Seize the Day

I picked up "Seize The Day" when, one afternoon, I realized I'd never read anything by Saul Bellow. Throughout high school and college, none of his books had ever been assigned to me, and though I knew his name, it never resonated with me the way the names Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, or Steinbeck had. After reading "Seize the Day," I am rather angry at my high school teachers and college professors--and myself!--for keeping me from this author for so long. "Seize The Day" tells the story of one day in the life of Tommy Wilhelm, a middle-aged failed actor who now lives in the same New York hotel as his father. Tommy is separated from his wife, and rarely sees his children; furthermore, he has been unemployed for several months, and faces losing the last of his money in an ill-conceived stock market venture. It is with all of this in mind that Tommy finally comes to a day of realization and reckoning, when he realizes his isolation and his failure. The theme of man's isolation is strong throughout the book, yet it is not what struck me most about Tommy's situation. I read "Seize The Day" immediately after finishing "The Fountainhead," and perhaps that skewed my focus a bit. What I found most interesting about Tommy is his inability to judge himself. He is aware of his failures, but cannot take the final step and truly confront them; he must ask those around him, particularly his father, both for a kind word and for a way to understand himself. I have to wonder if Tommy's isolation would be less of a burden if he weren't also isolated from himself--a thought which struck me to the core. If you are like me, and have read dozens of American classics without touching a Saul Bellow book, read "Seize The Day" as soon as possible. Bellow's style of writing and his way of getting inside of Tommy's mind is recognizably American, yet incredibly distinctive; I would venture that you can't fully understand American literature until you've read Saul Bellow.

Absolutely first-rate American novel of alienation. Tommy Wilhelm reaches mid-life with a divorce, a lost job, and a father who won't pay his debts. Tommy asks "How could I have been such a jerk as not to prepare for anything and just go on luck and inspiration?" It all goes down hill from there, Tommy's Dad telling him for good measure, "Those who wait for help must wait for help. You have to stop waiting." But Tommy can't, and we watch him till the bitter end. Brilliant writing; personally I feel this is much better than his longer, three-hundred pagers which tend to get diffuse and laden-down with theories and name-dropping. Here Bellow is writing tightly and concisely (like in his other great short novel, Dangling Man).This otherwise handsome Penguin edition comes with a tedious, thirteen-page introduction by Cynthia Ozick, doyenne of the novel-as-text-to-be-taught-in-the-classroom school, a particulary inelegant writer to stick before Bellow (who is "irrefragably American" according to her). There is no need for her introduction, or anybody's, because Bellow is such a good writer the reader will have no problem understanding him. Why Ozick's superfluous bad prose at the start to mess this beauty up?

Middle-aged Wilhelm las lost his sense of direction. He cannot find the means to support his wife and kids, who he recently walked out on, and is looking for pity and help from everyone that he can. The premise may not sound that interesting but Bellow does an incredible job of showing how suppressing emotions come back to haunt us. Throughout this book, Wilhelm has several life-changing interactions with the other characters, and comes out a totally different person. These interactions are gracefully executed by Bellow, showing an amazing grasp of differing psyches and how they interact with others. I don't want to give anything away, but Wilhelm's final confrontations with Tamkin and his father are absolutely amazing. If your interest can be held by an intensely personal journey (as opposed to a plot driven thriller), then this book may be for you. Once you've finished the book, just compare the opening paragraphs with the closing ones and you should get a hint of what you just gained. Doing so may even convince you to give it another go.

In one of Bellow's best works, Seize the Day tackles many of the hardships faced in the capitalistic society of America. The main character, Wilhelm, has failed miserably at virtually everything he has ever attempted. This failure is a derivation from the fact that his father has never been able to show him love. Thus, Wilhelm accepts love from anyone who is offering, and constantly gets taken advantage of by those he trusts. Hidden within the text, is the issue of the Holocaust, and how the world must reflect and look at the sins of the past in order to progress into the future. Ironically, "Seizing the Day" is not the answer for Wilhelm, or the world. From this novella, we must realize that in order to move on with our lives, we must reflect upon and accept our sins and mistakes of the past. Very powerful and moving, this novella should force every reader to think about the direction of their lives, and the importance of love and compassion.

Tommy Wilhelm might be construed as an echo of Willy Loman, Arthur Miller's delusional salesman in "Death of a Salesman." Yet he stands powerfully and foolishly on his own as a man caught between the culture of his fathers and a trashy American movie culture that hints of crime, triviality, and indifference. In the rendering of this time and place that Wilhelm can never quite find his niche in, the book rings true even today, four decades after its publication. Tommy's presence in the novel is both physical (I could sense his high blood pressure in his conversations with his father and with the con-man Dr. Tamkin) and spiritual. His attempt to redeem his own failed past in a single day, and the lies he tells himself to get through the "con," are pathetic, believable, and the stuff of a moral tale I recommend highly. The book reads pleasurably and fast the first time, yet it rewards second and third readings.