Book description
Dean Corde is a man of position and authority at a Chicago university.
He accompanies his wife to Bucharest where her mother, a celebrated
figure, lies dying in a state hospital. As he tries to help her grapple
with an unfeeling bureaucracy, news filters through to him of problems
left behind in Chicago. A student had been been murdered and Corde had
directed that charges be pressed against two black youths, but
controversy and pressure are mounting against the university
administration. Further, a series of articles written by Corde has
offended influential Chicagoans whom he had counted as friends. Corde is
troubled: at home the centre is not holding firm, in Eastern Europe
authority is cruel and dehumanising. Saul Bellow's dazzling career has
been marked with numerous literary prizes, including the 1976 Nobel
Prize, and the Gold Medal for the Novel. His work includes
Herzog, More Die of Heartbreak, Mosby's Memoirs and Other Stories,
Mr Sammler's Planet, Seize The Day
and the essay To Jerusalem and Back
. He died in 2005.
