Word: bellowing
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...Bellow's book is a first-class mystery--and that's not a compliment. True, the plot could be called a mystery in the standard literary sense, but the book's theme, purpose and often its characters are enigmas themselves...
Clara Velde is a Wellesley-educated Midwesterner who runs a "journalistic agency specializing in high fashion for women" in New York. Bellow devotes almost two-thirds of the 109-page work to her personal history. She is in the middle of her fourth marriage, but the only man she truly loves is Ithiel "Teddy" Regler, a stereotypically powerful diplomat...
...novella can be considered on two levels--but either way it falls short of what a reader would expect from Bellow. The book could have been a standard mystery story but it provides no real suspense. It also could have been an exercise in subtle symbolism, but it provides no real insights...
...guess is that Bellow made a poor attempt at the latter. His plot is so weak and the book's structure so seemingly arbitrary that whenever a theme--usually Clara and Teddy's love--is introduced, it is lost in the confusion...
...Bellow gives considerable space to descriptions of Clara's ex-husbands who never appear in the story. These characterizations are entertaining but do little to enhance our understanding of the important characters. One of the main characters, the au pair girl's boyfriend, is never introduced in person. This technique could be effective if it were underscoring a theme of anonymity or detachment. But in many cases, it seems as if Bellow either forgets about the characters or just does not care enough to develop them...