Ageing affairs of the heart described through thoughts of chinese looking guy finally popping the question at the graveside of his life long love's former husband. A simple read but Bellow's style is clear.

A flat little story, best left alone if reading pleasure is important.

Harry Trellman is a man who just doesn’t belong. Raised in an orphanage (despite having two living parents), and possessed with an impassive face, he lives on the edge of society. Yes, he’s successful in business and has many acquaintances, but he doesn’t really connect with anyone, maintaining an observer’s distance. And he IS a keen observer. It is this skill that leads multibillionaire Sigmund Adletsky to hire Harry; and it is through Sig that he is thrown together with his first love, Amy Wustrin, whom he still loves and has loved silently for forty years.

Through his omniscient narrator, Bellow allows the reader insight into the thoughts, feelings, flaws and strengths of the characters.

Bellow is a wonderful writer but this slim little volume just didn’t do it for me. I appreciated it, but I didn’t love it. In fairness, I have to admit that I was reading it when I was sick and having trouble concentrating for more than a page or two at a time. As a result, a book that should have taken me just a couple of days, took me nearly a week to complete. I’m sure my enjoyment of this work suffered as a result, but there you have it. ( )

I like to think that I'm fairly well read. Some might even call me a book snob. Many of my favorite authors are those that others dislike because they are too difficult or too literary or too ~insert witty complaint here~. That said, I didn't get this novel. I mean I understand that it was about the abiding love the protagonist had for his high school girlfriend, a love that endured his moves to China and Burma, his failed marriage, her two failed marriages and forty years. However, the story read as it was about so much more than that and that is where Bellow lost me.

I'm really struggling to put into words how I felt about this novel. It was beautifully written and the underlying theme was easy to decipher, but I just can't shake the thought that I'm missing something. It actually puts me off reading other novels by Bellows. I'm afraid that if I'm stymied by his shortest offering, that his longer novels will be completely outside of my comprehension. I know he's a great author and I know his novel is great, so it must be me that is the problem in this equation. Perhaps I will give Bellow another try in a couple years when I have put a little more of my life behind me. ( )

Ok, I tried. This novella is only about 100 pages long, but I got 10 pages in and I'm just not in any way interested. He's not Chinese, but he sort of looks like he's Chinese, so he goes to China for five years, but returns to Chicago to be near a woman he hasn't seen in 15 years because he's never been able to stop thinking about her, but then he's told he looks like he's Japanese, and gosh that's true! so he cuts his hair to look more Japanese, and he goes to a dinner party with rich people, then runs into the woman he's been pining over for 15 years and doesn't recognize her, and I just couldn't go any further. Another one off my shelf! ( )