Humboldt’s Gift
by Saul Bellow
Buy on Amazon'I think it A Work of genius, I think it The Work of a Genius' John Cheever For many years, the great poet Von Humboldt Fleisher and Charlie Citrine, a young man inflamed with a love for literature, were the best of friends. At the time of his death, however, Humboldt is a failure, and Charlie's life has reached a low point: his career is at a standstill, and he's enmeshed in an acrimonious divorce, infatuated with a highly unsuitable young woman and involved with a neurotic mafioso. And then Humboldt acts from beyond the grave, bestowing upon Charlie an unexpected legacy that may just help him turn his life around.
Recommended by
"I read “Humboldt” again a few months ago, and I was amazed by how clearly I remembered it. Nobody writes like that anymore — maybe Michael Chabon."
By the Book: Ann Patchett · nytimes.com
"I was obsessed with his work in my 20s, with the glamour and burnish of his lines and with his knack, in a novel like Humboldt's Gift, for writing about lowlifes in the high style."
By the Book: Kevin Barry · nytimes.com
"“Humboldt’s Gift,” by Saul Bellow, which seems to be on the night stand more or less permanently."
By the Book: Salman Rushdie · nytimes.com