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Book Reviews of Humboldt's Gift

Humboldt's Gift
Humboldt's Gift
Author: Saul Bellow
ISBN-13: 9780140189445
ISBN-10: 0140189440
Publication Date: 6/1/1996
Pages: 487
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 17

3.4 stars, based on 17 ratings
Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

4 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

reviewed Humboldt's Gift on + 64 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Here's what the back cover says: "Never has Saul Bellow's unsurpassed genius for creating full-blooded characters been so penetrating, so charged with exuberant vitality, as in HUMBOLDT'S GIFT. Here Renata, all-woman and then some...Rinaldo, junior-league Mafioso tough...and Charlie, living legend with a frenzied past...live out destinies complicated by the unforgettable Humboldt. And Humboldt--drinker, lover, sometimes bum, and lifetime shadow of Charlie Citrine--plots a dubious revenge for services rendered in the name of friendship."

Here's what I say: I almost never put a book down, but I got as far as pg. 110 out of 471. The characters may be full-blooded in someone's mind, but not mine. They were cartoon caricatures at best. Sorry, Mr. Bellow, this one's not my cup of tea.
reviewed Humboldt's Gift on + 51 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This was a tough read but well worth working through. Masterful prose!
bup avatar reviewed Humboldt's Gift on + 166 more book reviews
As a novel, I only go three stars on this. It's OK, but it's just OK. I just couldn't get into it more than that. However, there are several passages where Bellow examines the nature of consciousness, of soul, and the difference between being and self-awareness - a topic that has long fascinated me and that he expresses well.

So anyway. The first two hundred pages I was all too aware I was reading 70's-era fiction - I don't know why but around page 100 I thought, "this is something Playboy would consider intellectual fiction." Then 30 pages later our protagonist ended up at the Playboy club. I found that significant. Once the novel moved away from Chicago, I think the last 250 pages made a much better short novel than the full 480-page novel is. Plus, all the stuff about the nature of existence is in there. Someone fix that up and let me know when it's ready.
reviewed Humboldt's Gift on + 67 more book reviews
This should be a movie.