The Actual, Saul Bellow
The Actual, Saul Bellow
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The Actual

Author: Saul Bellow

Narrator: Robert Fass

Unabridged: 3 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/16/2019


Synopsis

Harry Trellman doesn’t belong. Not in the Chicago orphanage where he is sent by his mother, not in high school (too brainy), not even on the streets. Human attachments? Yes, he has them, but they are like everything else in his life, singular and irregular. People who know him say that he “drowns his feelings in his face,” and that he has a Mongolian “masked look.” But though Harry stands apart, he has always been a most keen observer, listener, recorder, and interpreter, and none of this is lost on the Chicago billionaire, Sigmund Adletsky, who takes Harry into his “brain trust.” He retains Harry to advise him. They discuss ordinary things—they gossip together. Old Adletsky has set feelings aside while he amassed his vast fortune. The old man is so apt that he divines the secrets behind Harry’s mask, and brings him together with the one person Harry has loved dumbly for forty years.Amy Wustrin has not exactly stood apart from the sexual revolution while waiting for Harry to come wooing. Far from remaining the static object of his fantasy, she has moved about in the real world, from one marriage to another, from rich to broke, from hot high-school girl to correct matron. Still, in Amy, Harry sees what he calls his “actual.” Harry has had his opportunities with Amy, but it is not until he finds himself at the cemetery with her for the exhumation and reburial of her husband that he feels free to speak out.

About Saul Bellow

Saul Bellow (1915–2005), author of numerous novels, novellas, and stories, was the only novelist to receive three National Book Awards. He was also the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and many other awards and honors.

About Robert Fass

Winner of the prestigious Audie Award (for History and Audio Drama), veteran actor Robert Fass is equally at home in a wide variety of styles, genres, characters, and dialects. A seven-time Audie nominee with over 100 unabridged audiobooks to his credit, Robert has also earned multiple Earphones Awards, including for his narration of Joe Golem and the Drowning City by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden. Robert has given voice to modern and classic fiction writers alike, including Ray Bradbury, Joyce Carol Oates, John Steinbeck, Carlos Fuentes, Isaac Asimov, Ellery Queen, Steve Berry, Jeffrey Deaver, and Nele Neuhaus, plus bestselling nonfiction works in history, politics, health, journalism, philosophy, and business.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Evandro

"I stood back from myself and looked into Amy's face. No one else on all this earth had such features. This was the most amazing thing in the life of the world." [p. 104] I think what makes this book great is not that it is a love story or the story of two lives that come to accept each other, but ra......more

"A man's road back to himself is a return from his spiritual exile, for that is what a personal history amounts to- exile." This was beautiful. Language not quite flowery but more so intimately tied to 'life.' Simple clear-cut intelligent sharp sentences. Yet again, Hemingway-esque, which is ironic c......more

Creo que he tardado demasiado tiempo en descubrir a Saul Bellow. El tono con el que narra su historia es, probablemente, uno de los más logrados que he leído nunca. La trama, en sí, no tiene importancia, aunque pueda parecer pintoresca en un principio: el narrador se reencuentra con el amor de su ad......more

Πέρυσι διάβασα για πρώτη φορά βιβλίο του Σολ Μπέλοου, την ενδιαφέρουσα και πολύ καλογραμμένη νουβέλα "Άδραξε τη μέρα", μένοντας ικανοποιημένος τόσο από την ιστορία όσο κυρίως από τη γραφή και την ψυχογραφική ικανότητα του συγγραφέα. Τώρα, όμως, δεν μπορώ να πω ότι δηλώνω εξίσου ικανοποιημένος, μιας......more


Quotes

“A mature distillation of Mr. Bellow’s work…a gem.” New York Times

“[A] wonderful book…fully worthy of a place in its author’s vastly esteemed oeuvre.” - Chicago Tribune

“The work of a great master still locked in unequal combat with Eros and Time.” New York Times Book Review

“An achingly simple cry from the heart that reads like a parting love letter. Essential for all collections.” Library Journal