Seize the Day

by Saul Bellow, Cynthia Ozick

Seize the day. Be in the present. Grasp the hour, the moment, the instant. This is the dubious advice given by outlandish Dr. Tamkin—part psychologist, part stockbroker—to poor Tommy Wilhelm. Unemployed, at the whim of his ex-wife and two children, and hurt by his proud and callous father, Wilhelm is disgusted with himself, yet forever hopeful that his suffering is purposeful. When he decides to entrust the last of his money to a mysterious commodities venture with Dr. Tamkin, he unwittingly sets in motion the most eventful day of his life. The journey that follows takes him across the length of New York City, from his hotel room at the Gloriana to the floor of the stock exchange, bringing him ever closer to "his heart's ultimate need."

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Literature, American, Novels, 20th Century, Novella

114 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Novels of Saul Bellow, Canadian-American writer, include Dangling Man in 1944 and Humboldt's Gift in 1975 and often concern an alienated individual within an indifferent society; he won the Nobel Prize of 1976 for literature.

People widely regard one most important Saul Bellow of the 20th century. Known for his rich prose, intellectual depth, and incisive character studies, Bellow explored themes of identity and the complexities of modern life with a distinct voice that fused philosophical insight and streetwise humor. Herzog , The Adventures of Augie March , and Mister Sammler’s Planet , his major works, earned critical acclaim and a lasting legacy.

Born in Lachine, Quebec, to Russian-Jewish immigrants, Saul Bellow at a young age moved with his family to Chicago, a city that shaped much worldview and a frequent backdrop in his fiction. He studied anthropology at the University of Chicago and later Northwestern, and his intellectual interests deeply informed him. Bellow briefly pursued graduate studies in anthropology, quickly turned, and first published.

Breakthrough of Saul Bellow came with The Adventures of Augie March , a sprawling, exuberance that in 1953 marked the national book award and a new direction in fiction. With energetic language and episodic structure, it introduced readers to a new kind of unapologetically intellectual yet deeply grounded hero in the realities of urban life. Over the following decades, Bellow produced a series of acclaimed that further cemented his reputation. In Herzog , considered his masterpiece in 1964, a psychological portrait of inner turmoil of a troubled academic unfolds through a series of unsent letters, while a semi-autobiographical reflection on art and fame gained the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1976, people awarded human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture of Saul Bellow. He only thrice gained the national book award for fiction and also received the medal of arts and the lifetime achievement of the library of Congress.

Beyond fiction, Saul Bellow, a passionate essayist, taught. He held academic positions at institutions, such as the University of Minnesota, Princeton, and Boston University, and people knew his sharp intellect and lively classroom presence. Despite his stature, Bellow cared about ordinary people and infused his work with humor, moral reflection, and a deep appreciation of contradictions of life.

People can see influence of Saul Bellow in the work of countless followers. His uniquely and universally resonant voice ably combined the comic, the profound, the intellectual, and the visceral. He continued into his later years to publish his final Ravelstein in 2000.

People continue to read work of Saul Bellow and to celebrate its wisdom, vitality, and fearless examination of humanity in a chaotic world.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Time flies, it is hard enough to catch a moment… Is it possible to Seize the Day?
If Saul Bellow isn’t cynical then he is surely sarcastic.

Cynicism was bread and meat to everyone. And irony, too. Maybe it couldn't be helped. It was probably even necessary. Wilhelm, however, feared it intensely. Whenever at the end of the day be was unusually fatigued be attributed it to cynicism.

Tommy Wilhelm is a hopeless dream chaser – all his life he was chasing his romantic dreams but couldn’t catch any. He is too credulous and conscientious so he always ends up being used. He wanted to be an actor but had no talent, he got married but received only unhappiness, he hoped to make money but just lost everything so he became bitter and distressed. And his ancient father, aware that the son will always remain a useless good-for-nothing, refused to help him.

…he received a suggestion from some remote element in his thoughts that the business of life, the real business – to carry his peculiar burden, to feel shame and impotence, to taste these quelled tears – the only important business, the highest business was being done. Maybe the making of mistakes expressed the very purpose of his life and the essence of his being here.

Shall the meek inherit the earth?

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Nature only knows one thing, and that’s the present. Present, present, eternal present, like a big, huge, giant wave – colossal, bright and beautiful, full of life and death, climbing into the sky, standing in the seas. You must go along with the actual, the Here-and-Now, the glory -’

Following the success of his lengthy, 1953 National Book Award Winning novel The Adventures of Augie March, Nobel laureate Saul Bellow returned in 1956 with the very slender Seize the Day. Called ‘the most Russian novella written in America’ by critic James Wood ¹, one of Seize ‘s greatest successes is the enormous accumulation of ideas, social, spiritual and psychological commentary, and pure literary vitamins packed into this snack of a novel that rivals the depth of novels three to four times it’s length, not to mention the enrapturing prose that pulls this story along. Much like the Russian literary giants of whom Bellow highly regarded, Seize is intensely psychological as Bellow takes a page from Wilhelm Reich (whose first name is also that of Seize’s protagonist) with regards to character analysis and social commentary. This novel is ripe for classroom discussion and analysis, with carefully crafted metaphors and motifs that seem effortlessly blended into the narrative, similar to the way Dr. Tamkin builds his character mask through ‘hints, made dully as asides, grew by repetition into sensational claims.’ Bursting with insight and frosted in delicious prose, Bellow breaks down the socio-economic conditions of the 50’s,and their implications of the common man through an ostensive examination of Wilhelm Reich’s psychoanalytic theories.

Much like Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses, Seize the Day follows a Jewish protagonist, through the course of one day while simultaneously painting the larger portrait of the character’s life history. However, Seize the Day stands on it’s own taking the reader through an entirely different approach and resolution as a psychoanalysis of Tommy Wilhelm (formerly Wilhelm ‘Wilky’ Adler before adopting his stage name²). A bit of background on Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian psychoanalyst and contemporary of Sigmund Freud, is extremely beneficial towards understanding Bellow’s novel, as Reich’s theories and practices constitute the framework for the novel.

Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957)

In short, Reich’s psychoanalysis - beyond the standard Freudian constructs of figurative castration, Oedipal complex, etc. centered on a belief that ‘ neurosis is rooted in physical, sexual, and socio-economic conditions, and in particular in a lack of what he called "orgastic potency”’. The ‘orgastic potency’ refers to a theory that an orgasm is a healthy release of libido and creative powers fueled through love, which can become blocked by social conditions and other outside forces, thus creating an ‘orgastic impotency’ which directly causes neurosis and heath disorders (Reich believed Freud’s jaw cancer was unrelated to his tobacco use and was instead attributed to Freud ‘biting down’ of his [Freud’s] problems). This was the primary focus for character analysis, and lead to his practice of Vegetotherapy. Vegeotherapy was a form of psychotherapy consisting of the patient removing their ‘body armor’ – both figuratively and literally as the patient would conduct the therapy nude, and simulate extreme stress and emotions with the aim of responding to them and releasing all the built up emotional blockage (to achieve an emotional orgasm) ³.

