by Saul Bellow
First published 1977
Tommy Wilhelm wakes up in his hotel room on the Upper West Side with his world collapsing around him. The middle-aged salesman has lost his job, his wife refuses to grant him a divorce, and his father shows him no sympathy despite his desperate pleas for help. Tommy has invested his last money with the mysterious Dr. Tamkin in the commodities market, a gamble that could either save him or destroy him completely. As the day unfolds, Tommy moves through the crowded streets of Manhattan, carrying the weight of his failures and the fear of what comes next. His marriage has crumbled, his relationship with his children grows distant, and his attempts to connect with his cold, successful father meet only rejection. The city presses in on him as he struggles with his sense of worthlessness and his desperate need for human connection. In a single day, Tommy must confront who he has become and what his life means.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, slice-of-life
Setting: Upper West Side, Manhattan
Period: 20th Century
128 pages · Paperback · Avon Books
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness