
Herzog
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
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By:
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Saul Bellow
Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.
Like the protagonists of most of Bellow's novels - Dangling Man, The Victim, Seize the Day, Henderson the Rain King, etc. - Herzog is a man seeking balance, trying to regain a foothold on his life. Thrown out of his ex-wife's house, he retreats to his abandoned home in Ludeyville, a remote village in the Berkshire mountains to which Herzog had previously moved his wife and friends. Here amid the dust and vermin of the disused house, Herzog begins scribbling letters to family, friends, lovers, colleagues, enemies, dead philosophers, ex- Presidents - anyone with whom he feels compelled to set the record straight. The letters, we learn, are never sent. They are a means to cure himself of the immense psychic strain of his failed second marriage, a method by which he can recognize truths that will free him to love others and to learn to abide with the knowledge of death. In order to do so he must confront the fact that he has been a bad husband, a loving but poor father, an ungrateful child, a distant brother, an egoist to friends, and an apathetic citizen.
Herzog is primarily a novel of redemption. For all of its innovative techniques and brilliant comedy, it tells one of the oldest of stories. Like The Divine Comedy or the dark night of the soul of St. John of the Cross, it progresses from darkness to light, from ignorance to enlightenment. Today it is still considered one of the greatest literary expressions of postwar America.
©1992 Saul Bellow (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"A masterpiece." (New York Times Book Review)
"Herzog has the range, depth, intensity, verbal brilliance, and imaginative fullness - the mind and heart - which we may expect only of a novel that is unmistakably destined to last." (Newsweek)
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I'm tempted to blame my ho-hum reaction on the fact his characters often seem less like real people and more like puppets for the author, through which he can espouse some point or another. But if I'm honest that same argument could be made with even more accuracy at authors I love like Pynchon and DeLillo. Maybe it's just that what he has to say isn't all that interesting.
It could be that I find language is unmoving. There are occasional phrases that seem clever, but there's no musicality.
Whatever it is, Bellow just leaves me a bit bored.
Just Can't Connect with Bellow
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Amazing Novel
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Malcolm hillgartner's narration catches the manic intensity of Herzog's rants (sections a visual reader might choose to skip) without being annoying. The narration also amplified the touching aspects of the story and its protagonist.
I feel I have explored the personality of Herzog more deeply than I have most actual people I know. And this exploration has shown me much to like, admire and sympathize with. An intense book that I am glad I read.
Jewish angst at its finest!
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Wonderful
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Foreign languages are hard, but…
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Herzog, the man.
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Peak into 50s era before 60's change
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Wrong reader
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What did you love best about Herzog?
The novel demonstrates how consciousness and our reality is formed and altered by theories or narratives and how a person can benefit by becoming more engaged.An excellent performance
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Would you listen to Herzog again? Why?
Yes. In fact, I already have.Any additional comments?
I just read a review of this book that said it is "dull, dull, dull." While everybody's entitled to his/her opinion, if this book is "dull," it's dull in the same way that all classic literature is dull. I suppose you could say the same for "1984," "The Grapes of Wrath," "Huckleberry Finn," and "The Sound And The Fury." Mr. Bellow, winning a Nobel prize and all, probably doesn't need defending, but when I see reviews calling the very best books dull, I see red.only the reader (listener) is dull
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