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Articles Lectures Sephardic history Saul Bellow Farewell, Bellow Allan Sherman Seymour Krim Writing Services Home Contact |
Saul BellowFor Cohen, the answer to the desert island question is Saul Bellow. If asked to narrow it down, he will answer Humboldt's Gift. Cohen first read HG in 1977. He can't say how many times he has read it since then, because it may cause people to look at him funny. Farewell, BellowBellow taught Cohen to be wary of the "heartfelt feelings" racket, but he was hit kind of hard by the writer's death nonetheless. Cohen felt he owed the great man a note of thanks, and this is it. Articles"Saul Bellow's Favorite Thought on Herzog? The Evidence of An Unpublished Bellow Letter." Notes on Contemporary Literature (forthcoming, Spring 2008) Cohen wrote Saul Bellow a fan letter in 1983, and this short article takes a look at the letter that Bellow mailed to Cohen. Bellow mentioned an insight he recently had about Herzog, which he seemed to be especially excited about. "A Recognizable Jewish Type: Saul Bellow's Dr. Tamkin and Valentine Gersbach as Jewish Social History." Modern Judaism 27:3 (October 2007). Read Article. Peer reviewed. The advice-giving con man Dr. Tamkin, in Bellow's Seize the Day, has generated debate for 40 years, and the range of interpretations has run the gamut from updated version of old-world schnorrer to American grifter modeled on "Yellow Kid" Weil. This article is the first to argue something else: that Tamkin is a modern Jewish impostor. The works of today's Jewish social historians suggest that Tamkin is part of a confusing moment in modern Jewish history that left many Jews without usable identities. Traditional Jewish identity was shattered. New national identities were not generally available. For some, the alternative was multiple identities to be worn as convenient. "Body Language: Spoken vs. Silent Communication in Herzog." Saul Bellow Journal 20:2 (Fall, 2004) Because words are a realm of confusion and lies in Herzog, Bellow reveals the truth about his characters in their body language: their faces, hair, eyes, deformities. It is a very Bellovian approach to character that invites skepticism while also demanding close inspection. In Herzog, Bellow gave full expression to his lifelong fascination with the expressive nature of the body. As he said in an interview (Bostonia, 1990), "I think that when I was a very small child it wasn't only what people said, the content of what they said, so much as the look of them and their gestures, which spoke to me. That is, a nose was also a speaking member, and so were a pair of eyes. And so was the way your hair grew and the set of your ears, the condition of your teeth, the emanations of the body. All of that." "The Suffering Joker in Jewish Fiction." Midstream (Aug/Sept 1984). What makes Jewish literature Jewish? This article is a shot at an answer that focuses on the Jewish hero in Bellow's Herzog, Roth's Goodbye, Columbus, Portnoy's Complaint, and The Ghost Writer, and Singer's "Gimpel the Fool." A key theme is the rejection of saintliness in favor of an honest assessment and acceptance of unavoidable human failings. ClassesSaul Bellow's Planet: The Writer and His World. Berkeley Richmond JCC. Fall 2005. Saul Bellow. San Francisco JCC. Spring 2005. TalksZelig and his Friends: The Giants of Jewish Assimilation. Zelig the chameleon man may have been a Woody Allen creation, but he had real-life cousins. Many changed their names, religion, and languages, illuminating a time in Jewish history when the goal was to be invisible. Bellow was one of the first to recognize the type when he created the characters Dr. Tamkin of Seize the Day and Valentine Gersbach in Herzog. |