Bellow’s ornithologists
A review of The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964 by Zachary Leader.
Zachary Leader
The Life of Saul Bellow:
To Fame and Fortune: 1915–1964.
Knopf, 832 pages, $40
reviewed by Carl Rollyson
At a time when New York editors have been heard to say “literary biography is dead” and when publishers prefer the three-hundred-page life, top-of-the-line presses are still managing to birth behemoths like the first volume of Zachary Leader’s gazetteer, with chapter headings such as “Russia/Abraham,” “Liza/Canada,” “Chicago/Maury,” and later, “New York,” “Minneapolis,” “Paris.” Saul Bellow’s life is canonized in quasi-biblical fashion. Granted, Bellow is a Nobel laureate, but his...
A new initiative for discerning readers—and our close friends. Join The New Criterion’s Supporters Circle.
Donate
Donate