The Actual

National Review, July 28, 1997 by Mitt Beauchesne

The Actual, by Saul Bellow (Viking, 117 pp., $17.95)

Saul Bellow's latest chronicles the forty-year obsession of the sixtyish "misfit" Harry with his sweetheart, Amy; the tale's dramatic action, such as it is, lopes around the exhumation of Amy's evil ex-husband. To the extent that this story works at all, it does so only because it has been written by Saul Bellow. Readers will be inclined to forgive its flaws--weak characterization, stilted dialogue, occasional mawkishness, overall sketchiness--and praise its intermittent poignant insights about love, fate, and stupid decisions. There are also scattered good lines ("I myself seemed to be doing an idiotic thing in looking for signs of highest ability in human types evidently devoted to being barren"). I'll take a middle ground: I doubt that anyone will find that The Actual matches the greatness of The Adventures of Augie March, but admirers are not likely to be sorry they read it. And at 117 pages, it shouldn't take long.