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Ravelstein
- Author
- Saul Bellow
- Narrator
- Richard Poe
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 28 May 2019
- Run Time
- 8 hours 29 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and ferociously—and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has suggested that he put forth a book of his convictions about the ideas which sustain humankind, or kill it, and much to Ravelstein’s own surprise, he does and becomes a millionaire. Ravelstein suggests in turn that Chick write a memoir or a life of him, and during the course of a celebratory trip to Paris the two share thoughts on mortality, philosophy and history, loves and friends, old and new, and vaudeville routines from the remote past. The mood turns more somber once they have returned to the Midwest and Ravelstein succumbs to AIDS and Chick himself nearly dies.
Deeply insightful and always moving, Saul Bellow’s novel is a journey through love and memory. It is brave, dark, and bleakly funny: an elegy to friendship and to lives well (or badly) lived.
Critics Review
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“The magic still sparks and flashes on the page…Masterful in its thoroughness and intricacy…the prose rings as clearly as a meditation bell.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
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“Ravelstein is full of heart and wisdom, and I want to praise it without a pinch of qualification.”
Esquire
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Saul Bellow
- Narrator
- Richard Poe
- Duration
- 8 hours 29 minutes
- Release Date
- 28 May 2019
- ISBN
- 9781982672744
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
Abe Ravelstein is a brilliant professor at a prominent midwestern university and a man who glories in training the movers and shakers of the political world. He has lived grandly and ferociously—and much beyond his means. His close friend Chick has suggested that he put forth a book of his convictions about the ideas which sustain humankind, or kill it, and much to Ravelstein’s own surprise, he does and becomes a millionaire. Ravelstein suggests in turn that Chick write a memoir or a life of him, and during the course of a celebratory trip to Paris the two share thoughts on mortality, philosophy and history, loves and friends, old and new, and vaudeville routines from the remote past. The mood turns more somber once they have returned to the Midwest and Ravelstein succumbs to AIDS and Chick himself nearly dies.Deeply insightful and always moving, Saul Bellow’s novel is a journey through love and memory. It is brave, dark, and bleakly funny: an elegy to friendship and to lives well (or badly) lived.
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