“Wake up! What’s life? Metabolism? That’s what it is for the bugs. Jesus Christ, no! What’s life? Consciousness, that’s what it is. That’s what you’re short on. For God’s sake, give yourself a push and a shake.” – Harkavy, pg 214
My efforts to read took a hit the last 2 or so months. You may know I spent the entirety of June traveling: 2 weeks in the UK, 2 weeks in Norway-Plenty of time to read on planes, trains, quiet times here and there, but not so easy to relax when I returned home.
Shit got real, so to speak. In February I decided I would join my girlfriend-Anywhere-were she to be accepted by one of graduate programs she applied to. (There was no doubt in my mind would be.) I put my house on the market, began packing this and selling that. Mentally, I prepared myself to look for work come summertime.
As June (and the aforementioned vacation) approached, my house was under contract*. We planned to close while I was away. That meant (1) before leaving I would move out of my house, and (2) identify a temporary place to live upon my returns, among other things.
* For the second time, but that’s another story.
For 1, I moved everything into a 10×20 storage unit. For 2, fortunately for me, my dear friends Lauren and Carl recently moved back to town from Boston and volunteered a spare room in their apartment-I “moved in”* with them the weekend before my vacation, then “moved back in”** when I returned.
*,** Liberal used of the words.
I can’t remember the chronology, but (needless to say?) the girlfriend was accepted to both programs she applied to (UNC, Johns Hopkins)-we would move to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for the Fall semester. When we returned from vacation, my #1 concern shifted from “housing” to “employment”; I needed to find work in Chapel Hill.
I picked up a book several times during the month of July. The only one I succeeded in engaging myself in was a graphic novel called “War: The Human Cost,” which I picked up at the Nobel Peace Center. It was an anthology of art from around the world-All commentaries on the ethics of war and violence. Some were 1 page, some were (I’m guessing) 20 pages; for that reason, the book was easy for me to digest.
I think my difficulty reading (focusing,consuming, digesting) traditional books is easy enough to understand: I was preoccupied with other, and more consequential, things. Could I rationalize spending 2 hours reading over 2 hours searching for work?
Well, yes, theoretically; I could…
But practically I could not. If I was to use my brain for some purpose, it would be to look for work. If not looking for work, I would only do “brainless things”-e.g. sleeping, or I started watching Oz* at some point.
* Good show. It’s unfair to call it “brainless.” I think by “brainless” I mean “something I didn’t mind if I fully absorbed”-less a commentary on the show than my commitment to it. In fact, it’s a show where it’s very likely you’ll miss something if you look away. In fact, if you look away, it’s very likely someone will die. For instance, in a moment of “looking away,” I missed Beecher bit off the tip of Robson’s wiener.
Anyway, here I am, about 2 months since I returned from vacation, writing in the living room of my apartment in Carrboro, North Carolina. Last week was my first week working at my new gig, located about 15 minutes away by car from the apartment.
Since moving in 7 days ago I have read 2 books-The Victim, by Saul Bellow, and When She Was Good, by Philip Roth.
There are some similarities, some superficial, some more nuanced. For instance, principal characters in both are (1) not very confident, and very self-conscious, and (2) in uneasy situations at work (Asa in the Victim; Roy in When She Was Good). “(2)” is not a paramount, but perhaps on my mind considering previous paragraphs; I am aware what (feelings of) desperation, particularly work-related, can do to a man-Their capacity to unlock heretofore unknown qualities (i.e. uncharacteristic, unexpected… undesired). Both books climax with those characters being pushed too far, even bullied, to the point of taking an uncomfortable action. Simply put, in The Victim, Asa must kick a man (a mooch) out of his house; in When She Was Good, Roy must decide to separate from Lucy. Neither conclusion was particularly gratifying.
Characters in each book also share another important similarity: Asa (The Victim) and Lucy (When She Was Good) are preoccupied by suspicions about how their acquaintances feel about them. They project their insecurities upon their relationships-Asa, his Jewish heritage; Lucy, her “loser” father. What I mean is: Asa often thinks the way an acquaintance treats him has something to do with the fact he is Jewish. (For better or for worse.) To Asa it is as if the acquaintances think of Asa as not as “my friend,” but as “my Jewish friend.” Accordingly, they treat him as “a Jewish friend,” not “a friend,” whatever that means practically.
