"What makes all of this so remarkable is not merely Bellow's eye and
ear for vital detail. Nor is it his talent for exposing the innards of
character in a paragraph, a sentence, a phrase. It is Bellow's vision,
his uncanny ability to seize the moment and to see beyond it." -Chicago
Sun-Times
**A Penguin Classic
**
Fading charmer Tommy Wilhelm has reached his day of reckoning and is
scared. In his forties, he still retains a boyish impetuousness that has
brought him to the brink of chaos: He is separated from his wife and
children, at odds with his vain, successful father, failed in his acting
career (a Hollywood agent once cast him as the "type that loses the
girl"), and in a financial mess. In the course of one climactic day he
reviews his past mistakes and spiritual malaise, until a mysterious
philosophizing con man grants him a glorious, illuminating moment of
truth and understanding, and offers him one last hope....
This Penguin Classics edition contains an introduction by Cynthia Ozick.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of
classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700
titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works
throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the
series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and
notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as
up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
