Moses E. Herzog, suffering from the breakup of his second marriage, responds to his personal crisis by writing a series of letters never to be sent, examining his life and times and asking "the piercing questions."
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Moses E. Herzog, suffering from the breakup of his second marriage, responds to his personal crisis by writing a series of letters never to be sent, examining his life and times and asking "the piercing questions."
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I read Saul Bellow's National Book Award winning novel "Herzog" in the mid-1970s. I was in my mid-20s, had my first legal job, and wanted to keep my mind active beyond the practice of law. I remember the book appealed to me in its mix of lengthy philosophical reflection by its protagonist, Moses Herzog, together with Herzog's difficulty with sexuality.
After a long time of wanting to reread "Herzog", I took the opportunity to do so presented by staying at home through the pandemic. The novel requires time to read as well as more experience than I had nearly 50 years ago.
With its cerebral character and focus on one individual, the 47 year old Moses Herzog, the audience for this novel would appear to be limited. One can understand the appeal of the book to a certain stereotype of non-practicing educated American Jewish men, but it is valuable to see how Herzog's story, set in 1964, and his what today are called "issues" have broader interest. In an early scene in the book, Herzog visits an elderly doctor for a physical, in large part to seek some reassurance about his mental state. (He also has consulted a psychiatrist). In a succinct reflection, discussing with the doctor his wife's betrayal, Herzog meditates on his divided self: "A strange heart. I myself can't account for it." The division pervades Herzog's story.
The book tells the story of a twice divorced academic and intellectual who has been cuckolded in a most humiliating way by his second wife and by his apparent best friend. Herzog from his youth has been a ladies man, dependent on sex and on the approval of women in his many relationships. He is devastated by the loss of his lovely, sexy, educated, but cold and domineering second wife. A highly introspective man, Herzog explores in the course of the short period of time in which this story takes place the nature of his many relationships with women. With all his intellect, Herzog knows that the physicality of a woman, her shape, her breasts, is important to him. He says of his lover, Ramona, who comes to play a large and positive role in the story.
"She was short but had a full, substantial figure, a good round seat, firm breasts (all these things mattered to Herzog; he might think himself a moralist but the shape of a woman's breasts mattered greatly). Ramona was unsure of her chin but had confidence in her lovely throat, and so she held her head fairly high. She walked with quick efficiency, rapping her heels in energetic Castilian style. Herzog was intoxicated by this clatter. She entered a room provocatively, swaggering slightly, one hand touching her thigh, as though she carried a knife in her garter belt.'
Together with Herzog's sexual experiences and urges and his interest in the sexuality and bodies of women -- which are described more sympathetically and candidly than they might be today--, the book concentrates on the protagonist's intellectual life. The author of a well-received book on Christianity and Romanticism, Herzog's academic productivity has come to a halt. Herzog uses his formidable intellect and reading to write letters to people, both famous and from his own life, which he never mails. The letters raise without resolving many issues including the nature of the self, the nature of American life, the tendency of intellectuals to denigrate the United States, and the need to find peace and meaning in life. The fame of this book is due in large part to Herzog's inveterate writing and accompanying brooding.
The writing and scenes of the book also combine intellect and thought with street-wise colloquial writing in a way that mirrors Herzog himself. The book works because of its dense, closely-observed texture. It has settings in New York City, Chicago, and a small rural area in the Berkshires, which reminded me of the homes of Hawthorne and Melville. The acute observations and the detailed writing about places, streets, and people throughout this book are as important to the story as are the letter writing and reflection. Herzog and Bellow have an eye for their surroundings and an exuberance in their depiction.
Herzog is at one and the same time a neurotically comical character, a man dependent on sexuality and on women, and a person who somehow tries to rise above it all in the search for wisdom. The book explores the tension in these characteristics and creates an inimitable individual. Moses Herzog tries to work to a degree of peace which allows him to live and to accept life and to come to terms with his intellect and with his physicality.
I was glad to have the opportunity to get to know Moses Herzog better by revisiting his story and by thinking with greater understanding than I may have had years ago about both the demons and the ideals which drove him.
