Ravelstein – Saul Bellow (2000)

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

Saul Bellow’s Ravelstein was the Canadian author’s final novel before his death in 2004 and tribute to American philosopher and friend Allan Bloom author of The Closing Of The American Mind. Bellow taught alongside him at the University of Chicago.

On his friend Chick’s insistance, Abe Ravelstein has written a book based on his musings.   After the book becomes a number 1 best-seller, Abe finds himself a millionaire.

Much of Ravelstein consists Abe and Chick engaging in philosophy, politics and their favourite vaudevillian routines. Homosexual Abe, who we soon discover is dying of AIDS, asks Chick to write a biopic of his life as an atheist (and somewhat of a nihilist).  It is Abe’s passage to immortality.

Chick, though constantly teased about his “idealism” holds an unwavering admiration for Abe. Discussing death the best they can imagine is that there are “no more pictures.”

One may claim that Abe is elitist, but his raucous basketball parties – without irony, betray such claims while his lover Nikki defuses the accusations further through his obsessession of Bruce Lee films. Abe too unashamedly courts gossip and fame in his newly begun extravagant lifestyle. At 6ft 6 he's a giant physically as well as intellectually, a cult leader and matchmaker, Abe is as well, fragile and sensitive: human.

The second part of the novel jumps forward to six years after Abe’s death and chronicles Chick’s own brush with mortality, or as he puts it “rehearsal for death.” With the loss of the colourful Abe the book slightly staggers towards the end and occasionally loses rhythm but the mood of the (still) mourning Chick remains appropriate.

Ravelstein is insightful and wonderfully humane, exploring the typical Bellow themes: mortality, friendship and American-Judaism. Perhaps at first glance one may get the impression Ravelstein is a book about two cantankerous elderly gentlemen indulging in candid conversation- and it is, but it's also a loving tribute to a friend.

Saul Bellow

“A human soul devoid of longing was a soul deformed, deprived of its highest good, sick unto death.”

Ghost World – Daniel Clowes (1993-1997)

Serialised in Daniel Clowe’s comic Eightball, Ghost World was released to (generally) positive critical acclaim. Since its 1997 release in graphic novel form it has amassed a large cult following and even spawned a credible movie adaptation.

The novel revolves around the lives of two inseparable, pseudo-intellectual misfits Enid Coleslaw and Rebecca Doppelmayer who have just graduated from high-school. Embracing and mocking the ‘weirdos’ and ‘freaks’ in equal measure they refuse any participation in the conventional and find popular culture passe.

Enid and Rebecca play merciless pranks on the unwitting whilst teasing their secret crush Josh relentlessly. As the story progresses the girls come to realise that maintaining a relationship so intense and intimate into adulthood isn’t possible. Macabre and occasionally misanthropic, Ghost World is darker and more complex than a typical coming-of-age narrative.

The dialogue between the girls in particular is convincing and their cynical teen angst never descends into cliché. Clowes’ says: “I still think in the syntaxes of an inarticulate teenager and that apparently the leap to a female version is not so distant.”

Daniel Clowes self portrait

Daniel Clowes is not just an incredibly talented artist, he is also a skilful story teller and his witty observations of American subcultures stand him apart in his field.

Certainly Ghost World deserves to be thought of within the context of other great modern novels (graphic or otherwise) – indeed this is literature that is emotional, evocative and socially relevant with a heartbreaking yet poignant ending.