Word: bellowing
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...Saul Bellow...
...only part of the book that Bellow develops fully is Clara's character. Her name says it all: She is a combination of a naive, good-mannered, rural woman (Clara) and a lustful, svelte, executive yuppie (Velde). Bellow actually addresses the reader, as if to say that Clara, and not the plot, is what's important...
...Bellow also does a good job of emphasizing the depth of Clara's love for Teddy. She seems to worship the "important person" but fails in her attempts to include herself in his professional political life. "When she came into her own, Clara thought, she'd set up a fund for him so he could write his views," Bellow writes...
...intense characterization seems useless when Clara admits that she loves the au pair girl and desperately tries to keep her from returning to Vienna. This unexpected twist is completely alien to the character that Bellow so meticulously created. Nothing earlier in the book prepares the reader for such an incongruous revelation. It appears to come from nowhere and undermine any sense of Clara's character which Bellow may have created...
...Bellow had expanded A Theft to a full-length novel, he could have developed all these interesting characters and fully organized the scattered plot. On the other hand, he could have easily condensed the book into an effective short story, focusing on Clara and eliminating useless characters and anecdotes...