Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

Before it was published in his collection Seize the Day with Three Short Stories in 1956, it was published earlier the same year in The Partisan Review as a serial, helping Saul Bellow to generate interest from a literary audience. Set mostly in the 1940s, it is one of Sail Bellow's most well-known and widely read novels to this day. Seize the Day wit Three Short Stories was initially published by Viking Press and the novella on its own has since been published by many different companies including the Penguin Modern Classics collection which has, arguably, made it more famous than ever.

Plot

Tommy Wilhelm is a 44-year-old man living in a place called the Hotel Gloriana. He senses some trouble coming his way as his usual routine has been changed. His father is already at breakfast as Tommy descends the elevator. He knows that this is not normal in the slightest. Our 3rd person narrator provides some story to Tommy about his appearance, what he does every day and his habits which are both good and bad. But, his disorderly look reveals more about his financial struggles on the cusp of the 1940s and 50s than anything else could. He's had job losses and has had dubious financial dealings with a man called Dr Tamkin.

Tommy's father, Dr. Adler, is a successful and well-respected retired doctor who distrusts Dr. Tamkin and appears disappointed in Tommy, who desperately seeks his father's financial assistance. During several flashbacks, the novel explores Tommy's failed acting career pushed on by a fraudulent talent scout named Maurice Venice which led Tommy to drop out of college and move to California. We learn Tommy changed his name from Wilhelm Adler to Tommy Wilhelm when he moved to California and we often see him beg God for a better life.

Tommy reflects on his strained relationship with his father, Dr. Adler, noting his father's disapproval of his separation from his wife, Margaret, and his perceived neglect regarding the death of Tommy's mother. He feels his father considers him untidy and immature, which fuels Tommy's inner conflict and frustration. It is clear that Tommy's father does not want to be alone with him from the fact he has brought a salesman named Mr Perls to breakfast to join them. The conversation reveals Tommy's history of various jobs and Dr. Adler's strong emphasis on financial success, which adds to Tommy's sense of inadequacy. The conversation then turns to Tamkin, on whom Tommy still seems to rely on for financial investment.

During the rest of breakfast, Tommy and his father are left alone, and Tommy's excessive eating disgusts his father, who criticises Tommy's habits and appearance. Dr. Adler suggests water and exercise to cure ailments and criticizes Tommy's handling of his marital issues, implying he is overly submissive to his wife, Margaret. Tommy expresses his suffering and frustration over Margaret’s refusal to grant him a divorce and her financial demands, even dramatically choking himself to illustrate his suffocation.

Dr. Adler, however, remains unsympathetic, emphasizing his own hard-earned success and implying that Tommy's failures result from a lack of effort. This conversation very much illustrates how Dr Adler finds his son to be completely inept at functioning like a regular adult. Then comes the reveal: Tommy states he has love for another woman, Olive. Despite Tommy's plea for financial help, Dr. Adler refuses, stating that he will not support his son financially and advising Tommy to be self-reliant. Therefore, we can see that Dr Adler cares for his son even though it might seem that he is very harsh and cold-hearted.

Tommy is angry but is interrupted by Tamkin's arrival. A flashback reveals that Tommy entrusted his last thousand dollars to Tamkin, granting him power of attorney over the investment despite Tamkin's dubious explanations about his own financial contributions. Tommy's feelings towards Tamkin waver between trust and suspicion as Tamkin offers continuous advice on various topics like psychology, poetry, and the nature of human duality. Tamkin presents Tommy with a poem about realizing one's true self and embracing potential, advocating for living in the "here-and-now." Despite being drawn into Tamkin's philosophical discussions, Tommy's thoughts repeatedly return to his financial woes and the looming uncertainty of their investment, concluding with a sense of impending doom. This is very reflective of Tamkin's character as he is not the type of guy who can be trusted 100% of the time.

Tamkin and Tommy monitor their investments at a busy stock market floor. Lard has plummeted, causing Tommy concern, but he feels a measure of relief when he learns that Tamkin had also invested in rising rye without his knowledge. Among the market's participants is an elderly, blind Mr. Rappaport, who struggles to see the numbers. As rye prices soar, Tommy wants to sell to secure their gains, but Tamkin advises against it, urging him to stay in the moment and take risks. Despite his worries and suspicion that Tamkin might be conning him, Tommy’s thoughts linger on a comforting memory of his wife, Margaret. This section is clearly showing us where Tommy's actual priorities lie: security.

Tommy and Tamkin go to lunch while their investments in rye and lard remain stable. Tommy, anxious about his money, wants to return quickly to the market, but Tamkin lingers, offering unsolicited advice about not worrying over his father's opinions and avoiding a life of suffering. Tamkin shares dubious personal stories, including one about his wife's supposed suicide, which Tommy doubts. Impatient, Tommy insists on cutting lunch short to return to the market. Upon their return, Mr. Rappaport, the blind man, requests Tommy’s help to buy cigars. Despite his initial bitterness and cynicism, Tommy is momentarily touched by Rappaport's story about his admiration for Teddy Roosevelt. When Tommy returns to the market, he discovers that his investments have plummeted disastrously and Tamkin has disappeared.

