Ravelstein: Summary and book reviews of Ravelstein by Saul Bellow, plus links to an excerpt from Ravelstein and a biography of Saul Bellow.

Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent Midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and ferociously--and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has suggested that he put forth a book of his convictions about the ideas which sustain humankind, or kill it, and much to Ravelstein's own surprise he does and becomes a millionaire. Ravelstein suggests in turn that Chick write a memoir or life of him, and during the course of a celebratory trip to Paris the two share thoughts on mortality, philosophy and history, loves and friends old and new, old suits, and vaudeville routines from the remote past. The mood turns more somber once they have returned to the midwest and Ravelstein succumbs to AIDS and Chick himself nearly dies. Deeply insightful and always moving, Saul Bellow's new novel is a journey through love and memory. It is brave, dark, and bleakly funny; an elegy to friendship and lives well (or badly) lived.

Media Reviews

The Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley Our 'greatest living novelist' returns with his first full-length novel in years.   The New York Times Book Review - Joyce Carol Oates No contemporary of ours is more consistently brilliant and more defiantly risky than Saul Bellow   The Boston Globe His voice has the meticulous range and certainty of a cathedral choir. The wit is exquisitely mannered; the intelligence both fearless and elegant.   The New York Times Book Review Simply the best writer we have

Recent Reader Reviews

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• Novels
  
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