Seize the Day

Time flies, it is hard enough to catch a moment… Is it possible to Seize the Day? If Saul Bellow isn’t cynical then he is surely sarcastic. Cynicism was bread and meat to everyone. And irony, too. Maybe it couldn't be helped. It was probably even necessary. Wilhelm, however, feared it intensely. Whene......more

'Nature only knows one thing, and that’s the present. Present, present, eternal present, like a big, huge, giant wave – colossal, bright and beautiful, full of life and death, climbing into the sky, standing in the seas. You must go along with the actual, the Here-and-Now, the glory -’ Following the......more

This novella about the morning hours in the life of a man which is falling apart is authentic New York narrative AND somber urban fable. Written in '56, it is still supremely relevant and I bet there are dozens, perhaps thousands, of Tommy Wilhems out there in the world, and they are all MODERN MEN;......more

Tengo que admitir mi ignorancia: antes de leer esta novela, no sabía que el señor Saul Bellow había existido. Supongo que es normal, es imposible conocer a todos los escritores que ha dado la humanidad. Pero sin duda leeré algo más de él. Carpe Diem, como bien indica, es un grito al "vive ahora, viv......more

If there was ever a character as neurotic as Alexander Portnoy - it was Wilhelm Adler. Following him around for a day in this short but great novella, I laughed and cried. At times, well most of the time, he is pathetic but as in nearly all of Bellow's protagonists, there is a diehard optimism that......more