Page 10
Daily Ncbraskan
Tuesday, March 16, 1982
Aits & Entertammeint
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Brilliant mind of author Saul Bellow
overcomes wordiness of latest novel
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By David Wood
77c Dean 's DecemberSaul Mellow Harper A Row
Saul Bellow won a Nobel Prize in 1976 for his earn
est world view, not for his style. His realities aren't the
work of incisive vision so much as they're born from sheer
bulk of reflection. To win his arguments, Bellow doesn't
wheedle; he browbeats. He has little use for subtlety.
So when The Dean's December, Bellow's latest novel of
hope and fear, ends inside the Mount Palomar observa-
Hfc Book
Review
Photo courtesy Harper & Row
tory, the symbolism is obvious to any reader of the 312
pages of demanding, unadorned prose.
Like space itself, the observatory is huge, empty and
cold. One looks through the eye of the telescope, through
atmospheric distortion, to study the stuff of cosmic exis
tence. The mind of Dean Albert Corde, the latest in a long
line of brooding ponderers found in Bellow's books, simi
larly uses telescopic vision in his quest for universal con
stants. Lxcept for the last chapter, set at Palomar in mid
January, the other chapters of The Dean's December arc
Cityscape
i x i ... -
"My mother always told me I should work in a zoo, "Kim Meyer said. "I
was always dragging animals home. "
Meyer, 28, has been an attendant at the Ager Memorial Zoo for eight and a
half years. She still brings animals home, but she's learned some liard lessons
from the animals at the zoo.
"Baby animals are always cute but they grow up and wild animals don 't
make good pets, "Meyer said.
Meyer said she has developed a good working relationship with the animals
over the years, but she realizes people never can develop a true friendship
with wild animals.
The actions of some zoo visitors upset Meyer.
"People will tap on the glass, wave their arms, flash mirrors and then
complain that the animals are asleep, "she said. I wish more people would
come to learn rather than to be entertained. "
Meyer said she loves her fob at the zoo. But as for her mother:
"Now that I am working at the zoo, she wants me to be a CPA. "
By Pat Kovanda
set in cither Chicago or Bucharest. It's not a talc of two
cities, however. Hast and West are the same wolf in differ
ent clothing.
The book is based largely on a trip Bellow and his wife
made to Bucharest a few years ago to visist the wife's dy
ing mother. The 66-year-old novelist's fourth wife is a Romanian-horn
mathematician at Northwestern University.
Dean Corde's wife, Minna, is a Romanian-born astrono
mer. Bellow's mouthpiece t
But The Dean's December isn't about the throes of
marriage, as were Henderson the Rain King, llcnog or
Humboldt's Gift. Rather, the latest novel is more along
the lines of his controversial Mr. Sammler's Planet, a
mouthpiece for Bellow's harsh nihilism.
"At home, in the West, it's different," Corde says in
regard to the governmental maintenance of society.
"America is never going to take an open position on the
pain level. A lender liberal has to find soft ways to institu
tionalize harshness and smooth it over compatibly with
progress.
"So that with us when people arc merciless, when they
kill, we explain that it's because they're disadvantaged, or
have lead poisoning, or come from a backward section of
the country, or need psychological treatment."
Corde opines with typical hopelessness, "I don't think
you can be managerial and noble at the same time." "Der
elict civilization," "crisis." "catastrophe" and "apoco
lypse" are words he often uses.
The dean not only has a telescopic mentality, he also
has the power of total recall. While meeting problems in
the communist city, ho suffers massive flashbacks to prob
lems with the meritocracy at his university. Corde is dean
of the journalism school and left problems hanging when
he flew out of Chicago.
Moral dilemmas
A list of Corde's moral dilemmas is as long and dense
with earth tones as is a list of the characters who are pas
sengers with him on the short-haul train to death. As the
dean observes, "Destruction and resurrection arc alternate
beats of life, but speed makes them seem continuous."
Acts of violence upon human spirit banal scenes
Corde remembers in bleak detail - goad his restless, hy
peractive social conscience. The brunt of The Dean's De
cember is about the struggle to attain an appropriate atti
tude. "lie tried to outline creatively the right way to appre
hend public questions," Bellow writes of the dean, or of
himself. "I'verything moved him, came back to him amp
lified, disproportionate, moved him too much, reached
him too loudly, was accompanied by overtones of anger."
Bellow is best at shoving philosophic stances into liv
ing and breathing bodily sensation. Empathizing with the
sanguid old soothsayer, Corde, can be difficult, and the
hard prose can make the book easy to put down. But de
spite the book's verbosity. Bellow's keen eye and brilliant
mind shine throughout.
Though the reader may miss a few of the novelist's ten
uous vines, the seething jungle Bellow beholds, the primal
ity of existence, comes through loud and clear.
Renaissance Fair
presented by UPC
The Arts Committee of the Universtiy Program Council
is sponsoring "Rennaissance Fair - A Week of Classical
Kvents." a series of performances and demonstrations in
public areas in and around the Nebraska Union this week.
Mime Dorman Nelson performed in the union's Main
Lounge Monday afternoon.
The schedule of events for today through Thursday is
as follows:
Today, a fencing demonstration will be from noon to
2 pjn. At 1:30 pjii., an archery demonstration will be
gin in the Main Lounge. Classical sineer Steve Nazarenus
will appear in the South Crib from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday, there will be a glass-staining demonstration
in the Main Lounge at 1:30 pjn. Classical guitarist John
Gardner will perform in the South Crib from 2:30 pm.
to3:30pjn. 1
Mozart on Fifth will perform in the Nebraska Union
from 1:30 pjri. to 3 pjn. Thursday, and at the Last Un
ion at 4:30 pjii. Also that afternoon, harpist Margaret
Nelson will perform in the South Crib at 3 p.m. The Lin
coln Folk Dancers will perform in the Main Lounee at 7
p.m. Thursday.
All events are free to the public.