Following the ideas of Reich, Bellow probes the ‘neurosis’ of Wilhelm by setting him in financial ruin (socio-economic conditions), an estranged marriage brought on by his love affairs and belief that his wife is attempting to choke him off (castration), and at odds with his father (Oedipal complex – the more awkward aspects of this complex are only lightly touched upon, as when Wilhelm reflects upon his mothers death he feels a ‘great pull at the very center of his soul,’ yet ‘never identified what struck within him’). Wilhelm looks back on his past as a laundry list of failures, but shows hope for recovery by always believing that he can get a new start. This ‘new start’, in this case putting the last of his money into commodities with Dr. Tamkin on Tamkin’s ‘can’t fail’ get-rich-quick promises, seem less and less possible now that he is graying and in his 40s, and Bellow does not hesitate from depicting Wilhelm in a rather unflattering light as a slob, sloucher, pill-popper in denial, and rather whiney. Wilhelm does look at his past as a series of event leading him to his sad state, yet he does in part own up to his mistakes and does not shy away from accepting that it was his choices that brought him to those events. This ownership of his faults may be the only glimmer of potential recovery that Wilhelm displays from the start.

The financial ruin of Wilhelm is a major focus of the novel, and should be addressed before proceeding into a discussion of the metaphorical vegeotherapy that Bellow conducts upon his protagonist. Reich was a outspoken Marxist and many of these anti-capitalistic beliefs take shape through both Tamkin and Wilhelm. ‘A man like you,’ Tamkin addresses Wilhelm in one of his many speeches, ‘humble for life, who wants to feel and live, has trouble – not wanting to exchange an ounce of soul for a pound of social power – he’ll never make it without help in a world like this.’ Both men see money as a vicious tool for keeping others down. It is the driving force of New York, according to them, and the world, and is always used as a weapon. Wilhelm feels castrated by his wife’s refusal to grant him a divorce and by her still living off his money, which she demands in increasing quantities. Wilhelm believes his own suffering is inflated due to the downward spiral of poverty and having others always riding on his back dragging him down. ‘A rich man may be free on an income of a million net. A poor man may be free because nobody cares what he does. But a fellow in my position has to sweat it out until he drops dead.’ He views the whole system as utterly threatening and damning. It is even discussed as a method for enslavement and cruelty throughout history in one of the many instances of evoking the Jewish plight and consciousness (It is clear why Roth cites Bellow as an important influence. Bellow manages to weave a religious motif through biblical imagery and brief touches on the Jewish culture that occasionally give a parable-like vibe to the novel).

‘People come to the market to kill,’ says Tamkin, ‘They say, ‘I’m going to make a killing.’ It’s not accidental. Only they haven’t got the genuine courage to kill, and they erect a symbol of it.’ Money is seen as an extension of the animalistic urges in man, seeing money as a force of destruction that blocks the creative forces of love. These animal instincts, an important aspect of Reich’s psychoanalysis, are described by Tamkin when he discusses that a man whom ‘marries sorrow’ will figuratively ‘howl’ from his window at night to express his pain of the world. Wilhelm briefly thinks upon his grandfather calling him by his Yiddish name, Velvel, a name meaning wolf, in another excellent example of Bellow tying the Jewish consciousness into this piece.

Wilhelm’s vegeotherapy is essentially the entire days events. Every waking moment is either the pains of an old wound or a new stressor that builds and builds on him. The systematically recalls all his failures, all his fears, and dwells on all his faults as the day progresses until he is balled up in a knot of anxiety. Then, one by one, he sheds his bodily armor, casting off everyone he knows in a fit of emotional outpouring and indignant anger. Bellow plays with his water motif in a very interesting way here. Throughout the book are frequent allusions to water, many of them directed at Wilhelm’s apparent aversion to it (he uses an electric razor that doesn’t require him wetting his face, he doesn’t wash his hands, etc.). Wilhelm is often described as drowning in his problems. Tamkin is ridiculed by Dr. Adler for having a supposed invention of a underwater suit that would allow people to be protected underwater in case of nuclear attack, which makes for a wonderful metaphor for Wilhelm’s seeking shelter in Tamkin’s stock-market schemes to saving him from drowning in his financial woes. Despite the fears of water, Wilhelm’s orgasm is a flood of tears, and violent output of water as the curtain falls upon the novel.

This watery orgasm poses an interesting analysis on the novel. Perhaps it is what we fear most, that which is the hardest, that we should actually take stock in. In other words, taking the easy way out to avoid the hard way is what causes problems. Wilhelm always ran to the next-big-thing, off to Hollywood or to the bed of a new woman, which brought him to his knees in life. Tamkin offered an easy way out, but should he really be trusted. Bellow creates an incredible trickster figure in Tamkin, ironically having him be a psychologist in a novel focusing on psychoanalysis. Tamkin is often described as speaking ‘hypnotically’, and Wilhelm often wonders if this is some sort of spell he is under from the flow of his words.

’Bringing people into the Here-and-Now. The real universe. That’s the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real – the here-and-now. Seize the day.’

The short, punctuated pattern of speech creates a trancelike rhythm. He is like the snake in Eden tempting with an apple of knowledge promising better things. Bellow keeps the temptation sweeter by having Tamkin also express truth and Bellows ultimate message and moral – to love one another. The truth is tangled with the lies and deceit, just like real life where we must sort through all the messages we receive and decode the thread we should follow to salvation, personal success and stability, and which glimmering threads really lead us to damnation and ruin.

For such a thin book, Bellow fills it chock full of literary glory. Seize the Day is like a quick left jab, but when it catches you on the chin you realize it is like a full forced right hook of a fist from any lesser writer. There is simply so much occurring on various levels in this novel and it is truly astonishing. Bellow leaves the reader with an empowering look at life, to seize the moments when they come and make the best of them, and to take ownership of our failures because ‘you can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.’ Seize the day, and seize this book.
3.75/5


‘all of a sudden, unsought, a general love for all these imperfect and lurid-looking people burst out in Wilhelm’s breast. He loved them. One and all, he passionately loved them. They were his brothers and sisters. He was imperfect and disfigured himself, but what difference did that make if he was united with them by this blaze of love?’

¹ Besides often raving about Bellow (see sub), in Wood’s How Fiction Works, he speaks at length about a tiny paragraph and opens a sea of meaning from a small aside thrown in by Bellow. As the passage from Wood inspired me to read the novel, I’d like to include it here in full:

Another example of the novelist writing over his character occurs (briefly) in Saul Bellow's Seize the Day. Tommy Wilhelm, the out-of-work salesman down on his luck, neither much of an aesthete nor an intellectual, is anxiously watching the board at a Manhattan commodity exchange. Next to him, an old hand named Mr. Rappaport is smoking a cigar. "A long perfect ash formed on the end of the cigar, the white ghost of the leaf with all its veins and its fainter pungency. It was ignored, in its beauty, by the old man. For it was beautiful. Wilhelm he ignored as well."

It is a gorgeous, musical phrase, and characteristic of both Bellow and modern fictional narrative. The fiction slows down to draw our attention to a potentially neglected surface or texture—an example of a "descriptive pause," familiar to us when a novel halts its action and the author says, in effect, "Now I am going to tell you about the town of N., which was nestled in the Carpathian foothills," or "Jerome's house was a large dark castle, set in fifty thousand acres of rich grazing land." But at the same time it is a detail apparently seen not by the author—or not only by the author—but by a character. And this is what Bellow wobbles on; he admits an anxiety endemic to modern narrative, and which modern narrative tends to elide. The ash is noticed, and then Bellow comments: "It was ignored, in its beauty, by the old man. For it was beautiful. Wilhelm he ignored as well."

