Scanning through the list of Pulitzer Prize winning novels to look for choice morsels is an interesting experience. Mostly because while I've heard of some of the books and more of the authors, there's plenty on there I've not heard of and the vast majority of them I have no real clue what they're about. And pulling them out of the library when they're being held in storage rather than on the shelves is even more of a lottery because I can't even read the blurb at that point. or know if I'm about to get lumbered with an 800 page doorstop.
What I got this time was Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow. I'd heard of both book and author, but knew essentially nothing about either. I'd guess that, being as it's about a writer and his relationships, not east with the recently deceased Humboldt of the title, there's an element of biography in here somewhere. Furthermore, it's a book about, well, everything. Love and life, art and literature, history and politics, poetry and philosophy, money and business – all the important pairings. Indeed, there are so many references that it reads like the twentieth century viewed through a kaleidoscope of creativity.
And read well it does too, following the narrator's current plights (of which there are several), and ultimately ending the voyage with his friend's gift. The main gift though, to my mind, is that of friendship. It is a testament to enduring relationships and the effects that people can have on each other over prolonged periods of time, through the rough and the smooth. In terms of what happens, well, there's not so much. Action-packed it ain't, but then I wasn't expecting it to be. Instead, it's rich and reflective and, y'know what, that's just fine with me.
Book number: 39
Title: Humboldt's Gift
Author: Saul Bellow
Category: Pulitzer Prize Winners
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