Seize the Day

read all of Bellow's work, this one...

...left me utterly frustrated. I liked or loved the other ones, but not this one.

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Why?

I don’t get it. I read 9 other novels by Bellow. I love his art. But for this bland novel to be considered more important than Augie March, Humboldt gift, or Herzog has only one explanation to me. This is the shortest of his novels, so I imagine that it is the most widely read. I can’t find another reason. I never thought I’ll appraise any book by Saul Bellow lower than 5 stars, but I guess that day has come. Oh well.

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A sad day in the life of a man

Today is the day of reckoning for failed actor... Failed extra turned speculator Tommy Willham.
He is a broken man trying to come to grips with an unloving dismissive father and an ex wife wants all and more from Tommy.
This is on of Bellow's sadder tales but worth while and interesting!
Well narrated and full of characters you can't help but relate to.

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Seize the terrible freedom of the American Dream

“You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.”

Excellent Story and Narration!

SEIZE THE DAY is a novel about Tommy Wilhelm (né Wilhelm Adler), a man who is trying to make something of his life after a series of disappointments, failures, and bad luck. A marriage on the edge of divorce and an affair on the edge of marriage (if the divorce should come through), Wilhelm’s relationship with his father, the aging Dr. Adler (a medical doctor), and the decision to invest his life’s savings in lard futures—these are the concerns of Wilhelm’s present as he tries to “make something of himself” and “find himself” in New York City. A remarkable novel by Canadian-American novelist Saul Bellow, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and three-time winner of the National Book Award for Fiction.

If Only..................

If this had been Saul Bellow's only novel, then none of us would ever know his name as a great writer. The only reason I can imagine this book gains praise is the fact that it is a quick read (or "listen" if you're an audio-book fan). I listened to all 4 hours of it, however if it had been longer then I'd have given up after only 2 hours. I found it totally dull, unremarkable and unmemorable in every way. The popularity of "Seize the Day" can only be explained by 2 words: IT"S SHORT

A Powerful Gut Punch

Though published in 1956, Seize the Day is perhaps even more relevant today. An elegy to American, white male ascendence and expectation, the story takes place over one day, in which all of the failures of the main character come into terrible focus. Grover Gardner is great, as usual, and a great choice for the work of Bellow. I consider myself one who is pretty well read in the canon of great American literature but this relatively minor book of Bellow's had escaped me. I highly recommend it.

A good character sketch -- a disappointing story

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I've always liked the way Bellow captures characters by their dress, their expressions, their manners, and this short novel has some good ones, starting with Tommy Wilhelm. But he places Wilhelm in a predicament and then leaves us hanging. When I read this decades ago, I thought it was moving. Listening to it now, I found it frustrating.

What about Grover Gardner’s performance did you like?

Excellent as usual.