Seize the pay is written in a very close third-person narration, a free indirect style that sees most of the action from Tommy's viewpoint. Bellow seems here to imply that Tommy notices the ash, because it was beautiful, and that Tommy, also ignored by the old man, is also in some way beautiful. But the fact that Bellow tells us this is surely a concession to our implied objection: How and why would Tommy notice this ash, and notice it so well, in
these fine words? To which Bellow replies, anxiously, in effect: "Well, you might have thought Tommy incapable of such finery, but he really did notice this fact of beauty; and that is because he is somewhat beautiful himself."

a. Wood’s considered Bellow to be ‘ one, to my mind the greatest of American prose stylists in the 20th century - and thus one of the greatest in American fiction’. Wood also insisted that the novel be included in Bellow’s own syllabus for his [Bellow’s] literature course at Boston University so the students could ‘get a sense of the stature of the man who was their professor. Bellow modestly absented himself for that particular class, so that the students could freely concentrate on the writing.’ (Excerpt from Wood’s articleThe High-Minded Joker, a reflection on the life of Saul Bellow published by The Guardian, on April 8, 2005, three days after Bellow’s death.)

² The adoption of his stage name plays beautifully into Bellow’s depiction of the Oedipal complex, as well as exposing the dualities inherent in his protagonist with regards to his ‘body armor’ and true self. ‘He had cast off his father’s name, and with it his father’s opinion of him. It was, and he knew it was, his bid for liberty. Adler being in his mind the title of his species, Tommy the freedom of the person. But Wilky was his inescapable self.’ This also allows for the naming of Dr. Tamkin to represent a surrogate father for Tommy Wilhelm, a false, faulty father for a false faulty self. The use of names in the novel is textbook Lit101 analysis and used to it’s full potential.

³ Reich was declared schizophrenic by Sandor Rado, thought to be bipolar by his own daughter and was a staunch believer that Earth was secretly at war with UFOs, which he spoke of openly and often. Despite this, Reich’s ‘orgone accumulators’ – a device built to achieve the emotional orgasm of vegeotherapy, was popularly used by many big-name people, such as Sean Connery, J.D. Salinger and Jack Kerouac.

‘Everyone on this side of the grave is the same distance from death’

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow I wondered what all the fuss was about. The next book I read I started warming to him. And the one after that (Herzog) completely won me over. I hadn't read him in a while, and after finishing Seize the Day I was reminded of the accomplished writer he most certainly was. This novella, set mostly on upper-Broadway, I found to be both funny and profoundly moving, and sees Bellow deal with the age old theme of human weakness. The weakness here is one that is hard to conceal or to acknowledge, but when looked at as closely and compassionately as Bellow has done, it becomes an acutely true image of human existence as it is lived through one single day. A time in which one tries to make the most of things before it starts to dwindle away. Money is a symbol of complex social forces in Seize the Day, and at its core we have salesman Tommy Wilhelm, who is in his early 40s, and despite a wife and two children, has not learned to think of himself as an independent grown man. Now separated, jobless because of his own unstable impulsiveness, wracked by money worries, and resentful of his father for withholding both cash and an emotional shoulder to lean on, Tommy ties himself to an eternal optimist quack psychologist Dr. Tamkin (who steals the show) whom he profoundly distrusts, yet still goes ahead with a risky move to make money. Tamkin believes he can steer Tommy away from the the rocks, and seems to take pleasure from studying Tommy's pessimistic outlook on life. Through a series of flashbacks Bellow ruminates mostly on the sorrows of lost opportunities, and the loss of respect of being a son and a father, but he does so with a great deal of humor in places, especially as Tommy gets more and more wrapped up in a stock market scheme.
Worse off than at the start of the day, there is an unexpected release for Tommy towards the end, when he is emotionally swept up by a funeral for a man he has never known, and is at last able to feel, to accept his own suffering and can confront the greater suffering which has been the dead weight of existence pressing down on him without any release or passion in him for so long.
Despite his intellectual bent, Bellow is less interested in ideologies than in persons. His concern for what really is going on in an individual's mind and heart is what drives the story, with a faithful expression of the private inward lives of men in a crowded and complex city. As an exploration of the father-son relationship, as well as one man’s attempt to find happiness and meaning, Seize the Day made for an absorbing read.

[Fabian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella about the morning hours in the life of a man which is falling apart is authentic New York narrative AND somber urban fable.

Written in '56, it is still supremely relevant and I bet there are dozens, perhaps thousands, of Tommy Wilhems out there in the world, and they are all MODERN MEN; Wilhem is a man confused and, in the same vein as lame-o Holden C., one very unhappy with his placement in society, while also questioning his duties as a "man." The episode between Wilhem and his father is an example of what is at the center of most of these "The Modern Man Undone" novels (this one reminded me instantly of Nathaniel West's "The Day of the Locust"... in its authentic representation of the ambiance of an American city [Los Angeles]),which is Freudian, deep & serious, & it is this discussion between son & elder that is served so ruthlessly here. & you know that with a title like "Seize the Day" the plot will be pretty much an ironic one.

[Maria Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tengo que admitir mi ignorancia: antes de leer esta novela, no sabía que el señor Saul Bellow había existido. Supongo que es normal, es imposible conocer a todos los escritores que ha dado la humanidad. Pero sin duda leeré algo más de él. Carpe Diem, como bien indica, es un grito al "vive ahora, vive el presente"; un grito desgarrador.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there was ever a character as neurotic as Alexander Portnoy - it was Wilhelm Adler. Following him around for a day in this short but great novella, I laughed and cried. At times, well most of the time, he is pathetic but as in nearly all of Bellow's protagonists, there is a diehard optimism that keeps him going towards self-realization. This book is a breath of fresh air and will bring you a smile. Carpe diem!

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the exception of maybe Franz Kafka, Saul Bellow writes chaotic despair better than anyone I know. Seize the Day is the ironically titled chronicle of an existence that is going completely to shit. Bellow crafts a phantom of hope, and then he shreds it - and then he shreds the shreds. I enjoyed this immensely but empathy dissuades me from ever reading it again.

[Perry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh, Good Grief!

“There comes a time when you look into the mirror and you realize that what you see is all that you will ever be. And then you accept it. Or you kill yourself. Or you stop looking in mirrors.”
― Tennessee Williams

Bellow's fourth novel, published in 1956, follows sad sack Tommy Wilhelm (real name, Wilky Adler), who is in his mid-40s, lives in a Manhattan residential hotel with his retired dad, separated from his kids and a frigid wife who will not grant him a divorce, unemployed after careering from one spectacularly pitiful failure to another (actor, husband, father, salesman, jackleg). We pick up the "action" with his latest failing venture, working for an obvious con man selling commodities.

Mostly, we have "the Day" on which Whining Wilhelm bitches incessantly about a legion of antagonists, from his wife, to his ungrateful former bosses, con men who have juked him, and his dad who sees his son as wholly inept and thus won't give him more money or moral support to live his dream. When no son-complaining, there's plenty of dad-denigrating-son.

Wilhelm cannot make a career, reach the American dream or even create yet another personal myth of his life well lived. He is miserable, so on this day, while he seems to be striving for dignity and inner peace, he chooses to attend a funeral for a distant acquaintance, at which he cries uncontrollably. Tears not so much about death as his failure to make a life worth living.

