Herzog is not unlike Ulysses in style as a lot of the novel takes place in Herzog’s brain, and Bellow is certainly more accessible than Joyce, but to me the comparison relative to the book being a classic is a stretch.

The use of writing letters to process the pain of losing his wife to his best friend makes for entertaining reading in many cases, and the range of those to whom these letters are addressed is quite wide, e.g. dead philosophers, politicians, childhood friends, the credit department of Marshall Field & Co, etc. However, they were sometimes a little too esoteric for me, and some, like the letter to God at the end, were disappointments.

At the end Herzog is at peace with his situation, but because he has dealt with this crisis and others in his life mainly intellectually, it’s harder to feel empathy for him. The allusions to sex and Herzog’s relationships with women are interesting in the beginning of the book (“Quack”! … “The ejaculatio praecox”!), but they wore thin towards the end. The book seems to drag on a bit and could have been pared down.

I was tempted to give the book 2.5 stars but after going through it again, I did find enough nuggets of wisdom to rate it higher. Some of Bellow’s descriptions, like the one contained within the passage between leaving the subway and the man in the change booth sitting in a light “the color of strong tea” to the “pious old women who trod the path of ancient duty, still, buying kosher meat” I thought were truly great.

Bellow was certainly timely in 1964, but then also made timeless conclusions:
“The point was that there were people who could destroy mankind and that they were foolish and arrogant, crazy, and must be begged not to do it. Let the enemies of life step down. Let each man now examine his heart. Without a great change of heart, I would not trust myself in a position of authority. Do I love mankind? Enough to spare it, if I should be in a position to blow it to hell? Now let us all dress in our shrouds and walk on Washington and Moscow. Let us lie down, men, women, and children, and cry, ‘Let life continue – we may not deserve it, but let it continue.’ In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably the most dangerous people seek the power”.

And while criticizing the “establishment”, also criticizing the next generation:
“But what is the philosophy of this generation? Not God is dead, that point was passed long ago. Perhaps it should be stated Death is God. This generation thinks – and this is its thought of thoughts – that nothing faithful, vulnerable, fragile, can be durable or have any true power”.

On philosophy:
I don’t agree with Nietzche that Jesus made the whole world sick, infected it with his slave morality. But Nietzsche himself had a Christian view of history, seeing the present moment always as some crisis, some fall from classical greatness, some corruption or evil to be saved from. I call that Christian.

The view of man as both good and evil
“But reluctance to cause pain coupled with the necessity to devour … a particular human trick is the result, which consists in admitting and denying evils at the same time.”

And:
“Demographers estimate that at least half of all the human beings ever born are alive now, in this century. What a moment for the human soul! Characteristics drawn from the genetic pool have, in statistical probability, reconstituted all the best and worst of human life. It’s all around us. Buddha and Lao-tse must be walking the earth somewhere. And Tiberius and Nero. Everything horrible, everything sublime, and things not imagined yet”.

My net: there’s certainly enough here of interest to say this is a good book, but for me neither the story nor the insights are profound enough to say it’s a great book. ( )

Sadly, all those critics' experiences of a beautifully constructed novel of ideas were entirely lost on me, as I ended up having to force myself to read more of this middle-aged guy's miserable whining. Bellow might well have succeeded at jotting down a brilliant exploration of this fellow's mind - it's just a shame there wasn't much interesting to observe about Herzog's psyche in the first place. To summarize this novel, think the park bench scene in Sartre's Nausea, repeated across 350 pages, with the addition of occasional tales of Moses' depressing relationships. ( )

This book is not for the fainthearted. Nor, is it for the casual reader. The book is similar to that of Crime and Punishment, The Trial, Seize the Day, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. EXCEPT, Herzog goes much deeper into the psyche, and soul of the protagonist. It is an exceptional book. ( )

Stunning novel about a middle aged academic almost driven insane by various personal and ideological crises, but who eventually manages to find some peace after experiencing events that finally seem to connect him with reality. I absolutely adored the quality of style and character, and although the plot is incredibly thin, you don't care because it is constructed so brilliantly to allow all those fascinating, perfectly described reminiscences. Definitely I was generally having that feeling of sickening jealousy for the sheer ability demonstrated, albieit in quite a showy way. There are many incredible lines, either simply involving profound observations on life, or via the wonderful eye for character details that Bellow has. The use of letters as a kind of stream of consciousness device works fantastically. Herzog's character is one of the most stunningly rich and real I've ever come across in literature, and the peripheral characters also feel very real and vivid. This novel seems incredibly autobiographical, in fact, and many of the details probably were taken from Bellow's life. The only slight criticism I have is that in one or two places it felt a little contrived. Ramona is obviously set up as the "healthy" choice and feels slightly thin for it. And why oh why would Herzog keep his gun in his pocket when visiting his daughter? This to me seemed totally unbelievable, and merely a silly device. But these tiny quibbles aside, this is definitely one of the best American novels I've ever read. ( )

A brilliant and mad book, but that doesn't necessarily make for an entertaining read. It wasn't very captivating, but I do appreciate it, and it got me interested in Bellow's other works. ( )