should have written a long essay rather than a novel that goes nowhere. And nowhere is exactly where the story goes. Bellow hangs his philosophical treatise on a handful of one-dimensional characters and a plot about a stolen manuscript that seems more appropriate for an episode of "Frasier." "Mr. Sammler's Planet" won the National Book Award and I have to think that sometimes voters for such awards are awed by a writer's reputation or by a thick wall of language that they respect but don't really understand. And all the while, they seem to forget that the purpose of a novel is to tell a story while giving insight into human nature along the way. What Bellow does here, and what he won awards for, is quite the opposite: He creates minimal characters and moves them around just enough to be able to pound home his views and theories.
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