mdf63's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Celebrating humanity's potential but challenging our comforts and our politics, hopes, and assumptions. A vivid critique of its time and place yet universal enough to evoke the Holocaust and today's flavors of illogical and fraught democracy. A modern Jewish masterpiece by the greatest Jewish writer of his day.
lavender_tree's review against another edition
4.0
Mr. Sammler's Planet won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1971. It tells the story of Artur Sammler, an intellectual and Holocaust survivor who finds himself grappling with the imminent death of his benefactor and nephew, Dr. Ilya Gruner. Not only does he indulge in spiritual discussions at the end of the book, but he also tries to make sense out of New York City's chaotic and colorful residents, including his own daughter Shula. It was a dense, but easy read, especially towards the end, and I was touched by his reflections on life, death, God, all things human.
Banality is the adopted disguise of a very powerful will to abolish conscience.
... this brought to mind Kierkegaard's comical account of people traveling around the world to see rivers and mountains, new stars, birds of rare plumage, queerly deformed fishes, ridiculous breeds of men - tourists abandoning themselves to the bestial stupor which gapes at existence and thinks it has seem something.
Accept and grant that happiness is to do what most other people do. That you must incarnate what others incarnate. If prejudices, prejudice. If rage, then rage. If sex, then sex. But don't contradict your time.
The middle class, having failed to create a spiritual life of its own, investing everything in material expansion, faced disaster.
Madness makes interest. Madness is the attempted liberty of people who feel themselves overwhelmed by giant forces of organized control. Seeking the magic of extremes. Madness is a base form of religious life.
... this liberation into individuality has not been a great success. For a historian of great interest, but for one aware of the suffering it is appalling. Hearts that get no real wage, souls that find no nourishment. Falsehoods, unlimited. Desire, unlimited. Possibility, unlimited. Impossible demands upon complex realities, unlimited.
It is right that we should dislike contrived individuality, bad pastiche, banality, and the rest. It is repulsive. But individualism is of no interest whatever if it does not extend truth.
Banality is the adopted disguise of a very powerful will to abolish conscience.
... this brought to mind Kierkegaard's comical account of people traveling around the world to see rivers and mountains, new stars, birds of rare plumage, queerly deformed fishes, ridiculous breeds of men - tourists abandoning themselves to the bestial stupor which gapes at existence and thinks it has seem something.
Accept and grant that happiness is to do what most other people do. That you must incarnate what others incarnate. If prejudices, prejudice. If rage, then rage. If sex, then sex. But don't contradict your time.
The middle class, having failed to create a spiritual life of its own, investing everything in material expansion, faced disaster.
Madness makes interest. Madness is the attempted liberty of people who feel themselves overwhelmed by giant forces of organized control. Seeking the magic of extremes. Madness is a base form of religious life.
... this liberation into individuality has not been a great success. For a historian of great interest, but for one aware of the suffering it is appalling. Hearts that get no real wage, souls that find no nourishment. Falsehoods, unlimited. Desire, unlimited. Possibility, unlimited. Impossible demands upon complex realities, unlimited.
It is right that we should dislike contrived individuality, bad pastiche, banality, and the rest. It is repulsive. But individualism is of no interest whatever if it does not extend truth.
frahorus's review against another edition
4.0
Ed eccomi finalmente giunto a parlarvi di una lettura che non è stata facile ma che mi ha fatto scoprire un autore gigantesco: Saul Bellow. L'autore ci presenta un intellettuale in pensione, Mr. Artur Sammler, il quale è diventato cinico, misantropo, razzista, misogino che decide di passare gli ultimi anni di vita studiando la natura umana. Della scrittura di Bellow e della storia che ci narra mi ricorda, come stile, Joyce nel suo mitico Ulisse: un protagonista che ragiona continuamente e vive la sua quotidianità piena di eventi casuali e spesso strampalati e mi ricorda anche molto Woody Allen nei suoi dialoghi dotti e divertenti, pieni di cinismo e nevrosi varie.
Tra le perle che dice Sammler nel romanzo cito un commento riferito ai giovani: "sembrano scimmie negli alberi intente a defecare nelle loro mani, per poi bersagliare tra le urla i sottostanti esploratori".
