Bücher von Saul Bellow

Eine brillant erzählte Geschichte von zwei Städten, zwei Welten und zugleich eine Geschichte von Leben und Tod.In diesem Roman schildert Nobelpreisträger Saul Bellow die doppelte Krise im Leben eines Mannes. Albert Corde, ein ehemaliger Journalist, lehrt an einer Chicagoer Universität und ist zugleich Dekan für studentische Angelegenheiten. Mit seiner Frau Minna ist er nach Bukarest geflogen, wo ihre Mutter im Sterben liegt. Minna, die ihre Heimat früh verlassen hat, erfährt nach der Rückkehr die geballte Härte des kommunistischen Systems gegenüber der Renegatin. In diesen Tagen seelischer Anspannung, des Wartens und Trauerns im dezemberlich düsteren, von Verfall und Repression gezeichneten Bukarest lässt Chicago Corde nicht los. Er grübelt über den Verfall menschlichen Zusammenlebens, über Anarchie, Egoismus und Brutalität in einer sogenannten Vergnügungsgesellschaft, Themen, mit denen er sich in einer Artikelserie über Chicago vehement auseinandergesetzt hatte. Dies und sein Engagement in einem Prozess gegen zwei Schwarze, die des Mordes an einem weißen Studenten angeklagt sind, hat die Universität in Verlegenheit gebracht, ihn selbst heftiger Kritik ausgesetzt. In Bukarest wartet der Dekan auf den Urteilsspruch. Moralisch ist es für ihn ein Sieg, aber an der Universität muss er seinen Hut nehmen. Als er schließlich mit seiner trauernden Frau in die USA zurückkehrt, ist ihm klar, dass nichts mehr so sein wird wie zuvor. Aber Albert Corde ist auch bereit für einen Neubeginn.

Wer ist hier das Opfer?Ist es der Journalist Asa Leventhal, der nach einigen Irrfahrten des Lebens zu einer guten Position bei einer Zeitung gelangt ist und der nun die mühsam erworbenen Annehmlichkeiten des Daseins, seine innere Zufriedenheit und Ausgeglichenheit durch die unerwarteten bitteren Anschuldigungen eines längst vergessenen und plötzlich aufgetauchten Bekannten ins Wanken geraten sieht? Oder ist Allbee das Opfer, der Mann mit den zerschlissenen Kleidern und einem vom Alkohol gedunsenen Gesicht, der sich immer wieder Leventhal in den Weg stellt und ihn für sein Missgeschick verantwortlich macht? Obwohl Leventhal weiß, dass Allbee selbst für sein Schicksal verantwortlich ist, beginnt er doch zu zweifeln. Wie weit ist ein Mensch am Unglück des anderen mitschuldig? Die Frage Dostojewskis, die alte Kain-und-Abel-Frage, eine Urfrage der Menschen.Wie Allbee sich in Leventhals gepflegter Wohnung einnistet und dort Unordnung und Unruhe hineinbringt, wie er immer neue Forderungen an sein Opfer stellt und ihm allen Seelenfrieden raubt, wie dieser verzweifelte Kampf um Schuld und Unschuld zu einem Albtraum für Leventhal wird, aus dem es zunächst kein Erwachen zu geben scheint, das erlebt der Leser in einem brillant komponierten, ungeheuer spannenden Roman, der Saul Bellow die erste internationale Anerkennung eintrug.

Die große Suche nach der eigenen Identität.Eugene Henderson, mehrfacher Millionär und Vater von fünf Kindern, ist ein Mensch voller Widersprüche. Eingesperrt in einem Gefängnis von Verpflichtungen und Sehnsüchten, spürt er einen starken Mangel, ein inneres Vakuum, das er weder zu deuten noch zu füllen vermag. So verschlägt es ihn in einer kompromisslosen Suche nach Freiheit und nach der eigenen Identität in den Urwald Afrikas. Von einem Eingeborenen begleitet, dringt er in das Innere des Landes vor, in die Kultur verschiedener Stämme und in Gegenden, die seit Jahrzehnten kein Weißer mehr betreten hat. Saul Bellow behandelt in diesem Roman die großen Themen der Selbstentfremdung und Selbstfindung auf bis dahin ganz neue und radikale Weise. Ein Klassiker, der die hintergründigsten komischen Szenen der modernen amerikanischen Literatur für den Leser bereithält.

