Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Bellow, Saul (Vol. 200) - Marvin J. LaHood (review date winter 1998)

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Marvin J. LaHood (review date winter 1998)

SOURCE: LaHood, Marvin J. Review of The Actual, by Saul Bellow. World Literature Today 72, no. 1 (winter 1998): 132.

[In the following review, LaHood offers a laudatory assessment of The Actual.]

Saul Bellow can write. He has a Nobel Prize (1976) to show for it. He is also the only novelist to win three National Book Awards—for The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Herzog (1964), and Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970). Add to these laurels a Pulitzer Prize for Humboldt's Gift (1975) and the National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American letters (1990), and he is probably America's most decorated author. Would such a revered and honored author risk all on a novella? The answer is yes.

The Actual is hardly a risk, however. It is pure Bellow. It is the brilliant first-person narrative of Harry Trellman, a Chicago intellectual,...

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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