Seize the Day (Penguin Classics)

Rating:
Summary: A small masterpiece-
Review: This work is perhaps the most perfect Bellow of all. It is the story of Tommy Wilhelm a divorced father of two, a former actor , a self- perceived failure as he puts his life bit of money and trust in the truthteller- imposter Dr. Temkin. But the work also catches perfectly the idiom of West Side New York American business life, of a civilization money- driven. It is a richly ironic work with brilliant portraits of minor characters. It tells convincingly of the heartbreak of middle - aged disappointment in a success- measuring civilization. And it does this with a depiction of its central character which is always deep and moving. The book comes to its end in a funeral scene in which self- pitying Wilhelm ( Wilky) mourns with all his soul for himself, and leads us to mourn for him, and for each and every frail mortal who has known most deeply their own failure. What a richness of Yiddish- American idiom and truth of life there is in this compact and beautiful work.