The Victim

How responsible can one person be for the fate of another? Kirby Allbee ("be-all"=Everyman) thinks that Asa Leventhal is to blame for his losing his job, his wife, and his drinking. Allbee appendages himself to Levanthal's life, taking money from him, moving in, opening his mail - even going to Levanthal's apartment to attempt suicide. Both feel victimized by the other (and allow it to continue), and both are victims of the outside oppressive world (Bellow captures perfectly the NYC summer heat that adds to the blanket of oppression). The novel reminded me of Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener," in an inverse way, in Bartleby's refusal to accommodate himself to his employer's wishes while the employer keeps surrendering to Bartleby's passivity; in both novel and story the "innocent" protagonist becomes the victim of the other (and, in a sense, vice-versa). THE VICTIM is one of Saul Bellow's best novels, gripping from beginning to end.

This is the story of Asa Leventhal, a magazine editor living alone one summer in 1940s New York while his wife is away taking care of her widowed mother. One night he is accosted in a park by Kirby Allbee, a slight acquaintance whom he has not seen for several years. The anti-Semitic Allbee has visibly come down in the world, and holds Leventhal responsible. A parallel plot concerns Leventhal's sister-in-law who is alone in Brooklyn with her two sons. While Leventhal's brother pursues business interests in Texas, Leventhal attempts to act as a surrogate father. This is a book about responsibility, community, maturity and Jewish/Christian relations in America. We see Leventhal transformed from an insecure, self-absorbed, blame-shifting individual, to a self-confident and compassionate man of action. There are some deft touches of humor, and the evolving relationship between Allbee and Leventhal is complex and fascinating. I strongly recommend this book.

Bellow's first two novels are apprentice works. In this work he gives signs of the voice to come but has not yet freed himself completely into a voice of his own. Nonetheless the work is an interesting one, a kind of ' double ' of a Dostoevsky work ' on the double theme'. It is also a book about how one can pettily sustain one's own hope by resenting others. An Anglo- Saxon holder of the keys to the kingdom resents the Jewish intruder about to come on to his intellectual turf. This novel echoes Bellow's own experience in being thrust away as an undergraduate from the English Department at Northwestern. The work has flashes of the kind of social criticism and general historical and cultural reflections Bellow would refine to a high art in later works, primarily 'Herzog'. This is not in the first rank of Bellow's books but because it is Bellow it is still an intelligent, probing and stimulating read.

Saul Bellow's novel, The Victim, first got under my skin about fifteen years ago. It is not an easy book to read, but not because it isn't well written or well conceived. The style of writing here is very clean, particularly in comparison to later works by this same author, and the plot is both very simple and very tight, maybe too tight for readers who prefer to luxuriate in a more leisurely unfolding of events. It seems to me that what makes the novel somewhat difficult is Bellow's nearly claustrophobic presentation of Asa Leventhal's character and dilemma. He places his reader so close to his main character that at times the proximity becomes unbearable. But this is what makes The Victim such a compelling read. I can think of no modern American novel I would recommend more highly than this one.

Leventhal is left alone in New York City while his wife visits her mother- alone that is, until Allbee shows up and Leventhal is then forced to suffer guilt for the harm he's done to Allbee...if he's done any harm at all. This novel is an exploration of the concepts of blame and luck. Who is to blame if one's life doesn't fulfill its youthfull promise? Does luck have something to do with success? These and other questions present themselves to us through Leventhal's experiences. Ironically we would like to throw the book away...ignor it, and yet we feel compelled to turn to the next page. Bellow's novel is an American classic because it is true to all human experience while also being true to the Jewish American experince specifically. It attacks one's intellect from various levels simultaneously and refuses to leave us long after we've closed the book.