Tra le perle che dice Sammler nel romanzo cito un commento riferito ai giovani: "sembrano scimmie negli alberi intente a defecare nelle loro mani, per poi bersagliare tra le urla i sottostanti esploratori".
numail4me's review against another edition
4.0
it was dense at times, probably not for everyone. i vacillated, but overall good
holodoxa's review against another edition
4.0
I am a bit of a novice when it comes to the work of Saul Bellow. This is a bit of an educational travesty or unforgivable ignorance on my part. I completed an English literature major in the early-to-mid 2010s and never recall a single professor or student ever mentioning Bellow. I only discovered his work because I was already acquainted with Philip Roth's novels and have become a regular reader of Commentary. So a few years after discovery of Bellow, I read Herzog, which appeared to be his most enduring work and now have moved on to Mr. Sammler's Planet. My reaction to both works was much the same as both works share significant similarities. Both have aging intellectual type protagonists who are bewildered by the people and changing world around them, and a dense, introspective prose style. Although I know only a limited amount about Bellow, I've heard that his characters, especially the leads, tend to be facsimiles of himself in someway, which of course is quite common for many writers but still aids in interpretation of the work.
Mr. Sammler's Planet has been characterized as "an erudite and fastidious meditation on the decline of liberal America" by Tablet writer Howard Johnson, and "the first neoconservative novel" byDominic Greenhttps://newcriterion.com/issues/2018/11/mr-bellows-planet of The New Criterion. I think Green and Johnson's takes are reasonable and represent at least some of the psychological journey of Bellow's titular lead, but it doesn't quite capture everything about Bellow's moral messaging. Because this seems certainly to be a moralizing novel, and in some ways it is an old-fashioned morality that Bellow is an apologist for, but it is also a surprisingly strong rebuke to nihilism and cynicism about humanity. This is why I think this book resonates with readers (though this may no longer be true for contemporary readers). Bellow gazes into the moral abyss (e.g. the portions about Sammler's horrific WWII experiences) and what he sees as the derangement of American social mores, but he turns away toward the horizon. Bellow still thinks the proper response to barbarism of all kinds is humane endurance.
Bellow's central idea, emphasized by the concluding lines (“The terms which, in his inmost heart, each man knows. As I know mine. As all know. For that is the truth of it — that we all know, God, that we know, that we know, we know, we know.”), is that there is a clear, intuitive, and universal moral sense shared by all humans, but there are many other forces (especially of the late American 1960s in this work) that try and interfere with the obligation to follow those intuitions. One of the forces Bellow identifies is fear and is vividly captured with the dapper Black pickpocket character. So I feel that a lot misidentification of purported reactionary sentiment in Bellow's book. What is seen as Sammler's bigotry or retrograde ideas by reviewers past and present is Bellow laying himself bare so as to improve himself. Through Sammler, Bellow appears to be honestly exploring his own anxieties (and those of many others similar to and different from him) and subsequently confronting them so as to be a better human. He is working toward a better humanism, especially when he is forced to recognize what the giving in to his fear and weakness can do.
Unfortunately, I think Bellow novels will not find an eager audience today or the near future in the academy or with popular audiences. His style and thematic content will be read as anachronistic, unrewardingly difficult, and malignantly reactionary today. I certainly struggled a bit with the prose style and think a re-read would benefit me. Moreover, Mr. Sammler's Planet may simply be a bit too much a work of its time. I'm not sure the subtleties of its commentary will be grasped by a younger generation of readers who have little to no awareness of the zeitgeist of two decades ago let alone six!
Mr. Sammler's Planet has been characterized as "an erudite and fastidious meditation on the decline of liberal America" by Tablet writer Howard Johnson, and "the first neoconservative novel" by
Bellow's central idea, emphasized by the concluding lines (“The terms which, in his inmost heart, each man knows. As I know mine. As all know. For that is the truth of it — that we all know, God, that we know, that we know, we know, we know.”), is that there is a clear, intuitive, and universal moral sense shared by all humans, but there are many other forces (especially of the late American 1960s in this work) that try and interfere with the obligation to follow those intuitions. One of the forces Bellow identifies is fear and is vividly captured with the dapper Black pickpocket character. So I feel that a lot misidentification of purported reactionary sentiment in Bellow's book. What is seen as Sammler's bigotry or retrograde ideas by reviewers past and present is Bellow laying himself bare so as to improve himself. Through Sammler, Bellow appears to be honestly exploring his own anxieties (and those of many others similar to and different from him) and subsequently confronting them so as to be a better human. He is working toward a better humanism, especially when he is forced to recognize what the giving in to his fear and weakness can do.
