Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (PDF)

Description

Directed by Joan Micklin Silver. Starring Mel Howard, Carol Kane, Doris Roberts.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Originally published in 1957, Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day is considered one of the twentieth century’s finest works of fiction. It chronicles a single day in the life of one Tommy Wilhelm, a failed middle-aged actor, living on a precipice. Out of work, nearly broke, and estranged from his wife and children, he is haunted by all of the setbacks in his life and is searching for salvation in the form of an easy financial win that will solve all of his problems. On the advice of a mysterious psychologist, Dr. Tamkin, he has invested the last of his savings in the commodities market. Dr. Tamkin’s advice extends beyond investing and he provides advice to Wilhelm on how he should shed the burdens of his failed past and live in the here-and-now, in other words, to “Seize the Day.”Tamkin’s council and Wilhelm’s inability to shed his burdens only serve to heighten Wilhelm’s sense of failure. Wherever he seeks sympathy, whether it be his estranged wife who continues to make financial demands on him while refusing to divorce him or his father, a comfortably retired doctor, finds nothing but reminders of his failures.Born Wilhelm Adler, he changes his name to Tommy Wilhelm to further his acting career. His career never takes off and so he fails in his attempt to actually become Tommy Wilhelm, a failure he is constantly reminded of by his father who insists on addressing him as “Wilky,” his childhood name.Seize the Day is a distinctly American story. Whereas British fiction from Daniel Defoe on up through today’s Ian McEwan is preoccupied by social and economic class distinctions, American society prides itself on being free from class. No matter what station we are born into, we believe that through hard work, perseverance, and strength of character we can succeed. If we do not succeed, it is obviously due to some flaw in our character. American fiction has always explored the chasm that exists between that Great American Ideal (and mythology) and the stark reality that the Universe has no concept of fairness. American literary characters, unlike their British counterparts, are therefore imbued with a greater sense of anomie. While British heroes and heroines may struggle to overcome the rigid class distinctions in their society, and usually fail, there is at least the idea that there is a sense of order in the Universe, no matter how harsh it may be. American literary figures, from Dreiser’s Clyde Griffiths to Fitzgerald’s James Gatz to Salinger’s Holden Caulfield to Miller’s Willy Loman, fight not against society but against nothingness.Years after writing Seize the Day, Bellow said in interviews that never liked Tommy Wilhelm very much. Indeed, Wilhelm is not particularly likable and the reader is likely to feel as much sympathy for him as the other characters in the novella. “Stop whining, be a man, get a job!” we want to say to him. And yet, the story is compelling and unconsciously reaches those hidden parts of our psyche that fear the stark nothingness, and leads us to the novella’s surprisingly cathartic conclusion.

⭐Tommy Wilhelm has just lost his job. He is separated from his wife Margaret and his two children are living with her. He has a difficult relationship with his Dr. Adler, his elderly father,r who is a famous New York doctor of medicine, Tommy lives in a fading but European style New York Hotel. He is out of work and seemingly out of luck. He speculates in lard on the commodities market. His financial and spiritual advisor is Dr. Tamkin. Tamkin is a mysterious old man who is an inventor, self proclaimed expert in human psychiatry and an advisor to Tommy. The short novel is only 114 pages in this Penguin edition. The book ends when Tommy has an epiphany concerning the meaning and connectedness of human life as he attends the funeral service for a stranger. Bellow is great at character sketches reminiscent of Charles Dickens. His novel was published in 1956 portraying New York and Broadway in that era of Eisenhower and the Brooklyn Dodgers (Tommy attends Dodger games with his sons on weekends when they visit him at the Hotel Gloriana where he resides. Bellow writes out of a Jewish tradition which is informed by vast reading and experience of the human condition.

⭐Saul Bellow was one of the most critically lauded authors in the latter half of the 20th century, receiving numerous awards including a Pulitzer and a Nobel Prize in Literature. Unless you have a proper contextual understanding of the author and his work, however, you may wind up like some of the unfortunate readers here, spouting off in an uninformed 1-star review about how depressing and uneventful his stories are. Bellow’s savage psychological and philosophical explorations might not appeal to everyone’s taste, but those who ‘get it’ certainly reap the rewards. I suggest perhaps reading a few articles on Bellow (or at least his Wikipedia page) before diving into Seize the Day. This novella is an excellent starting point for newcomers.I just finished listening to the audiobook edition of this work, and I am extremely pleased with it. Read by Grover Gardner, the novella’s characters simply come to life. The corrupt Dr. Tamkin and the spiteful Dr. Adler are presented it all their glory, New York/Jewish accents and all. Play time is 4 hours. Give it a try.

⭐Saul Bellow has other much better works as I felt this one was not up to his usual standards. Maybe it was just because it was about an American family of the 1950s who were shallow in and of themselves. You read it you decide.

⭐Like some of the other reviewers I’ve only recently become aware of Saul Bellow and am incredibly impressed by the late writer’s talent. This is the second book I’ve read of his (Humboldt’s Gift is on the way) in two weeks time. Seize the Day is concise and short but conveys a massive amounts of human feeling. One cannot help from being sympathetic towards its main character, Tommy Wilhelm. The situation in which he finds himself can be attributed to his own poor decision-making and a pronounced refusal to engage in serious introspection. As we know from Sun Tzu, if you don’t know yourself you’ll never know anyone else. Thanatos drives Wilhelm and some of the things he does will make you wince, but Bellow plots his predicament masterfully. We understand Wilhelm, in just (over) a hundred pages, better than we do most of our peers. This is a tour de force.

⭐This is a story about mid life crisis for a middle aged American male. The story takes place in one day. It is very interesting, and, as with all of Saul Bellow’s works, very well written. I did not like it as much as “The Adventures Of Augie March”. However it is much shorter and is not as much of a time commitment. I feel it compares favorably with “Voices of a Summer Day” by Irwin Shaw. Thank You…

⭐Amazon-Kindle needs to create a collection. $10 a pop for what amount to short-stories is ridiculous. I’d love to read more, heck, I’d like to read them all but not at that price…

⭐a pointless story about an immature whiner..with some naturalistic dialogue..but not as natural as ira levin’s dialogue..the acceptance of the burden of self is a central theme..in the modern idiom,one might tell tommy..’get a grip,bell end’..still it’s saul bellow..so it must be a classic.

⭐One day in a life to explore the isolation and realisation of the self.

⭐Bukowski called this kind of literature ‘little stories about gentle agony’. There’s another phrase for it: ‘beige prose’. And boy is it beige.

⭐Robin Williams showing his other side of funny with a down to earth realistic story about normal people and what happens when not all goes by plan and wish.

⭐Robin Williams at his best in a little publicised gem.

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