Word: bookings
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...