Tommy searches for Tamkin at the Hotel Gloriana but only finds his belongings. Failing to locate Tamkin, he seeks out his father, Dr. Adler, in the hotel's basement massage room. In a final, tense confrontation, Dr. Adler refuses to help Tommy, dismissing his son's pleas for support and reiterating that he will not carry him as his "cross." Tommy receives an urgent message from his wife, leading to a heated phone argument about a post-dated check. She dismisses his desperate claims of suffocation, leaving Tommy furious and physically aggressive towards the phone. His anger and frustration culminate in a violent outburst. However, outside he believes he sees Tamkin at a funeral. Running towards him, he is caught up by the mourners and swept up into the chapel where he cries over the dead body of a stranger.

Into the Book

One of the most important motifs in the whole novel is psychology and not only is it spoken about often, but we can see how the struggles with the main character's own psychology often leads him into emotional turmoil. First of all, we have Freud's Oedipus Complex shown through Tommy's hatred and anger towards his father for no apparent reason other than he speaks with a heavy hand when his son has clearly failed at everything he's ever tried. We can both understand and despise the father. First of all, we understand the motives around not giving up on his son, but also getting him to face reality. We can despise him for his dismissal of his son's clear lack of direction and requirement for a proper loving father figure.

We then have the representation of Dr Tamkin as the pretender. Tommy desperately needs to make money but instead of trusting his true self and go by things he is good at and has tried before, he insists on relying on the dubious Dr Tamkin and his strange investments. When the pretender finally takes off, Tommy has absolutely nothing left but to accept the truth. Therefore, the psychological lesson here is to never give in to the pretender and try to live as authentic a life as possible, even if that means going through some pain first in order to do it.

When it came to concealing his troubles, Tommy Wilhelm was not less capable than the next fellow. So at least he thought and there was a certain amount of evidence to back him up. He had once been an actor—no, not quite, an extra—and he knew what acting should be.

- Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

A symbol that is massively important in this text is the city as an urban sprawl, filled with busy things and people. This contrasts with the uselessness that Tommy feels and the inadequacy he senses in himself as he has nothing to do. This is why Tommy frequently expresses hatred for the city and its urban environment, preferring rural life where he feels more at ease and accustomed. Life is slower there, in comparison to the scenes with Dr Tamkin, where the two take off to the stock market floor in order to get to the heart of the city.

You would think that Tommy would have a repulsion to somewhere so crowded and busy, fast-paced and corporate. However, that is not the case. Despite his aversion to the city, Tommy occasionally feels a sense of solidarity with the crowds, highlighting the role of the city as both a symbol of confinement (being tightly packed in a place with strangers) and a source of human connection when he finally meets the man who is partially blind, knowing he should probably offer his help.

They adore money! Holy money! Beautiful money! It was getting so that people were feeble-minded about everything except money.

- Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

A key theme in this book is the burden of the modern man. As modernism was rising during the 1950s, so was the sense of corporate loneliness - people were becoming more disconnected and a lot of novels from the time can help us explore this (if you'd like to read a really good one that's also a true story then I recommend one of my favourite novels titled Kafka was the Rage by Anatole Broyard). Tommy is one of these people who clearly does not fit the picture of the modern man but instead, accepts the burden regardless of his social position. He is jobless, having worked in different jobs before and now, is jaded. He is loveless, his marriage having fallen apart and now involved with another woman but unable to marry her. He has a hatred of his father, who is the source of discomfort - but also the voice of honesty. A disordered man in a world constantly organising itself around him, he accepts the burden even though he has no part in its world.

Wilhelm sat, mountainous. He was not really so slovenly as his father found him to be. In some aspects he even had a certain delicacy.

- Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

Why It's a Masterpiece

Seize the Day has had a lasting impact on literature since its publication in 1956 and has gone on to influence a number of other writers, especially those writing about the decline and fall of the American Dream. In its psychological depth, it explores themes from old that would be considered apt when looking at the burden of the modern man when he feels useless of inadequate in the corporate age.

The prose is often celebrated for its clarity and profound depth whilst also having a keen intelligence to it as if filled with contrasts. As humans understand many things through opposites, Bellow uses this idea of contrast to help the reader understand and often sympathise with the main character, Tommy, more often than not.

Conclusion

I hope you have enjoyed learning about the fourth book by Saul Bellow and I also hope you take your time to read it if you haven't already. Admittedly, it took me a while to really appreciate this text for what it is and yet, to this day I don't regret re-reading it at all. It is a fine novel which explores the human condition of inadequacy thoroughly and surely as a Steinbeck novel (and in some ways, better).

Next Week: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote