Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Bellow, Saul (Vol. 200) - Adam Feldman (review date fall 2000)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

Adam Feldman (review date fall 2000)

SOURCE: Feldman, Adam. “Soulmate in Bloom.” Gay & Lesbian Review 7, no. 4 (fall 2000): 46-7.

[In the following favorable review of Ravelstein, Feldman examines Bellow's friendship with Allan Bloom, asserting that evidence presented in the novel could potentially lead readers to conclude “that Bloom was the love of Bellow's life.”]

In his last book, Love and Friendship, Allan Bloom (better known for his best-selling opus, The Closing of the American Mind) wrote this about “intimate friendship”:

Although this overwhelming experience seems akin to the love affairs that are so frequent and so attractive in the various literary genres, it does not lend itself to literary depiction. … The eros of souls for one another, experienced by two human beings who can share insights into the nature of man and of all other things, is much less palpable, and...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. John L. Brown (review date winter 1995)
   2. Sanford Pinsker (essay date spring 1995)
   3. Richard K. Cross (review date spring 1995)
   4. Jerrald Ranta (essay date fall 1995)
   5. Ethan Goffman (essay date winter 1997)
   6. James W. Tuttleton (review date June 1997)
   7. James Wood (review date 16 June 1997)
   8. Alfred Kazin (review date 26 June 1997)
   9. Philip Hensher (review date 9 August 1997)
   10. Karl Miller (review date 22 August 1997)
   11. Marvin J. LaHood (review date winter 1998)
   12. Faye Kuzma (essay date summer 1998)
   13. Martin Corner (essay date spring 2000)
   14. Penelope Fitzgerald (review date 15 April 2000)
   15. Jonathan Yardley (review date 9-15 April 2000)
   16. Jonathan Levi (review date 23 April 2000)
   17. Christopher Hitchens (review date 27 April 2000)
   18. Louis Menand (review date 25 May 2000)
   19. John Leonard (review date 29 May 2000)
   20. Adam Feldman (review date fall 2000)
   21. Adam Phillips (review date fall 2000)
   22. Rita D. Jacobs (review date autumn 2000)
   23. Igor Webb (essay date spring 2001)
   24. Bharat Tandon (review date 21 April 2001)
   25. Diana Hendry (review date 8 December 2001)
   26. Stephen Amidon (review date 10 December 2001)
   27. Gloria L. Cronin (essay date 2001)
   28. Morris Dickstein (review date 18 January 2002)
   29. John L. Brown (review date spring 2002)
   30. David K. Nichols (essay date winter 2003)
   31. Michael Davis (essay date winter 2003)
   32. Algis Valiunas (essay date September 2003)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Saul Bellow