I gotta tell ya: though it's a short novel, I got to the end and yelled:

WTF? Life is hard enough without heaping a fictional pile of crap atop it.

[Peiman E iran · Rating 3 out of 5]

‎دوستانِ گرانقدر، این داستان، در موردِ مردی چهل ساله، به نامِ <ویلهلم> است.. او دو فرزندِ چهارده ساله و ده ساله دارد، ولی با همسرش اختلاف پیدا کرده است و جدا از یکدیگر زندگی میکنند... ویلهلم برایِ دیدنِ پدرش <دکتر آدلر> به هتلی در هالیوود رفته است که بسیاری از بازنشستگان در آن اقامت دارند
‎ویلهلم در این هتل با مردی به نامِ <تامکین> آشنا میشود.. تامکین، خود را پزشکی معرفی میکند که علاوه بر پزشکی، سرمایه گذاری حرفه ای نیز میباشد.. ویلهلم دار و ندارش 700 دلار است که آن را هم به تامکین میدهد و تامکین با پولِ او در بازارِ بورس سهام میخرد
‎پدرِ ویلهلم، یعنی دکتر آدلر، مردِ ثروتمندی است که دلِ خوشی از پسرش ویلهلم ندارد، او به تامکین اعتماد ندارد، و هرچه سعی در آگاه کردنِ ویلهلم دارد، او توجهی به پدرش نمیکند.. ویلهلم تنها عضوی از خانواده است که تحصیلاتِ بالایی ندارد و باعثِ خجالتِ پدرش بوده و میباشد
‎ویلهلم همراه با تامکین، به بازارِ بورس میرود، و متوجه میشود که سهامش پایین آمده و نزدیک به صفر است.. بنابراین شک میکند که شاید تامکین کلاه بردار و دروغگو باشد، پس تصمیم میگیرد تا به هر روشی که شده، پولش را از تامکین پس بگیرد. ولی تامکین هربار با زبان بازی، ویلهم را خامِ خویش میکند و حتی زمانی که میفهمد پدرِ ویلهلم ثروتمند است، برایِ ارث و میراثی که به ویلهلم میرسد، نقشه های زیادی میکشد
‎عزیزانم، بهتر است خودتان این داستان را بخوانید و از سرانجامِ آن آگاه شوید
---------------------------------------------
‎امیدوارم این ریویو در جهتِ شناختِ این کتاب، کافی و مفید بوده باشه
‎<پیروز باشید و ایرانی>

[Annetius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μετά από τον υπέροχο (σαν βιβλίο) και ιδιαίτερα συμπλεγματικό (σαν χαρακτήρα) «Χέρτσογκ», έρχομαι να ανακαλύψω το «Άρπαξε τη μέρα» (σε νεότερη, μάλλον ορθότερη μετάφραση «Άδραξε τη μέρα»), ένα μικρό διαμαντάκι.. εχμ.. μυθιστόρημα ήθελα να πω, του νομπελίστα Αμερικανού συγγραφέα Saul Bellow (1915-2005).

Η εκ πρώτης διαπίστωση είναι πως οι πρωταγωνιστές του Bellow είναι τύποι λειψοί, πληγωμένες καρδιές, αποτυχημένες υπάρξεις, κατά μια έννοια. Το πρόβλημα εντοπίζεται στην πάρτη τους, στα εσωτερικά τους τραύματα που κακοφο��μίζουν στην ενήλικη ζωή τους, πιάνονται στην παγίδα του εαυτού τους και προσπαθούν να γραπωθούν από τρίτους, συνήθως λάθος ανθρώπους, επομένως ανεπιτυχώς.

Στο περί ου ο λόγος μυθιστόρημα, ο Τόνι Βίλχελμ, 44 χρονών, σε μια καραμπινάτη κρίση ηλικίας, ζει μια μέρα -ναι, αυτήν που θα έπρεπε θεωρητικά να αδράξει- της οποίας παρακολουθούμε τα συμβάντα· ένα εικοσιτετράωρο φρενιτιώδες, όπου μαζί με τα πρακτικά οικονομικά ζητήματα που καλείται κατεπειγόντως να επιλύσει, συρρέουν αναπόφευκτα και θεμελιώδη ερωτήματα ψυχολογικής, οικογενειακής, εσωτερικής φύσης -αυτά που είναι σαφώς και τα πιο σημαντικά. Τι είδους άνθρωπος υπήρξε; Πώς θα γίνει να ξαναρχίσει τη ζωή του από την αρχή, να τα καταφέρει καλύτερα αυτή τη φορά; Το σύμπλεγμα αδυναμιών του Βίλχελμ έχει γίνει ένα παράσιτο μέσα του και του ταλαιπωρεί το στομάχι κάθε φορά που το «ταΐζει» με μια νέα λάθος κίνηση, με μια νέα λάθος επιλογή. Τα πράγματα οδηγούνται μοιραία στην κατάρρευση και μένει να μαντέψουμε αν τα δάκρυα που χύνει στο τελικό ξέσπασμα στη δύση της ημέρας θα τον αποκαθάρουν ή θα τον βυθίσουν ακόμα περισσότερο.

Ο Bellow έχει έναν ιδιαίτερο τρόπο να πει τις ιστορίες του, ανακατεύοντας μέσα στην αφήγηση και την πρόζα τις εσωτερικές σκέψεις των πρωταγωνιστών του, με μια ψυχαναλυτική διάθεση που οδηγεί αρκετά κάτω από την επιφάνεια.

Μέσα από το βιβλίο ξεμυτίζει έντονα ο αμερικανικός συντηρητισμός και η απανταχού πατριαρχική θεώρηση των πραγμάτων, το χνώτο του πατέρα που πέφτει βαρύ και επικριτικό πάνω στο σβέρκο του γιου, η μοναξιά και η εχθρικότητα της πολύβουης μεταπολεμικής Νέας Υόρκης για τους ανθρώπους χωρίς ψυχικό σθένος και χρήμα αλλά και ταυτόχρονα η αναμφισβήτητη γοητεία της μεγάλης μητρόπολης των χιλίων δυνατοτήτων.

[Jimmy Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a strikingly pathetic point in Saul Bellow’s novella Seize the Day, when the protagonist Wilhelm (let’s call him Tommy, his Hollywood alias) Adler laments how the latter half of his existence will be occupied by analyzing the failures that occurred in the first half. In the depths of his dour fatalism he opines, “A person can become tired of looking himself over and trying to fix himself up. You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of your first half.” This quote is taken from a conversation that Wilhelm has with his father, as he reaches to persuade him that his current failures are seemingly incurable, and that he needs his financial help. What he neglects to do, above all else, is take this point in his life to regroup and assess the reasons for his past failures.

In the earlier novels of Bellow, this is a fairly typical outburst; someone is dying to be understood so badly that a screaming tirade suddenly inundates the conversation the two characters are having. There is an almost evolutionary progression to the various protagonists of Bellow’s novels. We see Joseph, of Dangling Man striving to become a responsible man and join the army, desiring to mature and contribute something to his country. Augie March jumps from opportunity to opportunity in pursuit of his idea of the American Dream. Even Moses Herzog, in his late age – somewhat older than Wilhelm – continues to probe for the adequate amount of existential meaning required in order to enjoy life. Young and old alike, these men are troubled by their own selfish desires, which they occasionally confuse with what it takes to be a man in mid-century America.

