Mr. Sammler’s Planet (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Saul Bellow
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: Late twentieth century, specifically during the first moon landing
- Setting: New York City and suburbs, Poland, and Israel
- Principal Characters: Artur Sammler, Shula (Slawa) Sammler, Elya Gruner, Angela Gruner, Wallace Gruner, Dr. Govinda Lal, African American Pickpocket, Eisen, Margotte Arkin, Lionel Feffer
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: Values
- Locales: New York, NY
The Story:
Artur Sammler was a highly introspective, brilliant, and aging Holocaust survivor living in New York City. Loved by those who knew him, he functioned as their gentle, infinitely likable father-confessor. Yet since his experience of crawling out of a mass grave in Poland he had been “dry” inside. His “death” and “rebirth” in a Holocaust killing field had left him with an eye that could only distinguish light and shade, and a spirit that was often myopic and incapacitated. He was slightly confused, bitter, morally indignant, and constantly ready to sit in...
[The entire page is 2001 words long]
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