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Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and ferociously-and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has suggested that he put forth a book of his convictions about the ideas which sustain humankind, or kill it, and much to Ravelstein's own surprise, he does and becomes a millionaire. Ravelstein suggests in turn that Chick write a memoir or a life of him, and during the course of a celebratory trip to Paris the two share thoughts on mortality, philosophy and history, loves and friends, old and new, and vaudeville routines from the remote past. The mood turns more somber once they have returned to the Midwest and Ravelstein succumbs to AIDS and Chick himself nearly dies.
Deeply insightful and always moving, Saul Bellow's new novel is a journey through love and memory. It is brave, dark, and bleakly funny: an elegy to friendship and to lives well (or badly) lived.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
Robert Pelzar
reviewed Ravelstein on March 30, 2015
Ravelstein
For most literary Americans of my generation, Saul Bellow has largely been forgotten. It seems that when he's thought of at all, it's as a hopelessly out-of-touch white conservative, someone whose artistic ability was ultimately clouded by his stance. While Céline, Hamsun, and other reactionaries have been rehabilitated, Bellow's unsexy Republican uncle attitudes are a tough nut to swallow. And consequently, we're not likely to pick up Herzog any time soon (and frankly, I think it kind of sucked).
But hey, Henderson the Rain King was OK, if a bit silly, and Augie March was downright fun.
But Ravelstein is a different matter altogether. A slender yet complex novel of ideas, featuring a very sympathetic total dickhead at its core, a character in whom we see a lot of Bellow mocking the cultural conservatism of his milieu, this is the best sort of modernist American writing. Forget what you thought you knew about Saul Bellow-- this is the novel that makes me think the Swedish medal around his neck wasn't a waste of gold.
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Add Ravelstein, Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and ferociously-and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has sugges, Ravelstein to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Ravelstein, Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and ferociously-and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has sugges, Ravelstein to your collection on WonderClub |
