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Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com that Modernism is an historical event rather than a virus at the heart of culture. But this is unimportant; titles of books like these are for publicity purposes only. Beyond that, the books themselves help us filter our interests. If you want rollocking sub-Joycean romps, that is, Beckett and Love, read the early work. And in terms of these biographies, if you want encyclopaedic detail, read Knowlson’s, while if you want a less reverential and more speculative read, Cronin’s is for you. If you want the Absolute Beckett, read the novels; you’ll never get any closer. � BUY Samuel Beckett books online from and 070 More Spike email RSS Facebook Twitter A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com Review [published June 2000] Saul Bellow: Ravelstein Stephen Mitchelmore “I stood back from myself and looked into Amy’s face. No one else on all this earth had such features. This was the most amazing thing in the life of the world.” These sentences come from the final page of Saul Bellow’s previous novel The Actual, which, I seem to remember, he said would be his last. Perhaps, instead, it should be classed as a novella; it ends after only 104 pages. His latest novel Ravelstein, at 233 pages, safely reaches novel-length. Perhaps this is the last. But maybe not, because it doesn’t feel like a novel. There is a famous reason for this, and the reason is fame. Abe Ravelstein, the eponymous character, is the late Allan Bloom, political philosopher at the University of Chicago and close friend of the novelist. In 1987, Bloom published a book called The Closing Of The American Mind, a singular polemic against what he saw as the betrayal of American values in the realm of Higher Education. The book became a surprise bestseller and made Bloom millions of dollars. Saul Bellow contributed a foreword to the book, and, it turns out, was the one who suggested he write it in the first place. Bloom died young in 1992, but before he died asked BUY Saul Bellow books online from and Bellow to write about him ‘warts and all’. This novel is the result. So why doesn’t he call Ravelstein by his famous name? After all, Martin Amis, Bellow’s wrong-headed protégé, hasn’t changed the names in his recent autobiography Experience. In his book, Bellow can’t be hoping to deny the link. And he isn’t: he has been quite open about who Abe really is. That’s not the reason. The reason goes to the heart of the novel, and ‘the novel’ in general. The short explanation is Amy’s face, which Harry, the narrator of The Actual, sees, as if for the first time as the coffin containing her husband is lowered into its plot. Harry realises that Amy has always been ‘the one’ (that is, The Actual), and asks her to marry him. The novel ends before she answers, restraining the sentimentality inherent in such a scenario. Before she can say anything, the plot is lowered, as it were, into its coffin. But read his sentence again: he sees Amy’s actual face only in standing back from himself. We, the readers, don’t actually see her face but we sense the unique, mysterious, revelatory moment. Her distance 071 More Spike email RSS Facebook Twitter A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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