Seize the Day

While laid up in bed for the past week, I finally turned off my TV and started delving into my roommate's bookshelves. I thought I was pretty up on modern lit, but...haven't ever read Saul Bellow. My first Bellow book was "Seize the Day"---took only about an hour or so to read, but struck home: a 40-something-year-old loser whose parent wouldn't give him any money! (Hmmm...) Am now two-thirds of the way through "Herzog"--- one thing that strikes me is that people don't write like this any more. This is definitely my parents' generation of writers, what I grew up with, what I was told was necessary to read. (I was born in '65.) "Herzog" basically deals with a man's losing his wife, and his efforts to get over her. It's contemplative, and I enjoy reading the main character's philosophical ramblings (misogynist though they sometimes are). It's a shame no one is writing like this today. While rather meandering, at least Bellow was full and rich and thoughtful. Not trying to be "cute" or "ironic." I miss sincerity.