"Herzog" by Saul Bellow

Herzog is a 1964 novel composed in part of letters from the protagonist Moses E. Herzog. The novel follows five days in the life of Moses E. Herzog who, at the age of forty-seven, is having a midlife crisis following his second divorce.

American social and literary critic, Irving Howe, wrote - "We are made captive in the world of Herzog... the consciousness of the character forms the enclosing medium of the novel." In typical Bellow style, the descriptions of characters' emotions and physical features are rich in wit and energy. Herzog's relationships are the central theme of the novel, not just with women and friends, but also society and himself. Herzog's own thoughts and thought processes are laid bare in the letters he writes.

In the words of the Swedish Nobel Committee, his writing exhibited

> [T]he mixture of rich picaresque novel and subtle analysis of our culture, of entertaining adventure, drastic and tragic episodes in quick succession interspersed with philosophic conversation, all developed by a commentator with a witty tongue and penetrating insight into the outer and inner complications that drive us to act, or prevent us from acting, and that can be called the dilemma of our age.