Kenneth Fearing
In this imaginative journal, set against fresh and vivid scenes in Chicago, the author has outlined what must seem to many others an uncannily accurate delineation of themselves.
— The New York Times, 1944
Edmund Wilson
One of the most honest pieces of testimony on the psychology of a whole generation who have grown up during the Depression and the war.
—The New Yorker
From the Publisher
By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
“One of the most honest pieces of testimony on the psychology of a whole generation who have grown up during the Depression and the war,” –Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker
“In this imaginative journal, set against fresh and vivid scenes in Chicago, the author has outlined what must seem to many others an uncannily accurate delineation of themselves.” –The New York Times
“An extraordinary first novel.” –The Observer
APRIL 2012 - AudioFile
DANGLING MAN, first published in 1944, is the debut work of Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author Saul Bellow. Set in the early 1940s, the novella is the diary of Joseph, a young man who is living in a boarding house and contemplating the Enlightenment while waiting to be called up for military duty. The story, replete with the type of thoughtful and insightful dialogue for which Bellow is known, is ideal for audio. Despite Bellow’s gifted writing, the narration by Kirby Heyborne is a bit uneven. At times, such as the moments when Joseph contemplates life’s most imponderable questions, Heyborne’s style is crisp. At other times, he seems lost, lapsing into a monotone that makes the book difficult to follow. Despite these moments, DANGLING MAN provides an opportunity to appreciate Bellow’s masterful writing and commentary. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine
