{"product_id":"the-life-of-saul-bellow-love-and-strife-19652005","title":"The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife  1965-2005","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen this second volume of The Life of Saul Bellow opens  Bellow  at forty-nine  is at the pinnacle of American letters - rich  famous  critically acclaimed. The expected trajectory is one of decline: volume 1  rise; volume 2  fall. Bellow never fell  producing some of his greatest fiction (Mr Sammlers Planet  Humboldts Gift  all his best stories)  winning two more National Book Awards  a Pulitzer Prize  and the Nobel Prize. At eighty  he wrote his last story; at eighty-five  he wrote Ravelstein. In this volume  his life away from the desk  including his love life  is if anything more dramatic than in volume 1. In the public sphere  he is embroiled in controversy over foreign affairs  race  religion  education  social policy  the state of culture  the fate of the novel.  Bellows relations with women were often fraught. In the 1960s he was compulsively promiscuous (even as he inveighed against sexual liberation). The women he pursued  the ones he married and those with whom he had affairs  were intelligent  attractive and strong-willed. At eighty-five he fathered his fourth child  a daughter  with his fifth wife. His three sons  whom he loved  could be as volatile as he was  and their relations with their father were often troubled.  Although an early and engaged supporter of civil rights  in the second half of his life Bellow was angered by the excesses of Black Power. An opponent of cultural relativism  he exercised great influence in literary and intellectual circles  advising a host of institutes and foundations  helping those he approved of  hindering those of whom he disapproved. In making his case  he could be cutting and rude; he could also be charming  loyal  and funny. Bellows heroic energy and will are clear to the very end of his life. His immense achievement and its cost  to himself and others  are also clear.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44988057321525,"sku":"ByrdShop_110187516X","price":27.67,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781101875162.jpg?v=1770984546","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-life-of-saul-bellow-love-and-strife-19652005","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}