Customer Reviews

A Theft

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This novella is so beautifully written, I stopped after about twenty pages and re-read from the start to savor the writing. Bellow is so good at describing everyday people and things while subtly showing the bigger picture simultaneously...

"A Theft" is kind of a throwaway in Bellow's mighty cannon. Just over one hundred pages long, the book drops you into the High Society world of Clara, who has married four times and is still fond of her first love, who gave her an emerald ring. She gets her strength from this ring, which she loses once, but then recovers, only to have it stolen. Unfortunately, it takes 60 pages to get to the theft, and that first section is little more than monotonous pining over how bad life is for Clara, whom you never feel much for, anyway. But the theft introduces you further to the nanny, Gina, who is a brilliant character. Whenever Bellow concentrates on her deep and interesting problems, the book picks up pace. The final confrontation between Gina and Clara, (Clara believes that Gina's boyfriend, Frederic stole the ring) is so good it makes you wonder just what Bellow could have done if he'd applied this kind of passion to the rest of the book. Not bad, but really for Bellow-collectors only

Born near Montreal in 1915, Bellow is thought of as a Chicago writer who wrote about life in urban America. His novels feature smooth flowing prose and he won a Nobel Prize in 1976. He hit his peak as a writer between "Augie March" in 1953 and the Pulitzer novel "Humbolt's Gift" in 1973. He wrote from the early 1940s through to 2000. I read 12 of his 13 novels, plus short stories plus this 109 page novella.

When he taught in 1938, he used a reading list which included: Lawrence, Dostoevsky, Dreiser, Joyce, and Flaubert. They were pioneers in realism. Realism became a feature of his novels, and that includes the way in which he treats subjects such as sex, life, death, and the search for self.

All of that is missing here and if anyone thinks this weak 109 page novella from 1989 is a good introduction to the master and Nobel Prize winner they are dead wrong. This is a slow starting novel. Overall it is a weak effort with not much of a finish after 109 pages. At best one is left scratching their head: what is it about? What was the point here? Did I miss something? I went back and read the last 10 pages twice. No you missed nothing. There is not much there.

As a point of reference compare it to The Actual, a similar novella by Bellow. The Actual, which itself is a weaker effort by Bellow, is at least twice as good as A Theft, i.e: it has a good story, interesting characters, some human emotion, etc.

No, this is not Bellow's best nor is it a good introduction to Bellow. It is weak, very, very weak. This book is not to be confused with the best of Saul Bellow or even his average works that he did decades earlier. For example, read Bellow's Herzog written 30 years before and be blown away by excellent writing, the time shifting, the overlays of plots, the multi-layered plot, the stunning prose, and innovation in literature, etc. There is no comparison.

The readers have given an average review rating here of only three stars, somewhat shocking for Bellow, and that pretty well is on the mark compared to his body of work. Neutral to negative recommendation: 3 stars.

For those new to Bellow try these: Humboldt's Gift (Penguin Classics) 1975 Pulitzer Prize, or Herzog (complicated), 1964 National Book Prize, or Ravelstein,for something written when he was older, or the novella The Actual, or his Collected Stories.

I came across this old book on the shelves of my local public library "Books for Sale" area. From the moment I saw it, it was a novella that I wanted to read, since I have not read Saul Bellow's books for a while. What a pleasant suprise this book has been. Main character is middle aged Clara in her forties, executive in the NYC fashion magazine, woman in her fourth marriage that produced three daughters. It seems that Clara's successful professional life is in complete contrast with her personal life. All of her past husbands were either boring or self indulgent and the man she wanted most in her life is out of reach. Her only connection to him is the emerald ring he gave her 20 years ago in her forced attempt to get engaged to him; their enduring long distance friendship (he lives in Washington, DC while she is in NYC) and her sessions shared between a female friend confidante and a psychotherapist. As we observe Clara, we realize that she is detached from her reality -- we barely learn about her work; we know nothing about her relationship with her daughters since they are conveniently taken care of by the nannies and other house help. Clara's musings on her life dwell on her past and herself and she projects all of her intense feelings on the object of her desire -- the emerald ring. In the course of the novella this object gets lost twice. Each time, the object is found. In every one of these instances, Clara learns a little bit about herself that neither her long time friends, nor her psychiatrist manage to discover in the years that she has been sharing her intimate feelings with them. This is a multi-layered novella and the beauty of it is that in she short 100 pages, Bellow has managed to put so much in. The book will keep you thinking for a long, long time. Great read about one's relfection, alientation and meaning of life.

Having read some of the other reviews, I have gathered that this was not the best book to introduce the reader to Saul Bellow. Unfortunately, this is my first attempt at reading Bellow. At the very beginning, I was very impressed with his vivid description of people and their situations. However, some 20-30 pages into the book I began to wonder when the descriptions would end and some kind of story would begin. Perhaps I am just not used to Bellow's style of narrative, but I found this one very hard to get through, despite its very short length. Somewhere down the line I may attempt to read more by Bellow, but at this point it's not real high on my list of priorities.

The negative reviews here are a surprise, given that "A Theft", one of Mr. Bellow's later short books, is a very fine portrait of contemporary NYC, viewed from an a much married Lady Fashion Mag Exec mother of 3 daughters, who has recently hired an Austrian Au Pair. The young Viennese becomes almost a fourth daughter until the title "Theft" leaves many questions for many of the characters to answer. Simply put, a beautifully done, realistic tale without some of the author's often overdone intellectualizing and denseness. So if you're new to Saul Bellow, this may be as good a place as any to start.