Unfortunately, I think Bellow novels will not find an eager audience today or the near future in the academy or with popular audiences. His style and thematic content will be read as anachronistic, unrewardingly difficult, and malignantly reactionary today. I certainly struggled a bit with the prose style and think a re-read would benefit me. Moreover, Mr. Sammler's Planet may simply be a bit too much a work of its time. I'm not sure the subtleties of its commentary will be grasped by a younger generation of readers who have little to no awareness of the zeitgeist of two decades ago let alone six!
david_rhee's review against another edition
3.0
If the protagonist in Herzog only believed himself to be a survivor, Artur Sammler is truly one. He was made permanently blind in one eye when the butt of a rifle was smashed into it, and he was left for dead in a mass grave for Jews in a Nazi prisoner camp. He crawled out from underneath the bodies, stole away into the woods, and ran to Poland. Suddenly that bad day you were having is starting to look pretty good.
Now, Sammler is in his 70's, living in New York. Though he is lacking the necessary inner wiring to do so, he is earnestly trying to come to grips with the strange world of 1960's New York. His intellectual pursuits from his years spent as an Anglophile equip him nicely with the smarts to understand the landscape as an aloof observer, but he won't deceive himself into thinking he belongs to it. This becomes plainly evident the night he is booed off stage by angry students during a lecture at Columbia. He is also puzzled by the behavior and thinking of his daughter and of his friends' children who are swept up in the sexual revolution.
The path of the novel appears aimless. Sammler rarely goes out of his way to force a change of direction in the events surrounding him, but strange happenings continue to set themselves before him. The wandering narrative and the reactive protagonist resemble each other in nature. Sammler doesn't seem to have life come at him. He isn't (or perhaps is no longer) the active liver of life. His stance makes for a more reflective narration, one which is detached. It may frustrate one who is waiting for a conclusive sweep of things into neat order, but I think it can be the right item for us introspective types.
Now, Sammler is in his 70's, living in New York. Though he is lacking the necessary inner wiring to do so, he is earnestly trying to come to grips with the strange world of 1960's New York. His intellectual pursuits from his years spent as an Anglophile equip him nicely with the smarts to understand the landscape as an aloof observer, but he won't deceive himself into thinking he belongs to it. This becomes plainly evident the night he is booed off stage by angry students during a lecture at Columbia. He is also puzzled by the behavior and thinking of his daughter and of his friends' children who are swept up in the sexual revolution.
The path of the novel appears aimless. Sammler rarely goes out of his way to force a change of direction in the events surrounding him, but strange happenings continue to set themselves before him. The wandering narrative and the reactive protagonist resemble each other in nature. Sammler doesn't seem to have life come at him. He isn't (or perhaps is no longer) the active liver of life. His stance makes for a more reflective narration, one which is detached. It may frustrate one who is waiting for a conclusive sweep of things into neat order, but I think it can be the right item for us introspective types.
themararose's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars - at times i found the book boring and at others i liked it. I grew to like sammlers character quite a bit
greatgodbird's review against another edition
2.0
An interesting read. Bellow (the author) presents to the reader the dichotomy between innovation and archaism through several symbols and analogies for American dreams and humanity-induced decline of civilisation. Unfortunately, some of these key philosophical representors accomplish their tasks only through reductive writing and profiling; knowing even a little of how people of colour, women, and queer individuals and groups have been and continue to be viewed and treated in America makes some of this writing abhorrent.
On the topic of racism, the key black character remains unnamed, yet is described in animalistic terms - such descriptions convey this man to be an oppressive beast, and the black population of New York to be unable to understand white speech. Hideous slurs are used casually by characters and narrator, and extend to the way leading male characters (Mr Sammler, Elya, Wallace, Feffer) refer to women and queer people living in Manhattan in the late 60s. The cornerstone character in the short plot, an Indian biophysicist (Govinda Lal) is reduced to descriptions of his vocal timbre, his hairiness, and crude exoticised ideas of "littleness", and demonic and primitive paganisms - all in the midst of Lal's eloquent discussions on human invention and innovation.
Women, especially, are reduced to paragons of negativised sexual liberation - sexual beings for men at the forefront, and spoiled, vapid idiots used to facilitate intellectual monologues second. This is truly a shame on behalf of the male characters, as the actual descriptions of the lead women (Shula, Angela, and Margotte) demonstrate that the men are oblivious to their keen interests in politics, equality, ethics, and global matters adjacent to their discovery, or rediscovery, of sexuality following global economic crises and depression, escape from WWII, and religiously oriented marital abuse.