Then so too with Lucy-she’s not “my friend,” but “my friend whose mom is a loser who enables her drunk father.” Incidentally, the primary antagonists of both Asa and Lucy tend toward alcoholism; both project alcoholism upon every interaction they have with their antagonists, and upon knowledge acquired about them.
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At this point I’ll focus only on The Victim, which was the second book by Bellow I have read-The first was Mr. Sammler’s Planet.
In a sentence or 2, The Victim is about Asa Leventhal, a man who is manipulated to believe he ruined another man’s life and, therefore, is beholden to him. Asa, Kirby Allbee tells him, caused Allbee to lose his job, which caused him to lose his wife. Basically, Asa ruined his life.
The book begins similarly to Focus, wherein a Jewish protagonist* is established as an “average guy” who is in a precarious position at work because (1) he is Jewish and (2) the manager/owner is prejudiced toward Jewish people. When Leventhal leaves the office early today to check in on his sister-in-law who called, hysterical, worried about the health of her infant son, his manager mutters “Takes unfair advantage. Like the rest of his brethren. I’ve never known one who wouldn’t. Always please themselves first” (pg 11). (Yup, taking care of the family is a uniquely Jewish attribute. Another character makes a similar comment later on.)
* In Focus, the protagonist is not actually Jewish, but I argue he may as well be Jewish-because prejudiced individuals treat him like a Jewish person, and he suffers as Jewish people do.
Later that night, after the frantic sister-in-law and anti-Semitic boss put Asa on edge, he encounters Allbee for the first time in years-long since he allegedly ruined Allbee’s life. Allbee presents himself as an aggressor. He appears in a dark alley. Before recognizing Allbee, Leventhal is worried he’ll be mugged (pg 29). Fortunately, the two just talk.
The conversations between Asa and Allbee are excellently written-The tension between the two, the point and counterpoint, the misinformation and omission, the discovery of deception. For example, when Allbee says “I’m sorry” after learning Allbee’s wife has died, Allbee replies “So you should be,” as if Asa has played some part in her death (pg 64). But upon further probing, Asa learns (1) she died several years ago in a car accident, and (2) they were divorced years before that. Still awful, still potentially a source of misery for Allbee, but his means of presenting the information intended to misinform Asa.
Bellow also contrives several excellent coincidences to establish, or prevent the establishment of, Allbee’s trustworthiness. For instance, when Allbee first accosts Asa in the aforementioned “dark alley,” he tells Asa he left Asa a note to meet him at that location, at that time. Asa (and the reader) have no knowledge of such a note; we think he is lying to soften an otherwise alarming encounter. However, as it turns out, he had left a note after all-Asa had not yet seen it (pg 34).
It also turns out, Asa learns, he may truly have had something to do with Allbee losing his job. At least, that is what one of Asa’s better-connected acquaintances, Williston, thinks (pg 98). The story is… Allbee got Asa, who was out of work at the time, an introduction to his employer… It did not go well… The employer disrespected Asa… Asa lost his temper… “A spell had been created, an atmosphere of infliction and injury from which neither could withdraw” (pg 39-42)… Neither withdrew…
It was bad, and Allbee may have been a casualty. The possibility, if not the fact, rocks Asa’s world.
This epiphany, in a sense, is a loose thread that causes Asa’s world to unravel. He begins to wonder: If he could be so wrong-or so naive or oblivious-about causing this trouble for Allbee, what else could he not know? He empathizes more with Allbee, offers him a place to stay. Although the relationship is always constantly very strained, he becomes vulnerable to Allbee’s misinformation and, interestingly, turns against his friends for the small parts they played in this universe where he has been cast as a villain.
Adding to the drama, Allbee believes not just that Asa got him fired, but that Asa intentionally got him fired. Asa is incredulous about the claim. Why would he do that? He rationalizes that, maybe, Allbee thought it was payback for anti-Semitic remarks he made at a party. What else could it be?
But he doesn’t stop there. He starts to wonder how else the fact that he is Jewish could be informing his experiences, unbeknownst to him. To Williston, who suggests Asa may truly be responsible for Allbee getting canned, Asa says “If you believe I did it on purpose, to get even, then it’s not only because I’m terrible personally, but because I’m a Jew” (pg 98); “You think that he burned me up and I wanted to get him in bad. Why? Because I’m a Jew; Jews are touchy, and if you hurt them they won’t forgive you. That’s the pound of flesh” (my italics) (pg 99). The italicized line is another reference to “Jews take care of Jews.” Echoes of Asa’s boss. Echoes Allbee’s later sentiment: “You people take care of yourselves before everything” (pg 123). At some point Asa hears enough of this; he interjects: “I don’t see how you can talk that way. That’s just talk. Millions of us have been killed. What about that?”
