Jordan's review
Ravelstein (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by Saul Bellow
Bellow's last novel, this tells the fictionalized story of the philosopher Allan Bloom and the ambiguities and contradictions of his life, a story which in turn illuminates the narrator's account of his own life. The stories don't mesh quite as deftly as Bellow has managed in other novels of this sort, but the portrait of Bloom as viewed through the character of Abe Ravelstein is really compelling.
