The Bellarosa Connection [Paperback]

Saul Bellow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1989

A powerfully compressed exploration of the meaning of memory, The Bellarosa Connection is a masterful novella from a writer whose new work of fiction is further testament to his acclaimed gifts in creativity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Nobel laureate's second trade paperback original (following A Theft ) is a flabby novella that interweaves, and never resolves, two discrete themes. The aging, lonely and nostalgic narrator, a memory specialist, summons from the past the book's story within a story concerning his onetime acquaintance, Jewish refugee Harry Fonstein. Saved from the hands of the Nazis by an Italian underground movement spearheaded by Broadway showman Billy Rose, Fonstein immigrates to America, where he prospers--in business and in his marriage to an obese and brilliant woman. But his obsessive efforts to thank Rose are thwarted by the charismatic yet obnoxious, even deviant personality. Readers who yearn for more on the piquant WW II Bellarosa operation, or on the unsavory doings of Rose, are likewise frustrated by Bellow's characteristic philosophical digressions--savvy but ultimately self-indulgent--on Jewish assimilation in America, memory, friendship and aging: "I couldn't bring myself to go to bed just yet. One does grow weary of taking care of this man-sized doll, the elderly retiree, giving him his pills, pulling on his socks, spooning up his cornflakes, shaving his face, seeing to it that he gets his sleep." 125,000 first printing; $60,000 ad/promo.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 102 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140126864
• ISBN-13: 978-0140126860
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #428,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Saul Bellow won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel HUMBOLDT'S GIFT in 1975, and in 1976 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 'for the human understanding and subtle analysis of contemporary culture that are combined in his work.' He is the only novelist to receive three National Book Awards, for THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH, HERZOG, and MR. SAMMLER'S PLANET

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Direct, with a disconcerting finale. Be prepared to think., May 11, 2002

By 

Rob Shimmin (Urbana, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bellarosa Connection (Paperback)

For most of this novella, Bellow tells a story that appears to be going nowhere. The narrator, the child of Jewish immigrants who has become ionospherically wealthy selling memory-enhancement techniques, recalls two friends he last saw thirty years ago.

The narrator begins to tell the tale of Harry Fonstein, a Jew smuggled out of Fascist Italy by an underground organization financed by the Broadway producer Billy Rose. Rose refuses to hear Fonstein's thanks, and so his life is overshadowed by a cloud of gratitude he is not allowed to express. Until his wife Sorella decides to avenge Rose's treatment of her husband...

and then the narrator stops telling his story, because he hadn't seen the Fonsteins since. The final third of the novella raises difficult questions about memory and the duty to remember. Has the narrator's eidetic memory replaced actual relationship with the people he remembers? Is that memory even accurate? Has he in fact, failed to fulfill the whole point of memory, despite near-perfect recall of the actual facts?

This story lulls you in with an almost colloquial style and simple plot, and then ends that plot to force you to confront how easy it is to fail duties to friends and cultural identity. After its unsophisticated beginning, the final revelation is very disconcerting.