I recently joined a local book club – a book club focusing on the classics. This month’s read was Saul Bellow’s Humboldt’s Gift: a literary masterpiece, so much so that it won the Pulitzer prize in fiction in 1976, a year after publication. It went on to win many other wards and Saul Bellow himself also won many, including the Nobel prize.
Ironically (or perhaps not), Humboldt’s Gift criticizes not only these types of prizes but the babbittry of American capitalism as a whole throughout the novel. The story revolves around Citrine, a fellow intellectual recalling his life and friendship with poet, Humboldt. The storyline itself is rather short; however, the narration of Citrine’s thoughts on various topics make up most of the novel. There are philosophical thoughts and questioning regarding boredom, capitalism, real beauty, anthroposophy (a lot of this), and of course comparisons between the failed poet and his critique of Citrine “selling out”.
The characters themselves are also very well drawn out and given a life of their own. Each with its own strong purpose in the novel. Most of the novel takes place in 1970’s Chicago, which, as a fellow Chicagoan, is very cool to see.
Because of the discussions of tough philosophical subjects, it is a rather dense novel – not a particularly easy read. It is however, very enlightening if you do get through it. Overall, a great novel – Bellow was a clear genius of letters. I ended up rating this a 4/5!