At forty, Wilhelm is still shockingly naïve and idealistic. After dropping out of Penn State, he was swindled by the opportunism of a talent agent by the name of Maurice Venice. After accidentally catching his picture in the school paper, Venice convinces Tommy that his looks will carry him all the way to Hollywood and further. Like many other young people at the time, Tommy discovers that, not only has his artistic hopefulness led him nowhere, it has delayed his attention to his adult obligations to the world. To exacerbate things, he marries and has two children.

In the wake of artistic failure, many of us resign to careers or futures that will promise stability and some semblance of pride. The sobering reality of failure reunites us with the humbling, meek reassurance that comes with merely being capable of staying afloat in the world. Tommy briefly indulges in this act of quotidian redemption. He finds employment as a traveling salesman, and for awhile he manages to break even in life, again failing to realize that his life is no longer merely about just him.

Enter Dr. Adler, Tommy’s father, a well-respected physician whose mantra of restraint and forethought put Tommy’s impetuous desire to become a Hollywood star, to shame. Seize the Day takes place with in the span of one day in New York, but its title is also taken from a speech given to Tommy by a deceitful charlatan named Dr. Tamkin. Tamkin is reminiscent of a Wilhelm Reich, albeit more of a caricature of an intellectual snake-oil salesman. He persuades Tommy to work the market with him, investing in lard prices. Of course, Tamkin’s character is footing a smaller portion of the investment, and eventually he makes himself scarce at a crucial moment in Tommy’s life. Almost instantly down and out, Tommy begs for his father’s assistance. He is completely cut off from aid, rendered helpless and destitute, yet responsible for the livelihood of his family. The solution is more or less simple, and not outside of his reach, but his obstinacy drives him to the point of a breakdown, and he comes to see, in another man’s casket, his own future and the consequences of his fatal case of arrested development.

In Seize the Day, Bellow’s talent lies, not only in the believability of his dialogue, but the effortless pace at which the story unfolds, revealing such a complex set of lives and personal histories all in the span of a little over a hundred pages. Even Dr. Adler’s insufferable, septuagenarian German friend, Dr. Perls is fleshed out with the characteristic repugnance of old money. After Bellow establishes the tone of Tommy’s character, he offers him an opportunity to rant and speak his mind, only to be profoundly confronted by the ostensible immaturity and selfishness of his decisions. This is a novelistic quality somewhat unique to Bellow; that ability to shape a character, presumably based on the shortcomings of his own post-Depression struggles as a young man, and then challenge that character with the well-reasoned senescence of their elders.

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Name Is Everybody

A deeply-drawn, disturbing portrait of a loser, a person who could be, or could have been, you or anyone else. Making the wrong choice, listening to the wrong person---do it a few times and you wind up broke and alone, your heart bleeding for you know it could have been different. A disappointing wind blows round your door---do you even have a door you can call your own? Bellow shows his mastery in this short novel, which might be called a long short story. It takes place on a single day, a few characters interact in a hotel and brokerage office in New York City, but the portrait of Tommy Wilhelm is one of genius. He has let everybody down---his father, his wife, and himself. He repeatedly finds himself suckered, cheated. Wilhelm has changed with the times, rejected all difficult paths, but found that "easy paths" lead nowhere. He has failed at everything, but he isn't stupid, he is not criminal. Bellow describes his every movement, each thought, each regret so perfectly that at the end you feel that you've read a great tragedy, but kings and princes, there are none. There ARE some great characters that pass across the stage of Bellow's imagination. Mournful at the same time as banal, dealing with great issues and trivia---if you ever thought you were a writer, read this short masterpiece and despair! But read it.

[Matthew Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

45th book of 2020.

“You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.”

This is my first dip into Bellow's work, an American great, one who is lorded profusely by English writer, Martin Amis. This is well-written and cynical - those are the two things I feel inclined to immediately say.

Wilhelm has a difficult relationship with his father and money. That's the gist of the plot. It's a little over 100 pages and surprisingly, made up of a lot of dialogue: conversations go sprawling for pages at a time, and that very dialogue is strong and believable. On the whole, an enjoyable read. I very much look forward to getting to Herzog this year.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on a bit of a novella reading binge at the moment, in preparation for a class I'm teaching next fall. And if this temporary obsession brings me to more books like SEIZE THE DAY, maybe it will become a lasting obsession.

Reading Saul Bellow is dangerous business for a writer because unless you are one of about five living authors I can think of, your sentences will never be as beautiful as Saul Bellow's. In fact it might be best just to say that out loud before sitting down to write. As in "I am going to sit down to write now, and my sentences will never be as beautiful as Saul Bellow's." Then, at peace with that truth, you can begin to type.

I'm tempted to use an example here of one of the half-paragraph stunners that Bellow traffics in. Instead I'll list three one-sentence paragraphs that left me breathless.

"He breathed in the sugar of the pure morning.
He heard the long phrases of the birds,
No enemy wanted his life."

A little context might help explain why those lines hit with such force. So much of this book is in the churning consciousness of Tommy Wilhelm, and in his his Socratic dialogues with one of my favorite literary charlatans, Dr. Tamkin. Wilhelm worries. He worries about his worries. He seeks the smallest trace of affirmation from his fellow man. All the while he seems to revel in the misery he causes himself. Then he notices something about the world around him. "Light as a locust, a helicopter bringing in mail from Newark Airport to La Guardia sprang over the city in a long leap." Or: "In full tumult the great afternoon current raced for Columbus Circle, where the mouth of midtown stood open and the skyscrapers gave back the yellow fire of the sun." The world outside seems like a place of overwhelming beauty and overwhelming motion. Somewhere Wilhelm can no longer find his place.

We follow him as he journeys through a remarkably small part of this world, attempting to gain control of the present, but never quite able to touch it. It's a book that comes in great waves of talk, feeling, and the raw unconscious. An effective way to capture a true unraveling. A short potent dose of novella.

[Helga · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want.

Seize the Day recounts a day in the life of Wilhelm Adler who is a jobless, might-have-been, unloved, middle-aged underachiever. Coming face to face with his weaknesses and failures, he is obliged to re-examine his choices in life and face his losses.

But how we love looking fine in the eyes of the world…

[Esteban Forero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Las convenciones sociales nos permiten sobrevivir a costa de empeñar a futuro la fuerza de nuestro espíritu. ¡Cuántos no se enriquecen hoy alentando la individualidad productiva o la autoexplotación del sí mismo! Pero más pronto que tarde, convertirnos en mercancía nos costará la propia vida.

Wilhelm, el protagonista de “Carpe diem”, lleva cuatro décadas acumulando decisiones erradas: una carrera actoral sin talento base, un matrimonio sin amor que lo soporte y un orgullo de fantasía que lo ha sumido en la pobreza. El error no es el dinero, fetiche capitalista que alimenta a los empresarios de sí mismos; sino abandonar los deseos profundos del corazón a la falsa dignidad que se atribuye a su ilusoria riqueza. Más de cuarenta años acumulando errores hicieron del corazón de Wilhelm un caparazón podrido que vino a ser fracturado cuando un timador le arranca lo último de la ilusión que guardaba para alcanzar la fortuna.