(I should mention, Williston gives zero impression of anti-Semitism; Asa seems as loco to him as Allbee seems to Asa.)
Despite the erratic turn Asa takes while under Allbee’s influence, his friends stand by him. One, Harkavy, really lays into him at some point and tells him he needs to get rid of Allbee-Get him out of the house, tell figure his own life out, stop talking to him. And ultimately, and somewhat anticlimactically, that is what happens.
The resolution of the story’s conflict is not extraordinary. The final chapter, a sort of postscript (takes place a little later), adds little value. So, upon finishing the book I felt some disappointment. I had to think about whether or not I liked the book; I hadn’t made up my mind.
Upon further reflection, I recognized some undertones which could have been developed into more potent themes. For instance, inequality-The distribution of fortune and misfortune. While considering Allbee’s position, Asa once contemplates: “In a general way, anyone could see that there was a great unfairness in one man’s having all the comforts of life while another had nothing” (pg 69). It doesn’t take a philosopher to acknowledge, and to consider such a thing. Nor to invent an explanation. Characters in The Victim grasp at various explanations-luck (pg 158), conspiracies like blacklists, or the “Jewish setup” (pg 213)-But Bellow does not develop the theme much.
Another underlying theme in The Victim, which is related to inequality, is success, especially as it is measured by professional metrics. Asa describes his experience as a man between jobs-how humbling, or worse, dispiriting it can be. Of the meeting wherein he lost his cool (and lost Allbee’s job), we are told: “He came away from that meeting fearing fear that he lowest price he put on himself was too high and he could scarcely understand why anyone should want to pay for his services” (pg 102). But worse, it is exceedingly difficult (for Asa, for me) to distinguish between the monetary value of one’s services and the theoretical value of one’s self worth-e.g. value as a man who provides for himself and his family. It seems the former inextricably feeds the latter. Asa describes his feeling about the same meeting to a friend:
“You go to see a man about work. It isn’t only the job but your right to live. Say it isn’t his lookout; he’s got his own interests. But you think you’ve got something he can use. You’re there to sell yourself to him. Well, then he tells you you haven’t got a goddam thing. Not only what he wants, but nothing. Christ, nobody wants to be cut down like that” (my emphasis in bold) (pg 101).
This theme is particularly close to me at the present time. Maybe you gleaned that from the introduction to this essay. Success-Does it take a certain “type”? What does it look like? What does it feel like? Does one know when one is successful? Asa considers, “Some men behaved as though they had a horse under them and went through life at a gallop. Or thought they could, at any rate. He was not that way” (pg 37). What about me? Have I galloped to Chapel Hill, or was it a slow trot? From whose perspective?
(In any case, I made it.)
Ultimately those questions don’t matter so much. Picking at the nuances, like scabs, is interesting-even ineluctable-but ultimately the bottom line is whether you and the fam feel good, or even OK. Even the question of whether the fam is fretting about the bills is secondary.
To illustrate the deconstructive power of nuance, consider Asa’s contemplation of the correlation between helping a man v. liking a man:
“You might help a man because he was a bother to you and you wanted to get rid of him. You might do it because you disliked him unfairly and wanted to pay for your prejudice and then, feeling that you were paid, and free and even entitled to detest him” (pg 82).
Should anything be gleaned about a person who helps someone? Can we not assume one helps a man because on likes him, or because helping people feels good. Should we really consider all of the possibilities? How overwhelming.
Often the nuances don’t matter, or they matter little. But they begin to matter… More and more… Then more… When an individual is self-conscious, and searching for meaning. The search for meaning can, sometimes, amount to “looking for trouble.” Asa expands his search for meaning far beyond the space and time of the meeting wherein his obligation to Allbee allegedly derives, and finds plenty of trouble.
Fortunately, a combination of tough love from Harkavy (who provides the introductory quotation) and Allbee pushing him a little too far, snaps Asa out of it.
Or, rather, it doesn’t “snap” him out of it; it gives him a “push and a shake” (pg 214).
6.5
ISBN#0 14 00.2493 X