As reported by Babies, Bellow died yesterday. I know I'm not alone in admiring his writing. I wonder if anyone would be interested in sharing his or her favorite book or passage. Here is a rather endearing passage from his obit in the Times about the process of writing Augie March, which is where I started with Bellow:
He remembered a friend from his childhood named Chucky, "a wild talker who was always announcing cheerfully that he had a super scheme," and he began to wonder what a novel in Chucky's voice would sound like. "The book just came to me," he said later. "All I had to do was be there with buckets to catch it."
2 comments:
Picking a favorite Bellow is like trying to pick a favorite toe - one or two I can get by without, the rest are essential.
At any rate: Augie March and A Silver Dish are the two that scream the loudest.
Go read the epigraph to McEwan's Saturday for a quick and wonderful shot of the guy.
Seize the Day, hands down, and then Augie. Bellow had such a range.
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