No tener, no depender para arriesgar, parece ser la única salida a la vergüenza clavada por juicio ajeno. “Carpe diem”: vive o cultiva el día. Solo el presente, el aquí y ahora, tienen el poder salvador cuando todo está perdido.

[Erik F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astonishingly powerful novella structured around a day in the life of an actor manqué as he deals with a shrewish ex-wife, an untrustworthy "psychiatrist" who entangles him in the stock market, an icy father who (understandably) has grown tired of helping his middle-aged son out of financial binds, and with assorted feelings of acedia, alienation, and desperation. In a brief number of pages, Bellow builds a very convincing miniature panorama of a single man adrift in an urban and emotional wasteland, with the protagonist's increasing distress becoming uncomfortably palpable as the day winds down. The book is not a total downer, though: there is snappy humor throughout, along with a sense of zestful wonder at the privilege of simply being alive (hey, don't roll your eyes!). The true knockout comes at the end: a conclusion that is as stirring and cathartic as any other that comes to mind at the moment.

[Dagio_maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Qualsiasi cosa tu sia scopri sempre di essere il tipo sbagliato"

Tommy Wilhelm alloggia in un grande hotel di New York assieme al padre, il professor Adler.
Tommy rievoca una vita costellata da errori che ancora chiedono che il conto sia regolato.
Tra padre e figlio un rapporto complicato: più il figlio si dimostra un perdente più il padre rifiuta non solo ogni aiuto economico ma anche ogni comprensione ed agisce col preciso intento di tenere le distanze per salvaguardare se stesso.
Una New York che spicca nel suo lato più malsano: inquinamento, traffico e malvivenza.
Il centro di tutto è il denaro, motore di una società malata.

Il racconto procede così senza evoluzione , dunque, senza speranza lasciando il lettore in attesa di un finale liberatorio e trovando, invece, solo la punta di un iceberg ormai già affondato.

Il mio primo incontro con Bellow mi lascia tiepida ma non mi arrendo.

[AiK · Rating 3 out of 5]

Томми Вильгельм, актер-неудачник, профукал свою жизнь. Он отбросил отцовское имя, но куда ему деться от его имени, которым его называл отец - Уилки? Унаследовав от мамы нежное сердце, он оставался инфантильным и неприспособленным к жизни. Его отец, доктор Адлер, желал, чтобы Томми стал врачом, но он решил стать актером.
Перемена фамилии было ошибкой, но это время не вернёшь.
Отцу ничего не стоило помочь, но он не желал помогать взрослому сыну, что, вообще говоря, более, чем нормально.
Ни холостяк, ни вдовец, почему Вильгельм не был с женой и детьми, которых нежно любил? Он хотел развестись и жениться на Олив.
Люди любят деньги, без денег ты пешка - таково было кредо Томми. Вильгельм доверил последние 700 долларов проходимцу и мошеннику Тамкину для игры на продовольственной бирже. Он надеялся выиграть и поправить свое материальное положение. Что за наивность?! Конечно, он их потерял.
Доктор Адлер мог дать только медицинские советы о водных процедурах и моционе, в которых сын не нуждался. Денег он категорически не хотел давать. А инфантильный сынок нуждался только в деньгах и ужасно страдал, даже заплакал на чужих похоронах, жалея себя. Вот об этом повесть. Довольно посредственно.

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Bellow.

Not the early, picaresque Bellow of Augie (1953) – which I do not much like – writing a clunky, poorly edited, Americanized, Depression-Era Bildungsroman…, with the so-unBellow-like voice of sentences made in endless *largo*… but the Bellow that has found his voice, for better and even, sometimes, for worse…. A Bellow that is modern, urban, postwar, a scratchingly desperate New York Manhattan Bellow…, not the yuppified, gentrified, Ed Kochified Manhattan of Annie Hall, but the Manhattan of 1956… when New York first was Rome…, Saul Steinberg’s view of America..., Tamkin's view of the Hudson... the center... the omphalos... of the early, still innocent Imperium, and yet already reeking of the dirty, worn out, aging, clogged streets... the Upper West Side... tenements and apartment houses built in the 1890s..., a New York when the Empire State Building was still the tallest building in the world... no gleaming Midtown… full of decaying and dying immigrants from the collapse of Europe, Austro-Hungarians (Wilhelm Adler), rouged and wrinkled, hanging at the Automat…, and likewise full of those NEW teeming immigrants from Puerto Rico, from… of the dirty, sooty, heat rising from the subway gratings in those filthy islands in the middle of B'way... where the pigeons shit and croon and poke for crumbs amidst the litter and the dog crap..., while the old men in their dirty brown hats and baggy brown pants, the color of ochre... and black suspenders, toothless, kvetching, watching, nodding… feeding the pigeons, watching the Puerto Ricans and taxis and buses and smoke rising in those clear blue skies... the currents flowing of millions of every race, of every genius, of everyman… of every… a New York of Adlers and Rappaports and Tamkins and Rubins and...puckered old ladies and street beggars and... the New York of a time and place of my memories… authentic.... a Bellow controlled… the sprawling world of Augie condensed into a mere 100 pages and change… perfected, disciplined, sad…

The action takes place partially in the Gloriana, across the street from… really a shadow and knock-off, a foil for the old Ansonia…, and in a small, brown, smokey, crowded little brokerage house, almost a bucket-shop, brilliantly and accurately captured in the film (Robin Williams is Tommy Wilhelm), which my grandfather used to take me to when I was a very, very little child and which, as I remember it, was on 79th street, on the southeast corner of B’way, right underneath what was for years the old Guys ‘n Dolls Billiard Hall, which was one flight up… though my memory could be wrong…

… in other words…, authentic.

And Wilhelm…? He is in a state of collapse… in crisis… but here’s the thing, and what I think most people miss, and miss (revealingly) because most people who read literature nowadays in America are relentlessly, immovably, uncomprehendingly, genetically middle-class, unthreatened by catastrophe, held up, even when slumming, by a massive, personal safety net of parents in Westchester, of trusts, of bonds, of… but no, not Wilhelm – Tommy is in REAL crisis… his mother is dead, his father is loveless and will not help, his sister is alienated, his wife is a shit and squeezing him and bleeding him... and – and here’s thing – he has no money. He lost his job – not through his own fault – but because has too much damned pride (and deservedly so... for Wilhelm is, indeed, a Prince among men...) to go begging for half his salary back… just because the son-in-law moved in… and schtooped his way into Wilhelm's rightful slot... that is, Tommy Wilhelm... Wilkie Adler..., that Prince..., has no goddamned money and is on the point of collapse…

And none of it REALLY is his fault.

Sure… he has faults… he’s naïve, idealistic, a bit stubborn… worse, he thinks he deserves better, deserves pity even.. but so what… so would anyone... and he certainly doesn’t deserve THIS... THIS dreck (!) – when every two-bit charlatan, dishonest, unfeeling faker seems to manage what poor Wilhelm – a prince..., feeling in uncommon depths… honest to a fault… can’t seem to manage – namely – a measly 15 grand a year…. and in fact…, he’ll settle for less… much less! screw the money… at least have some pity… some mercy…, no…!? Is THAT too much to ask...!

In other words, this is not really Shakespearean tragedy… it is Greek tragedy…with a modernist, yiddish twist.