In the mid-1970s, Saul Bellow visited Israel and To Jerusalem and Back is his account of his time there. Immersing himself in its landscape and culture, he records the opinions, passions and dreams of Israelis of varying viewpoints from Prime Minister Rabin, novelist Amos Oz and the editor of an Arab-language newspaper to a kibbutznik escaped from the Warsaw ghetto and the barber at Bellow s hotel. Through meditations steeped in history and literature he adds his own reflections on being Jewish in the twentieth century. Bellow s exploration of a beautiful and troubled city is a powerful testament to the unique spirit and challenges of Israel, its history and its future.

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.

';The work of a great master still locked in unequal combat with Eros and Time.' The New York Times Book ReviewA Penguin Classic In this dazzling work of fiction, Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow writes comically and wisely about the tenacious claims of first love. Harry Trellman, an aging, astute businessman, has never belonged anywhere and is as awkward in his human attachments as he is gifted in observing the people around him. But Harry's observational talents have not gone unnoticed by "e;trillionaire"e; Sigmund Adletsky, who retains Harry as his advisor. Soon the old man discovers Harry's intense forty-year passion for a twice-divorced interior designer, Amy Wustrin. At the exhumation and reburial of her husband, Harry is provided, thanks to Sigmund, perhaps the final means for disclosing feelings amassed over a lifetime. Written late in Bellow's career,The Actualis a maestro's dissection of the affairs of the heart. This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction by Joseph O'Neill.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.

"An enduring testament and prophecy." -Chicago Sun-TimesA Penguin Classic Mr. Artur Sammler, Holocaust survivor, intellectual, and occasional lecturer at Columbia University in 1960s New York City, is a "registrar of madness," a refined and civilized being caught among people crazy with the promises of the future (moon landings, endless possibilities). His Cyclopean gaze reflects on the degradations of city life while looking deep into the sufferings of the human soul. "Sorry for all and sore at heart," he observes how greater luxury and leisure have only led to more human suffering. To Mr. Sammler-who by the end of this ferociously unsentimental novel has found the compassionate consciousness necessary to bridge the gap between himself and his fellow beings-a good life is one in which a person does what is "required of him." To know and to meet the "terms of the contract" was as true a life as one could live. At its heart, this novel is quintessential Bellow: moral, urbane, sublimely humane. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Stanley Crouch.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

A trio of short works by the Nobel laureate and "greatest writer of American prose of the twentieth century" (James Wood, The New Republic)A Penguin ClassicWhile Saul Bellow is known best for his longer fiction in award-winning novels such as The Adventures of Augie March and Herzog, Something to Remember Me By will draw new readers to Bellow as it showcases his extraordinary gift for creating memorable characters within a smaller canvas.The loss of a ring in A Theft helps an oft-married woman understand her own wisdom and capacity for love. In The Bellarosa Connection, Harry Fonstein has escaped from Nazi brutality with the help of an underground organization masterminded by the legendary Broadway impresario Billy Rose, and his story continues in America . In the title story, seventeen-year-old Louie-whose mother is dying of cancer-strays far from home and finds not solace but humiliation and, ultimately, the blessing of his father's wrath.This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by Nicole Krauss.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

"e;The best novel to come out of Americaor Englandfor a generation."e;V.S. Pritchett, The New York Review of Books A Penguin Classic In this unique noir masterpiece by the incomparable Saul Bellow, a young man is sucked into the mysterious, heat-filled vortex of New York City. Asa Leventhal, a temporary bachelor with his wife away on a visit to her mother, attempts to find relief from a Gotham heat wave, only to be accosted in the park by a down-at-the-heels stranger who accuses Leventhal of ruining his life. Unable to shake the stranger loose, Leventhal is led by his own self-doubts and suspicions into a nightmare of paranoia and fear. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction by National Book Award winner Norman Rush.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust theseries to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-datetranslations by award-winning translators.