After wading through 30-40 pages of this...thing...I did not set it aside lightly; I threw it with great force. Granted, this was my first foray into Bellow, but I can't help but think that, if not for the name on the cover, this piece of self-indulgent crap would never have been published. Or maybe an editor would have had the guts to actually edit out the pages and pages and pages of Bellow being in love with the sound of his own voice.

This 1989 work is a good introduction to the style of writing that Saul Bellow became famous for. It is a light-hearted story of intrigue mixed with heart-warming characters who are so vividly portrayed. For the uninitiated this is a good beginning for those who would dare to read more by Bellow. If you like this you will love Herzog and Humbolt's Gift. If not, it is my guess that neither of these works would be a satisfying read and even difficult to finish.

It's hard to imagine Saul Bellow writing a book that has so little content, thought or activity. This novella is kind of like Gertrude Stein's description of Oakland: "There's no there there."

The protagonist of the novella (Clara) is a highly successful career woman in NYC. She moved to New York after a top-notch education, but she retained the sensibility of a hick town in Indiana. That grounded Indiana sensitivity allegedly helped Clara to carve out great success in publishing while going through four husbands and an untold number of affairs. The one true love of her life is a high-powered Washington, DC, political operative and consultant, but she's trapped in a loveless marriage with a ne'er do well husband. She has three young daughters on whom she dotes...when her many professional obligations leave her time.

The action in the book centers around Clara's loss, twice of a valuable emerald ring that the love of her life gave her as an engagement ring, though they never married. Her world is thrown off-kilter when the ring is lost, especially the second time, when she blames her au pair and the au pair's Haitian boyfriend. Clara is already in contact with her former lover, but the ring brings those thoughts to the surface, and she has to confront the reality they they will never be together, except as deepest friends.

The problem is that Clara isn't sympathetic in any way. She's smart, talented, and rich, but all of that seems like a facade. Only the lover Teddy seems to really appreciate it. None of the four husbands seemed to notice.

On the other hand, Clara isn't a comic character, either. It's clear that Bellow wants her to be taken seriously, not laughed at. Yet, her situation is so cliched that it feels as if it should be laughed at.

Anyway, Clara's epiphany comes through a late conversation with the au pair whom was accused of accidentally facilating the theft. How the au pair became so thoughtful and smart is a mystery to Clara and to the reader. But somehow, the reader is told to think that the 15-minute talk they have over drinks on the night the au pair is flying back home to Vienna is the emotional breakthrough that Clara needs. Just not convincing in any way.

This book tells a fine story, but HOW it tells it is unsatisfying.

Some of the principal characters are unconvincing. Clara, the protagonist, was supposed to have a bit of country rube in her, but I never saw it come through. Ithiel, Clara's great love, was supposed to be the greatest political analyst of the century, which I also never saw come through.

What's more, the rest of the principal characters have no real presence. As the story unfolds, Clara's admirable au pair, Gina, gets caught up with an unsavory Harlemite, Frederic. Fred never speaks a line, and Clara speaks few lines of consequence until the last few pages. And thus the problem: the story, as told, gives us little reason to admire Gina and no reason to suspect Frederic of the titular Theft, except that Fred is poor and Haitian. (On the night of the theft, a number of crackheads whom Clara could never track down are also in the house, but, conveniently, the one person with a link to Clara and the one person Clara actually suspects turns out to have stolen the ring.)

All this weak characterization cripples the second half of the book, which consists mainly of Clara fretting over Gina's fate. Gina, you see, has taken up with Frederic in Harlem. It's never clear what makes it so special that a newcomer to NYC ends up in a run-down apartment in a poor neighborhood. The easy answer is that Gina is special *to Clara*, who is exceptionally devoted to her friends, but Clara's friendship with Gina is sketched so lightly that, beyond it being hard to believe in, there is nothing to believe. By the end, the happy outcome of Gina's slum romp seems to be that she has become a proper brusque New Yorker.

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The interesting thing about this book is that all the apparent weakness makes sense stylistically. Clara talks at people constantly; she is hugely disconnected from her child, husband, love, and friend. Much of the content of the book is Clara talking at her friend and at her psychologist, neither of whom say anything of substance in return. Clara tells herself how much she values her child Lucy, but Lucy never enters the action directly and never says anything. The book is written from Clara's perspective, and Clara's perspective is largely disconnected from those nominally "close" to her.

In this sense, the unsatisfying style of the book is fitting. When Gina derides Frederic as "lewd", an insult for which the reader has witnessed no evidence, it is not so much weak storytelling (explaining instead of showing) as the habit of a powerful, aged woman to object to what the young people are doing these days. Most of the apparently baseless feelings of Clara can be put down to the intuition of a character (like any other) with a subjective worldview.

I should also add that the book has a few points of brilliance. It treats identity and communication very insightfully. It delivers a useful criticism of psychotherapy, at least as the practice existed back then. Bellow's words flow beautifully, and he keeps us just as aware as we should be of time slipping back and forth in Clara's mind. Ultimately the book reminded me of The Club of Queer Trades by GK Chesterton, because both books are superficially unsatisfying as a result of their deep stylistic commitments. Unfortunately, with 'A Theft', the weak parts of the book become plausible in light of Clara's perspective, but they don't become compelling. In this book, many moments of drama caught me off guard, because I didn't realize I had been given anything to care about. I would recommend the book to other readers only if they want to read the story of a woman who can't tell the story of herself because she's stopped noticing it. If it makes sense to speak of a well told untold story, this is one.