There is, says Freud, such a thing as a REAL neurosis – that is, a neurosis that is a response NOT to the contents of the repressed, but to REAL circumstances… circumstances that press on you so bad that you can scream, you can’t breath, and you don’t fucking deserve this… and yet… you got it… and the character and personality threaten to disintegrate… death while standing, death while walking, death while talking… death while watching yourself dying a death on the installment plan… and it is this… this REAL breakdown of the TRULY neurotic Tommy Wilhelm which is the subject of this lovely little book.

In other words, Wilhelm, I think, is a little bit of a modern Job

Sorry for the long rambling comments – I usually avoid writing long reviews, as you all know. But it has to be said.

[Come Musica · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Il premio Nobel Saul Bellow (1915-2005), secondo Philip Roth, è stato «capace di colmare brillantemente il vuoto che si era creato tra Thomas Mann e Damon Runyon». Quella tra Bellow e Roth fu un’amicizia (e una rivalità letteraria) testimoniata, tra le altre cose, da un fascicolo conservato alla Biblioteca del Congresso di Washington, sotto la scritta «Bellow, Saul; 1957, 1969-1999». Dentro quel fascicolo ci sono una trentina di lettere, alcune scritte a mano, altre dattiloscritte, che aprono uno spiraglio nel rapporto tra due giganti della letteratura. Per il giovane Roth, in quel periodo al lavoro sull’esordio Goodbye, Columbus (1959), Bellow era un eroe, tanto che arrivò a scrivere, con la sua consueta inclinazione provocatoria, che «Malamud e Bellow sono le uniche due persone, al di fuori di me, che valga la pena leggere».”

Mentre leggevo questo romanzo di Saul Bellow, ho spesso pensato a Philip Roth e alla loro amicizia/rivalità. E così ho trovato questo articolo da cui ho riportato la citazione precedente

https://www.corriere.it/la-lettura/ca...

Com'è tipico degli scrittori ebrei americani, c'è questa naturale propensione dei protagonisti verso l'inettitudine e il fallimento. Il quarantenne Wilhelm Adler non riesce a trovare la propria strada sia lavorativamente sia sentimentalmente parlando.
Si separa dalla moglie, lascia il proprio lavoro e due figli, per inseguire la carriera di attore.
Spera di ricevere un aiuto dal padre, ma invano

“- Hai proprio ragione, - disse Wilhelm con una faccia disperata. - Hai ragione, papà. Sempre gli stessi sbagli e mi brucio ogni volta. Sembra che io… Sono stupido, papà. Non posso respirare. Ho la gola chiusa, soffoco. Non posso proprio tirare il fiato.”

E non ci sarà alcun riscatto, alcuna redenzione, ma solo un'inesorabile lenta caduta verso il nulla

“Facendosi un poco in disparte, Wilhelm cominciò a piangere. Pianse dapprima piano e dolcemente, e poi con un'emozione più profonda. Singhiozzò forte e il viso gli si contrasse e s'infiammò, e le lacrime gli bruciarono la pelle. Un uomo: un'altra creatura umana, fu il primo pensiero che gli attraversò la mente, ma presto fu afferrato dalle solite cose. Che cosa farò? Sono stato spogliato e buttato fuori a calci… Oh, papà, che cosa mai ti ho chiesto? Come farò con i bambini… Tommy, Paul? I miei bambini. E Olive? Oh, amor mio! Oh, devi proteggermi contro quel demonio che vuole la mia vita. Se la vuoi, allora uccidimi. Prendila, prendila, prendila questa vita.
Presto fu al di là di ogni parola, al di là della ragione, della coerenza. Non poteva più fermarsi. La sorgente di tutte le lacrime era improvvisamente scaturita dentro di lui, nera, profonda e calda, e le lacrime zampillavano scuotendo violentemente il suo corpo, piegandogli la testa caparbia, curvandogli le spalle, deformandogli il volto, storpiandogli le mani che stringevano il fazzoletto.”

[diario_de_um_leitor_pjv · Rating 5 out of 5]

COMENTÁRIO
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
"Agarra o Dia"
Saul Bellow
Tradução de Bernardo Antunes Navarro

100 páginas. Um modo tão perfeito de contar uma história. Num pequeno livro Bellow apresenta-nos a história de um homem falhado de meia idade.
Uma das particularidades especiais deste livro é ser uma história de um não-herói, de uma persona desinteressante, sem vontade própria, sem auto-estima.
Assim este é um homem numa Nova Iorque vida e dinâmica, um homem sem dinheiro, sozinho, afastado dos filhos e da ex mulher, com um pai que o não ajuda... Este homem falhado vive num hotel de idosos envolvendo-se em jogos de bolsa, igualmente falhados, que não compreende e onde é apenas o gajo que entra com o dinheiro.

Bellow cria assim uma das sua intensas personagens que faz um retrato da sociedade norte-americana nas décadas a seguir à II Guerra Mundial. Um retrato irónico e por vezes bem humorado de uma sociedade liberal e individualista. Uma sociedade onde o indivíduo é destruído e desvalorizado pela máquina da sociedade capitalista de consumo.

Mais uma grande leitura de um autor Nobel da Literatura que felizmente está bastante editado em Portugal.

[Celeste Corrêa · Rating 3 out of 5]

«Agarra o Dia » (1956) de Saul Bellow (1915-2005)

«Foi um dia tramado, Margaret. Queira Deus que não torne a viver um igual»

Um dia na vida de um quarentão, Tommy Wilhelm, com comportamento de adolescente fruto de uma certa cultura americana.

«Depois de muito pensar, hesitar e discutir, tomava sempre o caminho que rejeitara inúmeras vezes»
«São os mesmos erros e escaldo-me sempre.»

Livro curto, poucas personagens, uma cuidada análise psicológica e sociológica, mas pouco cativante.
Um balanço de vida, um dia longo que termina no centro de uma multidão, por meio do grande e feliz olvido das lágrimas.

De tudo restou o seguinte:

«Para o universo real, isto é, o momento atual. O passado não nos serve. O futuro está cheio de ansiedade. Só o presente é real....o aqui e agora. Agarre o dia.»
«A natureza só conhece uma coisa, que é o presente. Presente, presente, eterno presente, semelhante a uma onda grande, enorme, gigante... colossal, brilhante e belo, cheio de vida e morte, subindo até aos céus, erguendo-se no mar. Temos de acompanhar o atual, o aqui e agora, a glória.»

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my mind, there are only a few masters in any one profession at any one time.

Few would deny the musicality of the Beatles. Most would travel to Europe to taste Paul Bocuse’s culinary creations. Edmund Hillary climbed Everest but many died attempting the same. Henry Ford of the car business and Jobs of Apple. Mediocrity is the norm. Excellence, the exception.

Saul Bellow is one of the great American modern-day authors. His competition is limited.

He tells the story here of an everyman. A protagonist that just cannot seem to win. A human, confounded by society and the irreverent demands it makes on all its’ members.

A person who tries, without success, to better his life. It is something we all do and we are constantly frustrated and throttled by the cacophony and intrusion of humanity that upsets our expectations.

Our interdependence on each other is faulty at its’ inception. People let us down. We let others down. A woman is unhappy with her man. A father is unhappy with his son. A cousin learns she cannot rely on her close relationship with her aunt. A child feels betrayed by his siblings, his parents, his teachers.

We are all messed up.

