Text: Graphite Poplar
Herzog was voted by British readers as one of the top 12 books written in English after World War II.
Saul Bellow, a writer from the United States, is a literary master, an important intellectual of the 20th century, who has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Art, and the National Book Award three times. He used literature to ponder important questions, intending to "rediscover the wonders of the world under the ruins of modern thought."
Translator Huang Xie'an, senior translator, scholar, associate professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Translation and Interpretation, Shanghai Wai Chinese University. He has translated many classic literary works such as "Still Life", "The Whistling Woman", "All Living Beings Sleep", "Cat's Eye" and so on.
*, Herzog is a knowledgeable university professor with a noble character, sensitivity and kindness, but real life is difficult for him to get along with, and the affair between his wife Madeleine and his friend Valentine has left him with a green head and his spirit on the verge of collapse. Stimulated, he became bizarre and kept writing letters, but never a single one was sent. No matter where he went, he carried this travel bag full of letters.
He couldn't bear it anymore and finally divorced his wife, and Herzog fell in love with the flower shop hostess Ramona in New York, Ramona longed to build a warm family with him, but Herzog was already afraid of marriage, and because of the hurt of love, he never dared to take any step. One day, on a whim, he returned to Chicago to visit his daughter and to kill his ex-wife and Valentine. But after seeing Valentine take care of his daughter taking a bath, he dispelled the idea of killing, and the hatred that had been accumulated in his heart for a long time disappeared in an instant.
He returned to his old house in the countryside and began to seriously reflect on his experiences over the past few years. Soon after, Ramona rushed here when she heard the news. He cleaned Ramona's room, arranged meals, and even prepared a large bouquet of flowers for her ......
In **, Herzog is lying flat on the sofa, looking back on his mediocre life, his idea is to work hard, but his thoughts can't control the body, forget it, let's lie flat!
In the eyes of his wife, he was an incompetent husband; In the eyes of his parents, he is a child who does not know how to be grateful; To the state, he is a mediocre citizen. He had the opportunity to have more love, but he was lazy, slack, and couldn't lift his spirits for anything. He had a chance to shine, but he chose to be bleak.
He is sometimes powerful, but he takes the initiative. He has his own unique soul, but he never dares to face it alone. He was always thinking so hard that he seemed to die if he stopped thinking. He began to write non-stop, and he had endless words in his heart to write to everyone in the world......
Mo Yang read about himself in this book because it touched an empathy that I didn't realize, and it describes the universal human predicament, which is exactly what we go through in life. Mo Yang believes that the spiritual core of lying flat is to deal with the world passively, and gradually return to the inner world. Reading this book makes people choose to stop overthinking, live a specific life, and love a specific person.
Saul Bellow said that he wrote the film to show how so-called "higher education" is powerless to save a troubled ......Later he realized that he had not received a life education. Who in college will teach him how to solve his sexual needs, how to get along with women, how to deal with family matters?
People don't realize to what extent they are controlled by their thoughts, and we live more in our minds than in nature.
Herzog is one of Bellow's most important works, and is considered to be comparable to Joyce's Ulysses, he uses skillful creative skills to fully embody his creative characteristics, and the content covers the most social issues, with thick content, profound meaning, exquisite language, and diverse analysis, which reproduces the anguish and confusion of middle-class intellectuals in modern society, pursuing and exploring.
Herzog was hailed as a literary masterpiece immediately after its publication in 1964 and won Bellow the 1965 National Book Award. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976, and the Nobel Prize citation reads: "Bellow's work is a fusion of an understanding of the human being and a subtle analysis of contemporary culture." ”
Philip Roth said: "These letters of Herzog bring us as much joy as the whole book, and they are the best keys to unlocking Herzog's infinite wisdom and into the tumultuous depths of his miserable life." The letters were the expression of his strong thoughts and provided the stage for his wisdom. In this one-man show, it is impossible for him to pretend to be crazy and stupid. ......Herzog seems to me to be the best in Bellow**. ”
Moyang is unparalleled in the world, give you a plum!