While the anonymous author sat in back of the class, discreetly silent, the twenty or so students discussed the story a little severely until Bellow took his turn—a cherished moment preserved in The Ghost Writer, where Bellow appears in the thin disguise of Felix Abravanel, who defends Nathan Zuckerman’s story (“largely with his laugh”) against the “orthodox Forsterites” who think its characters lack the “round” quality prescribed by Aspects of the Novel.
