The Victim by Saul Bellow, winner of The Nobel Prize for Literature, author of Herzog http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/04/herzog-by-saul-bellow-has-redoubtable.html and at least three other novels that are on the lists of best books - 10 out of 10

 

The Victim by Saul Bellow, winner of The Nobel Prize for Literature, author of Herzog

http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/04/herzog-by-saul-bellow-has-redoubtable.html and at least three other novels that are on the lists of best books

10 out of 10

 

 

It is hard to say who The Victim is in this astounding novel, for we have Kirby Allbee who is clearly claiming that spot for himself, but the fact that he approaches Asa Leventhal – arguably the hero, or maybe better said the main character of the saga – and then harasses him throughout the story - oops, would that constitute a transgression on the spoiler alert rule, I mean I have not mentioned what happens and who has falls victim, I was just wondering about that, isn’t it, but maybe some would deduct an outcome…well, don’t, it is all relative, as it has just been emphasized – would make the latter a more likely injured party in this Game People Play, which incidentally is a classic of Psychology, written by wondrous Eric Berne http://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/games-people-play-by-eric-berne.html

 

Asa Leventhal is alone in New York, as his spouse, Mary, has gone to Baltimore to be with her now widowed mother, who has had to sell the house and is in the middle of a difficult transition, and as the man suffers from the absence of his wife, he will have to face…The Victim and this, I just realized is part of the humorous side of this narrative, where the suffering inflicts perhaps more pain on the one he picks on, because he is sure that he had been targeted and made to suffer, even if this is subject to debate and readers will find that Asa had had no intention to harm Kirby, when, during a job interview, he had lost his patience and responded in anger to the man that had the power to offer or deny the position, and because Kirby had recommended him, the boss would boot Allbee and thus the grudge.

In the first part, Asa receives a call from his sister-in-law, Elena, an Italian woman that had married his brother, Max, and she is asking for his urgent help, because one of her two sons is very sick, and her husband is away, working and trying to have all them move out of New York, when Leventhal is going out for this emergency, he hears his boss and the son-in-law discussing his departure and alleged lack of loyalty in anti-Semitic terms, as if ‘this is how they are, they stick to each other’ or words to that effect…

 

Indeed, this is one of the main themes of the saga, if not the most important one, for the antagonism between Asa and Allbee is the result of yet another anti-Semitic stand, and the latter is actually using prejudice, racism and the anti-Semitism that was prevalent – and clearly is in many segments of land in the world alas – to justify his hostility, the position he takes and attributes to Leventhal all manner of thoughts, attitudes, and keeps quoting from the holy texts, to abuse and serve his purpose ‘go forth and multiply’ is just one of the many things he says and he is sure that Asa had wanted to take revenge…

 

Some years back, the two had met at a party, where Allbee had mocked Dan Harkavy, a friend of Asa and a man of Hebrew descent, and showed his anti-Semitism there, and when Leventhal has that outcry of rage during an interview for which Allbee had recommended him, the latter is sure that this was just an orchestrated attempt to take revenge, with the knowledge that the boss would not accept this furious response and in his turn, he would take action against Kirby, who would be let go, if for this or another reason.

We doubt with Leventhal if it was not his drinking that did it, for when we meet him, Allbee is drunk and admits to having a problem with alcohol, if it attributes it to the state he is in, what Asa had done and also, to the death of his wife, who had been killed in a car accident, as she was driven by her brother, during her stay with the parents – Allbee had been separated, his spouse had gone to live with her parents, and he keeps lamenting this aspect, though he uses the money he received from her insurance policy to keep drinking and at one stage, Leventhal finds him with a woman – perhaps a whore, sex worker as we call that today, or just a stranger, it is not clear – in Leventhal’s own apartment.

 

However, it is hard, if not totally wrong to paint the two and other figures in this story with pure white and one hundred percent black, they are in fact complex, and though we loath Allbee for most of the or some time, he has some sides to him that allow for a different perspective, he is a man that has read books (and that is rare today, when seventy million Americans and countless others in different lands worship Absolute Idiots and thus show how limited and primitive they are…this is placed strategically here, where few, if any reach, since if placed in the first lines, there is still a [slim] chance that somebody will read it form that camp, and then enter a rage and comment on it…it has happened twice anyway) his pain at having lost his spouse seems genuine, he is near the bottom and then we now know that alcoholism is an addiction and a disease, which must be cured and not despised…

Asa Leventhal has made a mistake during his interview, but that has been a period in his life when he was very angry and frustrated, he lived on the edge, looking for a job in desperate circumstances, when it looked like he could face destitution as a pauper, and the fact that his clash would lead to the sacking of The Victim was not intentional, but still, even if accidentally, we could argue that he was responsible at least to some extent to what would happen to Allbee, and he would pay for it, because the latter shows up to confront the man he accuses of his whole ordeal, and though this is total nonsense, he would insist on retribution http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Eventually, Kirby would take money from Asa, and would come to live in his apartment, while the spouse is away and transform it into a pig sty almost, for he leaves it very dirty and he may even try the ultimate punishment against his host, who would slowly give in, trying to offer some compensation for his act, coming to terms with the fact that without knowing it, he had hurt the man who is harassing and abusing him, The Victim changes places with the one that had harmed him and we are challenged by this narrative where we see one and then the other showing vulnerability, attracting sympathy, only to change and then show a darker side

 

http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world