It is difficult to know where lies the line between Bellow's actual ideas on non-white, non-male, non-straight demographics, and the opinion infused into characters to emphasise his ideas. There is a distinct contrast in this book between the Self and the Other - though this results in antagonisation between ideologies, cultures, races, and sexes, it is also highly encouraged that the Other be a goal. For instance, one grand symbol recurrent in 'Mr Sammler's Planet' is the moon, and the new sciences allowing for moon travel coupled with American capitalism selling space travel tickets to the rich. Having escaped the Holocaust, having grappled with mortality in murder, his dying friend's aneurysm, and the legacy of H.G. Wells, Mr Sammler's planet is a confused den of depravity, where humanity must progress, or, as he sees it, it begins to perish.
In the penultimate chapter, which appears to be the crux of the book (despite the previous chapter being much more exciting!), Mr Sammler opens up to his new intellectual companion, Govinda Lal, and expresses his confusion at the pace of social evolution, wars, and rekindling humanity and identities following abrupt and violent expulsion from the things we know. He acknowledges changes have occurred, and feels guilty of his boundary-crossings into once-innocent, now offensive territories, yet is conflicted by the Self (known and right) and the Other (unknown and... is it also right?) - at which point do they intersect?
In any case, human progression, invention, innovation, and greatness are covered in this book through positive and negative analogical characters and events. My favourites were Wallace - he does not wipe properly, stinks, and is a treasury of failed business ventures - and Margotte - the aspiring horticulturist, avid reader, and a widow who is free to spill her thoughts and philosophies to her absent-minded Uncle Sammler, and not simply "shut up" anymore.
On the topic of racism, the key black character remains unnamed, yet is described in animalistic terms - such descriptions convey this man to be an oppressive beast, and the black population of New York to be unable to understand white speech. Hideous slurs are used casually by characters and narrator, and extend to the way leading male characters (Mr Sammler, Elya, Wallace, Feffer) refer to women and queer people living in Manhattan in the late 60s. The cornerstone character in the short plot, an Indian biophysicist (Govinda Lal) is reduced to descriptions of his vocal timbre, his hairiness, and crude exoticised ideas of "littleness", and demonic and primitive paganisms - all in the midst of Lal's eloquent discussions on human invention and innovation.
Women, especially, are reduced to paragons of negativised sexual liberation - sexual beings for men at the forefront, and spoiled, vapid idiots used to facilitate intellectual monologues second. This is truly a shame on behalf of the male characters, as the actual descriptions of the lead women (Shula, Angela, and Margotte) demonstrate that the men are oblivious to their keen interests in politics, equality, ethics, and global matters adjacent to their discovery, or rediscovery, of sexuality following global economic crises and depression, escape from WWII, and religiously oriented marital abuse.
It is difficult to know where lies the line between Bellow's actual ideas on non-white, non-male, non-straight demographics, and the opinion infused into characters to emphasise his ideas. There is a distinct contrast in this book between the Self and the Other - though this results in antagonisation between ideologies, cultures, races, and sexes, it is also highly encouraged that the Other be a goal. For instance, one grand symbol recurrent in 'Mr Sammler's Planet' is the moon, and the new sciences allowing for moon travel coupled with American capitalism selling space travel tickets to the rich. Having escaped the Holocaust, having grappled with mortality in murder, his dying friend's aneurysm, and the legacy of H.G. Wells, Mr Sammler's planet is a confused den of depravity, where humanity must progress, or, as he sees it, it begins to perish.
In the penultimate chapter, which appears to be the crux of the book (despite the previous chapter being much more exciting!), Mr Sammler opens up to his new intellectual companion, Govinda Lal, and expresses his confusion at the pace of social evolution, wars, and rekindling humanity and identities following abrupt and violent expulsion from the things we know. He acknowledges changes have occurred, and feels guilty of his boundary-crossings into once-innocent, now offensive territories, yet is conflicted by the Self (known and right) and the Other (unknown and... is it also right?) - at which point do they intersect?
In any case, human progression, invention, innovation, and greatness are covered in this book through positive and negative analogical characters and events. My favourites were Wallace - he does not wipe properly, stinks, and is a treasury of failed business ventures - and Margotte - the aspiring horticulturist, avid reader, and a widow who is free to spill her thoughts and philosophies to her absent-minded Uncle Sammler, and not simply "shut up" anymore.
habeasopus's review against another edition
4.0
Brilliant. Mr. Sammler is a fantastic lens for American life, and New York life in particular, at a time when the continuance of such a state did not seem at all certain. The novel is poignant and dark, invoking the holocaust without becoming macabre. It’s also absurd, without becoming silly. If Mr. Sammler ever publishes a biography of HG Wells, you can be sure I would read that too!