About this title: A chronicle of success and failure, this work is Bellow's tale of the writer's life in America. When Humboldt dies a failure in a seedy New York hotel, Charlie Citrine coping with the tribulations of his own success, begins to realize the significance of his own life.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Avon
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780380006557ISBN:0380006553
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. Nice soft cover, lightly read, some shelf wear to cover, light creases on spine, light aging, stk #2194e6. 471 p. read more
Description: Very good. SOFTCOVER. MMPB. Very Nice Condition copy. Slight paper toning only. Some cover wear. All pages are present, clean and un-creased. Cover has no tears. No underlining, highlighting, tears, stamps, bookplates, remainder marks, price clips, etc. Not an Ex-library copy. I ship International orders by Air Mail. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking, New York
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780670386550ISBN:0670386553
Description: Very Good with Fair DJ, DJ has some water stains and some tears, book is in excellent condition, has previous owners name inscribed on end pages on top. Hardcover with DJ. read more
Description: Very Good. 0380006553 Mass market paperback, previously read used book in very good condition, may have slight worn corners and varying degre..._ read more
"Charles Citrine is a successful author of biographies and protoge of the late Von Humboldt Fleischer. Now that Fleischer is dead, Citrine finds himself adrift, unable to forge ahead in his life. He must deal with personal disaster after personal disaster until he can find again the anchor that Humboldt was to him."
"I'm sorry, but for me this book was like most Oscar-winning movies. I could see why it appealed to reviewers, but I didn't find it very entertaining. Maybe I'm too young, or not sufficiently well-read to get all the references. I didn't find the protagonist to be sympathetic; I know he wasn't supposed to be, particularly, but I just did not care what happened to him at all."
"A literary critic listed Bellow's novel, Humboldt's Gift, number three on his top one hundred choices for the best novels of the 20th century. A quick bike ride to our local library, electronically signing out the book, and back home, followed by a comfortable chair in our backyard and the anticipation of absorbing one of the "greats" was quickly morphed into a struggling read. While Bellow's writing is a combination of Updike's facility of words, Chabon's language magic, and Dickens' introspection, the character of Charlie Citrine is a difficult one to embrace, and the dark side of Chicago politics and "gangster" modus operandi conjures depressive cynicism; but Bellow succeeds in blending the world of intellectualism with realism as well as expressing his ties with anthroposophy, a spiritual philosophy based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. At times a page turner, and more often a trial, but worth the effort."
"What can be more wonderful than a book that talks about real life: the lawyers who take your last centima,an Europe at a close fusion with Chicago, beautiful lovers, fortunes lost,than regained,a frustrated wife and dead people very present in day-to-day life?A lesson of "Anything can happen," told in an interesting inanimate manner, that you never lets you go and you remember from page to page that tomorrow you can happen to you to fall on the other side (to die, to be exact).Courage to tell about modern life, luxury, and than tare all this apart, this kind of life,which I thought to be sublim.Here it all comes together running through the Ritz in Paris, Lisbon and London, a small pension in Almeira and the most luxurious restaurants in Chicago.I say you should begin reading and enjoying it piece by piece."
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