“Character is fate. Fate is character,” wrote Bellow at the beginning of the Adventures of Augie March. Thirty years after that novel he proves his maxim in this later one. He, Bellow, has not changed, just as Heraclites knew so long ago. And Bellow read him and borrowed from this Greek.

Today, we call all of these events, issues. We are encouraged to speak to someone about them even if we must pay for their ear. Now, we are encouraged to overshare to diminish our pain with acquaintances, friends, family. We are encouraged to be fully transparent, so much so, that a citizen of California (with its’ uber-faux citizenry), I imagine, must always feel naked at work, at parties, at events.

Wilhelm, the star of the production, is all of us. And we are Wilhelm.

On top of all of this human stuff that Bellow handles nimbly, he incorporates pathos and satire as one would expect from a master.

A novella well worth everyone’s time.

[Cristians. Sirb · Rating 5 out of 5]

De ce n-aș da 5* acestei cărți care nu scârțâie din nici o încheietură?

O zi din viața bietului Wilhelm. Nevroticul cu nume de Kaiser romano-german, pe care taică-su nu vrea să-l ajute. Să-l ajute în ce fel? Nici Wilhelm nu-și dă bine seama. Cu bani, dar nu numai. Să-l ajute să crească?

Wilhelm a rămas captiv unei vârste dinaintea vârstei adulte. De atunci, nu s-a mai maturizat. A trecut prin viață, dar neavând, probabil, parte de întreaga iubire părintească, experiențele sale nu s-au convertit într-un propriu-zis proces de maturizare.

Wilhelm e un protest viu, o răfuială sterilă cu nedreptățile existenței, ajuns la vârsta (mea) la care e foarte greu să mai decelezi cu precizie cât din halul în care te găsești e imputabil lipsei afecțiunii părintești (modului precar ori sucit de a o arăta) și cât e din cauza ta...

Intuiesc că, în afara întemeierii unei regretabile familii - pas făcut din pură inerție, Wilhelm n-a întreprins nimic serios în toți anii de până-n acea unică zi din viața lui, imortalizată în romanul lui Bellow. A încercat, a greșit pueril, a pariat sălbatic, s-a îndrăgostit cu deznădejde, a pierdut, a protestat în deșert. S-a autosabotat masiv.

Tot ce voia el, de fapt, era să simtă că tatăl său îl iubește. Că îl “vede”, catadicsind să-și “valideze” fiul, tratându-l cu încredere, ca pe un apropiat ce-i era, sânge din sângele lui. Din clipa imediat următoare acestei binecuvântări mult tânjite din partea tatălui, spera să dea cep, în sfârșit, restulului vieții sale - viața descătușată, viața cu privirea îndreptată spre înainte, nu înspre trecut. Dar până atunci, nici pomeneală de așa ceva!

[Chrissie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cannot sum up the book better than the one line of the GR book description:

"Deftly interweaving humor and pathos, Saul Bellow evokes in the climactic events of one day the full drama of one (middle-aged) man's search to affirm his own worth and humanity."

I have underlined what should be stressed and added in parenthesis what is lacking.

Addendum:
*Jewish NY humor at its best.
*Bellow captures with pathos how it feels to be middle-aged.
*Carpe diem is for some beyond one's fingertips.

Grover Gardner’s reading of the audiobook is beyond reproach. Five stars for the narration.


******************

Herzog 4 stars
The Victim 4 stars
Seize the Day 3 stars
Dangling Man 3 stars
The Adventures of Augie March 2 stars

[Dobre Cosmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5☆

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tommy Wilhelm prefers not to use his family name and has a hard time communicating with his father, the venerable Dr. Adler, who is fed up with his son’s constant failures. In a country fascinated with the idea of success, he seems to be almost an outsider. Written in 1956, Seize the day is a novella made of seven chapters, where the narrative flips from present to past. The form is condensed, like a novel in miniature, and each chapter moves forward in the story at what appears to be a slow pace. Saul Bellow takes great care in describing the struggle of the protagonist, as he is in search of himself in a world where he does not fit in. At 44, his marriage a failure, he has lost his job and listens to Dr. Tamkin’s Faustian bargain to invest what’s left of his money in the stock market. And to add to his worries, his father has categorically advised him not to listen to Tamkin and is not willing to help him financially any more.

The central idea is the myth of success and the struggle with anonymity in post war society. Bellow’s writing is ethereal; his prose moves audaciously in what appears to be a rigorous formal structure. He seems to sympathize with Wilhelm, offering his take on human fragility: in his forties, he still thinks like a youngster and lacks maturity. Dialogues, an important part of Bellow's writing style, hint at hidden features and offer a rounder depiction of the characters' traits. An impeccable observer, he seems like a sketch artist, drawing with words in a canvas: the end result is a lucid portrait. As each chapter unfolds, we slowly grasp the reasons of Wilhelm’s bad decisions and at the very end, in the funeral scene, we even have empathy for him.

It is Tamkin (the mysterious character), whose lines give momentary inspiration before disappearing and leaving our hero all by himself:

"I am at my most efficient when I don’t need the fee. When I only love. Without a financial reward. I remove myself from the social influence. Especially money. The spiritual compensation is what I look for. Bringing people into the here-and-now. The real universe. That’s the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real—the here-and-now. Seize the day.”

It is fascinating when we find unexpected connections between literary works, one after the other; just as if an invisible link tied the books we read (and the decisions for choosing them), without us knowing it. When we find them, we either think it’s just a coincidence or marvel as we walk in the magical realm of fiction. Just a few days ago I read Skylark, by Dezső Kosztolányi. The novel ends with the moving scene of Skylark crying. How many other books finish like that? It could well be the subject of a literary essay. Well, to my surprise, Seize the day ends exactly the same way. The very last lines of both works are filled with tears of desperation from the protagonists, that could well turn into tears of hope. Anything is possible in the realm of fiction.
__

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wilky Adler, che si ostina a farsi chiamare con il nome d’arte Tommy Wilhelm, scelto in giovinezza quando volle andare ad Hollywood per intraprendere la carriera di attore che è consistita in una semplice parte da comparsa in un film, non ha fatto che sbagli nella vita: non è riuscito a tenere in piedi il suo matrimonio, non è riuscito a conservarsi il posto di lavoro, ha investito in Borsa gli ultimi soldi che gli sono rimasti ed ha perso tutto, e poi non riesce ad ottenere l’amore di suo padre, che è l’opposto di lui, un uomo concreto, realizzato nel suo lavoro di medico ed ora tranquillo pensionato. Pagina dopo pagina Bellow costruisce il ritratto di uno sconfitto, che in poche ore di una giornata qualsiasi, si trova a confrontarsi con il proprio fallimento, imbastendo dialoghi con la propria coscienza che lo sprofondano in una lucida disperazione, rendendo quel giorno qualsiasi un giorno speciale, il giorno della resa dei conti con sé stesso, con la propria condizione che è quella di ogni essere umano, oppresso dal peso delle frustrazioni quotidiane e della continua maniacale rincorsa al denaro, con sullo sfondo una New York impersonale e fagocitante, sorda e indifferente, metafora della situazione in cui l’occhio acuto di Bellow vede trovarsi l’uomo moderno.
Un grande Bellow, è il secondo suo libro che leggo dopo Il pianeta di Mr. Sammler, sto cominciando a conoscerlo.

[Kevin Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

First Bellow. Great way to start.