by Saul Bellow
First published 2004
Arthur Sammler walks through New York City in the 1960s with the vision of a man who has seen too much. A Holocaust survivor and occasional Columbia lecturer, he watches his fellow citizens chase after moon landings and endless possibilities while he catalogs what he calls the madness around him. The city assaults him daily with its degradations and violence, yet Sammler finds himself drawn into the lives of his relatives and neighbors. His niece and nephew pull him into their personal crises while he struggles to understand how greater wealth and freedom have only seemed to increase human misery. Sammler carries the weight of his past and his refined European sensibilities like armor against the crude energy of American optimism. Through his encounters with family, strangers, and the raw pulse of urban life, he searches for what constitutes a meaningful existence. He believes a good life means fulfilling one's obligations, meeting the terms of whatever contract fate has written. As Sammler moves through his world with his damaged but penetrating gaze, he must find a way to connect his hard-won wisdom with genuine compassion for the flawed people around him.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction, academic
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York City
Period: 1960s
288 pages · Paperback · Penguin Publishing Group
Content warnings: violence