Reason read: Reading 1001 TBR takedown, January 2024. Dangling Man was written by Saul Bellow in 1944 and takes the form of a diary. the story centers on the life of an unemployed young man named Joseph, his relationships with his wife and friends, and his frustrations with living in Chicago and waiting to be drafted. This is the author's debut novel and is not his best by a long shot. I do think that a man who is not working and has no motivation is probably a miserable man and this man is miserable and is set on making everyone around him miserable even the reader of the book. Little plot otherwise. I rate it 2 stars. ( )

In a world where we are exposed to seemingly endless interpretations of the WWII experience (holocaust memoirs, soldier's experiences, histories of the Nazi Part, etc) this novel stands out. Its narrator is a enlisted man living in Chicago while he waits to be called up for duty, and through his diary we experience the trials of a man in limbo. Some might say that this diary chronicles his slow descent into madness and I would be loathe to disagree with them as Joseph shows clear signs of being in a destructive pattern and not being able to break away from it. At the finish we are left unknowing about whether being called up finally helps him regain a sense of purpose, but knowing the war experience he may have just gone from the frying pan into the fire. ( )

Without formal structures, it becomes harder to explain oneself to others, and that is exhausting. Convinced.

If I could give half stars I would have given this 3.5. What keeps it from 4 stars for me is the writing style. This is the first and only book I've read by Bellows and I have to believe that since it was his first novel his writing greatly improved after completing this. But judging by just this work I found his writing style a bit un-engaging and sometimes awkward.

However the ideas he presents through his main character, with sometimes brilliant sentences and philosophical thoughts, definitely add value to this short novel. In fact, when I finished reading this I experienced a feeling of disappointment overall, but I have to be honest, in the weeks since finishing I have thought back on this story and Bellow's thoughts more and more. The book has come to mind in numerous conversations and when contemplating the world and existence in general. Whatever my initial impression, this book has sticking power.

A very modernist and almost existential work, Bellow explores the condition within which we might find ourselves if all previously held beliefs and structures suddenly vanished. In short, it is a story about the horrors of freedom that authors like Sartre and Camus would fully appreciate. The main character doesn't go so far as to no longer believe in god, but that belief makes so little difference to his state of being that he just as well might have. This is a story of man left completely to his own devices, with no beliefs or structures or have-to-do's available for guidance.

And in the end, that proves terrifying for the main character who eventually runs to the structure of the army with open arms.

Oh the horror of true freedom!
The unbearable burden.
The dreadful slack created by being left to dangle... ( )

Like a grown-up 'Catcher in the Rye', Bellow's 'Dangling Man' is a young gentleman cast adrift in society, unsure of how to live, of how his principles can be reconciled with the imperfect society around him. ( )